William Wu Personal Blog

Have you compared running a company to grow a garden or sell fish?  Recently I read a couple of books that did exactly that.  Both books brought interesting perspectives that are worth sharing.  

First book is from Jeffrey J. Fox’s book How to Be a Fierce Competitor.

In this book, Mr. Fox describes if a garden were a company, then management that strive to be a master gardener would:

• Be certain of the garden’s purpose (why the company exists).
• Plan the garden (the business and marketing plan).
• Invent in the best seeds and plants. (Hire the best people).
• Use the finest fertilizer. (Nurture the people).
• Make the garden environmentally attractive (a productive workplace).
• Manage the garden with the earth in mind (a friendly, green company).
• Train the beans to grow on poles. (Train the people.)
• Rotate the crops from bed to bed each season. (Cross-train the people.)
• Be vigilant in monitoring progress. (You get what you inspect, not what you expect).
• Prune deadwood. (Get rid of nonproductive employees.)
• Weed. (Weed out the unwanted.)
• Stake the tomatoes. (Support the people.)
• Thin the carrots. (Thin management layers and bureaucracy.)
• Build fences. (Defend against competitions and predicators.)
• Encourage butterflies and bees. (Always welcome outside ideas and pollinators).
• Kill parasites and destructive insects. (Get rid of agents provocateurs.)
• Let the random sunflower grow and bloom wherever. (Serendipity is welcome.  Rigidity restricts.)
• Be aware that every plant is different.  Some requires lots of care and attention; others are wild.  Some are glorious in the morning; others bloom at night. Some are colorful; others are thorny, prickly.  Some blossom early, others bear harvest in the fall.  They are tall, short, attractive, forbidding, slender, round, give shades, need shade.  The Master Gardener knows and appreciates the differences.  (Be open minded, tolerant, understanding of groups and individuals.)
• Live with the weather.  (Control what you can control.  Roll with everything else.)
• Walk around the garden. (Walk around the company.)
• Stop and smell the basil.

Another book is Fish! by Dr. Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen.

This book uses Seattle’s very real Pike Place Fish as its management philosophy inspirations.  Everyone has ever visited this world renowned place in Seattle’s Pike Place Market would know that it is fun and energizing to watch the fish guys toss fishes as part of the sales closing process.

The fish guys, by interacting with their customers, managed to create a place that is fun, friendly, bustling and, joyful for their customers and themselves.   The 4 simple lessons ingeniously illustrated in the book are:

• Choose Your Attitude – The fish guys are aware that they choose their attitude each day.  One of the fish guys said, “When you are doing what you are doing, who are you being? Are you being impatient and bored, or are you being world famous? You are going to act differently if you are being world famous.”  Who do we want to be while we do our work? Your attitude is your reaction to what life hands you, and only you can choose that reaction.
• Play – The fish guys have fun while they work, and fun is energizing.  How could we have more fun and create more energy?  Play is not a specific game or activity.  It is a state of mind that brings new energy to the tasks at hand and sparks creative solutions.
• Make Their Day – The fish guys include the customers in their good time.  They engage their customers in ways which create energy and good will.  Who are our customers and how can we engage them in a way that will make their day? How could we make each other’s day? If you find your energy lapsing, find someone who needs a helping hand, a word of support, or a good year – and make their day.
• Be Present – The fish guys are fully present at work.  What can they teach us about being present for each other and our customers?  Become engaged with all your heart in what you do – and thrive.

Key takeaways for me are:

1. Like gardening, company is not built in one day.  It takes patient, care, feeding and lots of hard labor to grow a great company.  And don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.  As Greek proverb said, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. “
2. You learn something every day if you pay enough attention.  As Martin H. Fischer said, “All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.”  And “When the student is ready, the master appears.” as Buddhist Proverb puts it.
3. Find something that you can be truly passionate; choose to enter your work place with a great attitude.  You can make a huge difference to yourself and to others.  As Herm Albright said, “A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worthwhile.”