The true worth of fishing, as the experienced, sophisticated angler comes to realize, lies in the memorable contacts with people and other living creatures, scenes and places, and the living waters great and small which it provides. -Sparse Grey Hackle
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.
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.
“Dismiss the notion that conservation funding is akin to a charitable donation, and understand that fly fishing manufacturers and dealers are among the most vulnerable if government conservation funding is slashed as planned.”
The first part was devoted to special guests speakers. We heard remarks for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-MT), Mark Udall (D-CO) and U.S. Senator James Risch (R-ID). A common theme from the speakers was the importance of hunting and fishing to the economy. And while that was good to hear there was also an acknowledgement that the fiscal situation and political climate were extremely difficult in Washington.
What I think was a more important part of the forum was a panel discussion about sportsmen and conservation. It was my privilege to share the panel with Kirk Deeter of Field & Stream and Angling Trade fame, Steve Moyer, Trout Unlimited’s VP of Conservation Gary Taylor, Legislative Director for the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Montana State Senator Kendal Van Dyk, New Mexico State Representative Nate Gentry and Alliance Co-director Gaspar Perricone.
Each panelist was asked to address questions posed by Alliance Co-founder Tim Mauck. What emerged from the responses was a clear sense that the lack of conservation funding and the attacks on conservation and environmental policies were not only an imminent threat to fish and wildlife but also a threat to the economic contribution made by the outdoor recreation industry.
“It’s time that many Americans, particularly those who draw their livelihoods from the outdoors industry realize that our nation’s “conservation deficit” is just as real and just as much a burden for future generations as any financial budget deficit,” said Deeter.
For those of us who cherish hunting and fishing and especially those of us who work in the outdoor recreation industry the message is clear. Ignore these warnings at your economic peril.
It is time to add your name to the list of folks who are willing to speak out in support of a simple equation; conservation of habitat creates recreational opportunity and that means economic activity and jobs.
I get some pretty cool gigs as a fly-fishing instuctor and one of my favorites is teaching the MSU Fly Gals each year. Just spending time with these wonderfully accomplished ladies is a joy in and of itself.
This year, one of my former students, Corey Higley, dazzled me with a very special gift!
A C. Higgles hand crafted bird house
Corey crafted this exceptional work of art with all natural materials. The detail is stunning!
Rising trout and mayflyA midge and a trout
mayfly detail
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Last month I was asked to participate in a focus group for Montana Fly Company. The focus group was organized by those clever Outside Media folks who ran it on Facebook. It was a very entertaining way for those of us in the group to look at pictures, answer questions and make comments. Our moderator, Sammi, did a great job of keeping us on task while offering some very amusing commentary.
The chance to look behind the curtain a bit at some future offerings from Montana Fly Company and have some fun with Sammi was a treat in and of itself, but the deal got a whole lot better when MFC sent us some really nice tools as a reward for our participation. The gift box that arrived at The Middle River Group world HQ included a set of gold end nippers and a zinger (already attached to my Fly Vines lanyard); a stonefly/nymph box and a large waterproof fly box.
Some great swag from Montana Fly Company
While I can’t tell you what we worked on, you just might want to keep an eye on MFC to see what the fruits of our labors produced.
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Disclosure: Neither MFC nor Outside Media asked me to write this post.
The purpose was to gauge interest within the fly-fishing business community to speak up for conservation. I know the connection is strong and I was hoping to help direct that interest in such a way that the collective voices could help the cause of conservation. My follow up conversation with folks in the fly-fishing business has been both positive and supportive, the industry really does understand habitat = opportunity = economic activity.
I am still looking to recruit more businesses, so lend a hand, the more the merrier, (you can leave a comment or shoot me a note and I will follow up with you).
There were also some thoughtful comments on both the blog and Facebook that deserve a response.
Conservation politics
The question of whether the conservation discussion should be a political one got some attention.
To me it depends on what “political” means.
Experience has taught me that extremes on both sides of the conservation and environmental debate are easily marginalized and in both cases can prevent progress on important policy from taking place. Labels and litmus tests rarely work.
To my way of thinking “political” means using your standing in the community – whichever community you belong to – to influence the discussion and more importantly the outcome on these critical policy issues. Going political without making progress doesn’t make a lot of sense to me and may even be counter-productive.
In the case of the fly-fishing business community their economic standing has significant influence. What needs to happen is for them to exercise that influence.
Outdoor recreation dependent businesses like fly-fishing need to carry the fight themselves and not rely on others to do it for them. Making a financial contribution to conservation groups is important but adding your voice to the conversation is critically important as well.
It is in our economic self-interest to do so. To quote Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard “We are a part of nature and as we destroy nature we destroy our selves. It is a selfish thing to want to protect nature.”
The same holds true for our nature dependent businesses. Support for conservation is a good business model but to pound the point home, YOU need to be directly involved in letting policy makers know it is important to your business!
Conservation advocacy as a marketing advantage.
I bet you can think of examples of when a business speaks up as an advocate for clean water, healthy habitat and responsible use of our natural resources they enhanced their brand reputation. Why not do the same thing?
Think about it. If the reaction to AFFTA’s award provoked such an outcry then it seems to me our customers see conservation as a pretty important element of the sport.
Letters to the editor, radio interviews or blog posts about a conservation topic can be become free advertising. They help define your business as part of the community that cares about the future and is a good steward of land and water.
What are you doing to show you conservation street cred?
Need some suggestions on how to shine a light on what you are doing on the conservation front? Drop in a comment or shoot me a note. I will be happy to offer some more ideas.
The take away
Whether it is politics, altruism or economic self interest the fact of the matter is the if we don’t make our voices heard either directly to our elected officials or in the court of public opinion then we only have ourselves to blame. The opportunity to engage in the discussion is easier than anytime in history and I will be delighted to help in any way I can, just let me know.
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