Fish!

Fish!

I happened to read this book – Fish! By Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen. The title read – A remarkable way to boost Moral and Improve Results. Although, initially it seemed like one of those zillions of self-help books written, this book impressed me a lot in some ways. Firstly, it’s a small book with some 100 plus pages, and the language used is very simple. The most striking thing about it is the example the authors’ use –the world famous Pike Place Fish market, to teach us lessons to improve our performance at work.

The story is about a middle-aged lady manager – Mary Jane, who is made in charge of a non-performing unit in her company. While the company has great hopes for her, she is unwilling to take this risk. Having lost her husband recently, Mary Jane is put in a spot and her position seems challenged due to this assignment. She has only two choices, to stay, work her way around this problem or just give up and look for another job. That’s when she happens to visit this fish market, where she learns the most important lessons of her life. The book speaks of four important things to learn from this fish market to be replicated at Mary Jane’s business unit:

Choose Your Attitude,
Play,
Be Present
Make Their Day!

Mary Jane’s team comes out as a winner by implementing these lessons from the fish market, and Mary Jane goes on to win the Chairwoman’s Award. That day, Mary Jane open’s her journal to read one of her favorite selections – a piece written by John Gardner on the meaning of life. This is how it reads:

“Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.”

These lines appealed a lot to me and I hope it does to all those who read it.