… and then I Grabbed the Shark by Its Tail…
Posted by: Socrates Socratous on: Sep 30th, 2007I had my cousins visit me the other day and we decided to get down to Huntington Beach for an afternoon stroll on the Pier.
Beautiful day with a nice breeze. But, that is like any other day down here… 🙂
The cool breeze was gently massaging our faces while we were walking down the pier talking about anything you can ever imagine. (Not business, trust me). By the way, I decided that from now on I will be getting out of my office at least 3 times a week to get in touch with nature.
So, we were just minding our own business, when I see this guy running along the edge of the pier with a fishing pole in his hands.
Someone was running behind him yelling: “he caught a shark”.
Yeah, Right! someone else said…
Naturally I started following that guy to see what all this “noise” was about.
Sure enough he caught a big fish but his Fishing Line was too thin to pull that thing out of the water. So all he would do, is keep running around with the fishing pole trying to get the fish tired I guess.
All of the sudden this other guy runs all the way from the other side of the pier, with a big fishing net attached to a long rope.
He slowly lowered the net pretty close to where the fish was circling (the fish was still hooked on the fishing line). So the guy with the pole started moving the fish around trying to get it into the net.
After a few minutes of pulling the string like a puppet, the fish finds itself into the net and the guy started pulling up.
It was heavy.
It was a shark indeed.
After a few moments the shark was on the pier jumping up and down.
That whole event reminded me how business works in a very similar way.
A few points:
- Be Prepared. When you go fishing for customers, Make sure you are prepared to handle higher volume of sales, support, traffic, etc. Many launches lost a lot of money due to their servers going down for hours. Many businesses had to refund tons of sales because they couldnt reply to their support tickets, and so forth
- The power of specialized help. Don’t be afraid to seek specialized help when you need it. Maybe you know where your customers are, maybe you catch the small fish, but you dont know or you dont have the caliber to pull in the big fish. Ask for help from the experts.
- The power of leverage. You can surely pull a lot bigger fish out of the ocean with a thin fishing line when you can leverage its power with the power of the net. Software can be used as a leverage. (for example: MyDD from www.MyDigitalDispatch.com can help you sell and deliver thousands of digital products on ebay in an hour and upsell those customers immediately. Something that would be impossible without this leverage)
I know you want to see some pictures here dont you?
Ok, here we go:
This is the picture where the shark is still in the water (can you see its outline?):
Here is the shark being pulled out of the water:
Business Lesson #4:
When you see an opportunity knocking, take advantage of it, because it will go away before you realize it.
How many opportunities do you think I ll have to actually grab a live shark by the tail and show him MY TEETH?
Well, I didnt let this one go 🙂
here it comes:
By the way, the shark was about 4 feet long and was legal to keep. But for those concerned out there, the shark is still swimming in Southern California because we threw him back! (proof below)
Business Lesson #5: People will NOT believe everything you say. The
burden of proof is upon you. Pictures/screenshots are a good way to prove that what you say is true. (Do you have a doubt that I grabbed a live shark by its tail?”
Please post your comments and thoughts below. Let me know what you think.
Till next time,
Partner to Your Success,
Socrates Socratous
www.MyDigitalDispatch.com
P.S. I ll be soon posting some pictures from our seminar in Ohio (which took place last week). For now, Please post your comments below.
Challenge: Can you find more business lessons from this story? Please post those below too. Thanks
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Hi Socrates,
I discovered your blog after a chance phone conversation with Gina Gaudio-Graves.
You provide really good value.
I would love to know how you started in Internet Marketing.
If you have an article, audio interview or ebook that does this, can you send me the link please.
Thanks
Your friend,
Koorosh
http://www.hiddenmindsecrets.com
Thanks for sharing a great story with us and by putting the business advice connection with the story it makes it very easy to comprehend. Good advice that we should all keep in mind. Thanks again, Bill.
Hello S.S.
Just read your shark story and how you took advantage of such an unexpected, and most unusual event. Yeah, you had to make a decision…”let go or not to let go”. You should have blown up a picture of that sucker, then stood beside the photo
I guess that’s kinda like taking the “Bull by the Horns”, and same as you, I gotta make a decision real soon.
My problem is that I am between a ‘rock and a hard place’, trying to decide between the download/click and pay from my own website, or borrow the money to pay a subsidy publisher; or wait a year or longer for a traditional publisher to decide my manuscript is not in their line of ‘best sellers’. Our opinions would differ greatly in such case! What would you do?
Undecided in Texas
Hi Socrates,
Great story and nice photos.
I am not a shark lover, so I wouldn’t have thrown the shark back into the water.
Hi Socrates Socratous ,
you look like fisherman , real fisherman , cute and sweeti male …
Glad to hear you’re feeling better! Enjoyed your story about the shark. Looks like the shark barely lived through the photo opps.
I’m sure there are many analogies one can use with this story but I thought of two of them.
1. Throw away all your bad habits.
2. Throw away bad customers to leave time and room for the good customers. Bad customers can zap all your time and energy and you can be too busy working with them to see the ‘big fish’ (customer) walk in.
Enjoyed the seminar in Ohio. Those who didn’t make it missed the best seminar I’ve ever attended – hands down.
6. Shark will usually not jump into net on first try. You have to move him for a while before you will be successful.
7. If you got shark when you was fishing for sardines, do not throw rod into the see but try to hold it until somebody will come with net.
8.=1. Best of all – be prepared upfront.
Good story and good points. ;-D
very good
Good for u and god 4 the shark!Nice story! good moral too!I enjoyed it – thanks!
Socrates:
That was a great lesson! The pictures were awesome as well! Perhaps the best lesson there, though, is #1 – Be Prepared. I have a feeling that this is one of the lessons that required proof and that most reading won’t believe it.
Let me tell you — from my own personal experience! — this one happens WAY too often! I can give you example after example, such as:
* Site opens day #1 and gets bombed with traffic; by end of day, PayPal account #1 is shut down because of “unusual business activity”. Day 2, PayPal account #2 gets shut down for same reason. Day 3, the brand new merchant account gets shut down. Can you guess what happens Day 4? Yep, website gets shut down.
This was just one example, but it happens all the time! “Be prepared” is a really important lesson to remember!
Thanks for some great content!
Truly a great story, and with pictures!!! My moral of the story would be… If it’s not for you, set it free. Don’t keep what you can’t use. So much time is wasted on junk fish that your hooks not in the water when the really big one swims by. You have to have your hook in place when opportunity swims by. Keep up the great work. Loved learning from you in Sandusky. Fantastic seminar!!!
Carol and Denis
It is great to have your hook in the water at the right place and the right time to hook into the best offer. My thought beyond that is this….If you are a novice and you really know nothing about internet marketing or businesses of any kind, how can you make the right choice?
There are so many programs out there and they all promise to be the best. How can an inexperinced person ever sort through all the hype to find the very best one for them?
Marketing lesson #6 ?
You could also have made some good money by selling your photo of the famous Huntington Beach flying shark to the Enquirer!
ADG
I enjoy how you relate “normal” life to our marketing efforts. And this was not just another “big fish” story. Great photos, but an even better lesson to apply to our marketing efforts. Keep up the good work!
Paul
Hi Socrates Socratous,
First of all, I have to thank you for wishing me to be successful in my business and also the good story of the shark.
My resolution in 2009, I must take good care of my health both Mind and Body much better than the past in order to reach my goals, even though I am now 74 years of age, I have never stopped working, reading and searching for advanced knowledge for a better livin and successful life. I really appreciate your creative positive thoughts.
Happy Holidays!
May the blessings of the Lord your God fall on you and yours thru the year 2009 and forever.
Dr. Boonlert Saisanit, Ph.D., AMD., C.Ht
http://www.hypnoticquality.com
Wow! Great story and pictures but even better analogy. Really something to think about as I build my business. I appreciate the tips.
Hi!
I think metaphors are the best way to make others understand what you mean, especially as they don’t feel it’s direct advise.
I would add a couple of points to this metaphor:
– Believe in yourself and those who are part of your team.
– Distribute responsibilities according to capacities
Thanks for sharing.
I just didn’t know business people were such deep thinkers. That shark story has really made me think.