The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

Reflections

First Follower Theory

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I am a student of leadership so when this showed up in my @tenkaraguide twitters this morning:

I hit the youtube link and watched. You can too. It is 3 minutes, worth watching, very entertaining and visually delivers an important leadership lesson.

There is no movement without the first follower

A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he’s doing is so simple, it’s almost instructional. This is key. You must be easy to follow!

Now comes the first follower with a crucial role: he publicly shows everyone how to follow. Notice the leader embraces him as an equal, so it’s not about the leader anymore – it’s about them, plural. Notice he’s calling to his friends to join in. It takes guts to be a first follower! You stand out and brave ridicule, yourself. Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.

A little more research took me to Derek Sivers. He put up the video and narrates it. It is on his blog along with the transcript: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy.

The take aways for me:

1) Someone has to be the dancing guy, that is leadership but it is overrated. we can’t all be leaders.

2) The first follower is courageous and is the real ignition for the movement.

3) It takes time to build a movement and followers may come and go (read the comments).

Sivers summation works for me:

The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.

When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.

Tenkara? Sure.

The whole tenkara thing fits the first follower model hence @tenkarausa’s tweet to a couple of us early adopters.

Important keys to success in creating a movement are the leader embracing the followers as equals and the first followers showing others how to follow.

While calling the adoption of tenkara in this country a movement may be a stretch at this point, it clearly is gaining followers. The lessons of the Dancing Guy are pretty evident. Most importantly those early followers are showing others how to follow. Tenkara will continue to grow because of this willingness to share the knowledge and encouraging others to try tenkara.

There is a lesson here as well for those of us in the fly-fishing business:

  • Are you making it easy to follow you?
  • Are you welcoming them into the movement?
  • Are you sharing the knowledge?

From what I have seen the successful fly-fishing businesses can answer yes to these questions. Those who don’t look at new ideas and ways of doing business are not helping to build the fly-fishing movement.

Tenkara may be a good case study on how to help fly-fishing grow. It starts with the first follower theory.

What do you think?

 

Losing a friend

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This is one of those times when words are never enough. For more then twenty years I have had a lab as a side kick. That came to an end yesterday when we lost the last one, Ashby, to cancer.

Each of them were memorable. Clarendon and Berkeley, yellow litter mates were first. We lost Clarendon to Lyme disease when she was three. We lost Berkeley to old age, she was sixteen, three years ago.

Ashby was special if only because she was always the puppy of the bunch. Though we shared semi retirement and aging together she had the puppy charm to the end.

Now there are only empty spaces and wonderful memories.

Ashby

Happy trails old girl, you will live forever in our hearts…

Tenkara Net Auction to Benefit Japan Relief Efforts

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This was going to be a well crafted post about the outstanding fishing trip I had with my good friend Chris Hunt who writes the ever informative and very entertaining Eat More Brook Trout. But that will have to wait.

Tsunami

The tsunami that struck Japan continues to leave havoc in its wake. Half a world away, the connection to fly-fishing may seem tenuous at best.

But tenkara has deep roots in Japan. And tenkara fishers can’t help but look to Japan for tenaka inspiration, instruction and traditions.

Daniel Galhardo, owner of TenkaraUSA, has very strong ties to Japan and while thankfully the tragedy has not directly effected his family or friends those connections have inspired his to help with the relief efforts.

UPDATE: the Auction has closed and it netted more than $900 for Japan relief efftorts!

original post continues after the jump > [Read more…] about Tenkara Net Auction to Benefit Japan Relief Efforts

Merry Christmas!

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Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Renovations

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Thanksgiving.

Likely my favorite holiday. Cooking, eating, drinking with family and friends. No pressure, a lazy day, a day to catch your breath and a time to reflect on the things we are thankful for.

I won’t rant about the insipid commercialism that lurks on the morrow. Better minds and voices than mine are on it. I cheer them on.

Today is a time to relax and just for fun renovate the blog. Yeah it is kinda lame, but I can sit quietly this morning and goof around a bit before the cooking starts in earnest.

some renovations take longer than others...

Trying out some new formats and tools. There will surely be some gaffes and missteps but it will all get sorted out eventually…

Happy Thanksgiving.

Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, we can enjoy Thanksgiving because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

For them I am eternally thankful.