A guide to successful fishing: 1. Fish 2. Keep fishing

“If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I consider to be most related to success, whatever the field, I would choose the trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure to the end, to be knocked down 70 times. and get up off the ground, saying, “Here comes number 71!”

–Richard M. DeVos

This is the story of two fishermen, Frank and Joe.

Frank loves fishing. He goes fishing every day. He is always trying out new fishing spots. He sometimes catches a lot of fish and sometimes he catches none. That goal doesn’t really bother him; he just gets up the next morning and goes back to fishing. Read books and magazine articles about fishing and hire a fishing guide.

Frank invests in new lures and fishing rods. He even tried fishing with a net, then with a spear. He sometimes he uses a fly and other times a live bait. He sometimes fishes in a lake and sometimes in a stream. He even tasted the ocean.

Frank sometimes wonders if he isn’t wasting his time and money trying to catch these crazy fish. But most of the time he enjoys it.

If he catches the fish that is too small, he throws it back and rebaits his hook. If the fish is the right size, he brings it home and cooks a delicious meal. If he has more than he can eat, he puts them in a freezer.

Occasionally, he fishes all day in the cold rain and returns home empty-handed, feeling like he’ll never catch another fish.

Every once in a while, Frank catches a whopper and feels like he just won the lottery.

Frank finds that as time goes on he gets better and better at fishing. He learns the techniques that work best for you, which lures work in which locations, the best time of day to catch each type of fish, and which locations are best in different types of weather.

You know you can never think you’ve found “the secret” because the fishery is always changing. Fishing holes that were great a year ago are now dry. Rivers where before you couldn’t catch a cold are now full of fish.

Interestingly, every time Frank goes fishing, he meets other fishermen, who are happy to share fishing stories and tell him what techniques and places have or have not worked for them.

But above all, he continues to fish every day.

Now let’s meet Joe. He is not entirely sure that he likes to fish. He wishes someone else would catch the fish and just let him cook and eat the fish, which is him, he explains, what he’s trained to do. He doesn’t feel that he should fish.

When someone asks him to go fishing, Joe wants to know how much it costs to go fishing and if he is guaranteed to catch fish that day.

If he goes fishing, he doesn’t bother to learn anything about it. He rents out a rod and some lures, making sure to get the cheapest ones possible.

You go to the nearest body of water because you can save money by walking instead of driving. He casts his line into the water several times, and when he doesn’t catch any fish, he drops his rod in disgust, declaring “Fishing’s not working!”

He does it once a year.

A fishing guide offers to take Joe to the best spots and teach him what he knows about fishing, but Joe rejects the guide because it’s too expensive and doesn’t guarantee how many fish Joe will catch.

However, the guide offers Joe a guarantee: “I guarantee that if you don’t go fishing, you won’t catch any fish.”

In your opinion, who will catch more fish, Frank or Joe?

When it comes to marketing your services, are you Frank or Joe?

Are you simply interested in cooking and eating fish, but not investing the time and money to ensure a constant supply of fish?

You do not have to be a marketing wizard. You do not need all the tools, all knowledge, all methods, all the experience, all the staff and all the expertise. You do not have to do anything except one thing: you have to commit to fish.

try it, try it again

“Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not it will; the world is full of educated bums. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.”

–Calvin Coolidge

The secret to successful marketing is the same as the secret to success in all other areas of life: persistence.

Or, to quote Woody Allen, “Ninety percent of success in life is showing up.”

With a few exceptions, celebrities fail for one reason only: they give up. They are not really engaged. They try halfheartedly, willing to “accept” great success as long as they don’t have to work too hard, spend too much money, or accept any disappointment.

Imagine an actor who doesn’t commit to his craft, doesn’t spend money on lessons, doesn’t rehearse or train, doesn’t invest in makeup or costumes, doesn’t research what roles are being played. cast or what is the name of the program. Now imagine that this actor attends a couple of open auditions for Broadway shows and is disappointed that he isn’t offered the lead right away and decides to stop going to the auditions.

Now imagine another aspiring actor. Read specialized magazines. Circle all the auditions that might want someone like him. He prepares material that is similar to that of the program being broadcast. He arrives on time, dressed like a professional. When they turn him down, he smiles and thanks the casting director for the chance to try out.

He does it once a week, every week, forever. She is losing money. He has to work at night as a waiter. He has to invest in his wardrobe and his acting lessons and a printed resume and a photo card. But he keeps going and keeps getting rejected.

What do you think? Who will be successful? Our second actor may or may not be successful. But I guess he will eventually get a couple of callbacks. Then he will get a role. So, depending on his talent, his continued hard work and his luck, he might even become a star.

There is no guarantee, except the guarantee that applies to the first actor: he is guaranteed to fail. He has given up. He doesn’t even show up. That’s how it works with marketing. I’ve seen it over and over again. If you trade consistently, you will be successful and have a good chance of being spectacularly successful. If you do not, well, you can stay at home and expect to win the lottery.

A long and winding road

Can you succeed by working hard for 40 years and building your network, reputation and referrals? Yes, but you can also fail that way. At best, it will be a long and hard job.

In my work, I come into contact with thousands of lawyers every year and what I see is always the same. Those who market constantly get customers and revenue. Those who don’t, don’t.

You must be engaged, not just interested. You must be willing to accept disappointment. But in the big picture, it will succeed.

Think about friendship. If you go out into the world with a consistently friendly attitude, you will be disappointed most of the time. You will meet people who confuse your kindness with gullibility and seek to take advantage. You will meet people who reject your kindness because they are angry, disillusioned with their own lives, or bitter. You will meet people who will not like your looks or your accent. You’ll meet people you don’t want to have anything to do with. But over the course of a year, if you go about your business with a consistently friendly attitude, I guarantee you’ll have made many new friends, as well as friendly acquaintances, and feel great about yourself and the world.

But if you ask me, “If I go to this party tonight and I’m friendly, can you guarantee I’ll make 20 friends?” Or, “If I’m friendly with Joe, can you promise he’ll like me?” The answer is no. I cannot guarantee any individual transaction. I can only guarantee you that in the long run you will have a lot more friends than someone who doesn’t try.

Marketing is like that.

Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said, “In war, planning is essential, but all plans are useless.” This is equally true in marketing. You have to have a good idea of ​​what you’re trying to accomplish and how you’re going to get there. But it almost never goes as planned. When you market consistently, the money comes to you. It is not, perhaps, in the way you had planned. Often in some very strange chain of circumstances that were brought about just by having been out there marketing. You “showed up.”

“Those who lack talent expect things to happen effortlessly. They attribute failure to lack of inspiration or skill, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of all true talent is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that with persistence and patience something worthwhile will be achieved. Thus, talent is a kind of vigor”.

–Eric Hoffer