During my last visit to my home island, I went fishing along with my younger brother, my dad, and his friend.
We caught a ton that night, but we came home empty. What happened to all the fish?
We went on not too small a boat, just enough to fit the 4 of us and the guide. My brother and I don't usually go fishing. But I thought it would be a fun idea to go when my dad asked.
We went towards the fishing point. We saw a couple of other boats around the premises, so we were quite hopeful that this was the spot.
We threw our homemade rods and came to the patience game.
15 minutes in, my dad’s friend caught the first catch of the night - it was a medium size Trevally/ Jack Fish. And not too long after, I caught my first catch of the night; my dad and the guide caught one as well.
My brother is convinced he's next.
He waits and waits, but his rod doesn't seem to bait any fish. It must be the wind, he says, switches to my side of the boat, and waits again.
Still no luck!
I caught another one, and my face is glowing with excitement. But as my face got lighter, my brother’s got darker.
He's still waiting for his first catch of the night. My dad is trying to motivate him, saying he has to be a little bit more patient.
And then, thankfully, his bait got caught; he’s sure he's about to catch one. And he's pulling as hard as he can.
He didn’t catch one, but 2 fish at the same time.
It was 2 small Trevally/ Jack Fishes and after breaking the deadlock, it wasn't as difficult for him anymore. He started catching fish just as much as I did. To be honest, these weren't huge fish for those who think I’m whining; I still accept I’m no skilled fisherman! But boy, did we feel like one that night.
But why am I telling you this story? Because this story, though short, demonstrates important principles of learning a skill.
To attain skills, you must learn these concepts;
Slow vs Fast
Element of Luck
And additionally, I want to share 3 habits of having, to practice skill.
Slow vs Fast
The reason why we procrastinate and are unreasonably slow is that we’re simply not skilled enough in what we’re doing.
My dad’s friend was catching more fish than the rest of us, and my brother was the one who caught the least. The gap is pretty clear between my dad’s friend and my brother. He goes fishing almost every other week; it's a hobby for him.
But my brother? He rarely goes.
So when my dad’s friend was extremely patient, and my brother was not. It was the difference in levels of skill.
To learn the skill, even though you know a little, is to empty your half-full glass.
This is where you learn from people who are better than you, and help you avoid the mistakes they made.
Thankfully for us, my brother and I were surrounded by pretty skilled people. My dad told us to keep shaking the rod a little because the Trevally/ Jack Fish we came to catch will more likely catch the bait if we were shaking.
And we shake, shake, shake, and the fish caught the bait!
But my brother, he caught his first catch without shaking? How come he did it against the instructions?
The Element of Luck
Have you seen the video that got Justin Bieber noticed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csymVmm1xTw Here's the video.
If it were today, most likely you and I would not pay attention to this video. But in those days, YouTube was still in its early stages. And there weren’t a lot of musicians on it, so this video got noticed by an agent.
You and I aren’t appreciative enough of luck. Luck, even if you disagree, plays a bigger role than hard work. The chances of you reading this are extremely low, and if you're reading it, it means you have access to the internet, or a phone and other things that millions across the world don't have access to.
Luck is chance, because you can't really predict it.
However, there are things you can do which can put luck in your favor. My brother was in one of them. It’s called the Networking element of luck.
The people around us that night of fishing aren't experts by any means. But they knew so much more and better than us. So not only were we fishing, but we were also learning a ton that night too.
When my Dad caught a Barracuda, we were impressed. But also, it seemed easy because many of them were swimming a float around our boat that night. I told my dad that I wanted to catch them too, because it looked pretty simple and it would be easier to bait them as they were afloat.
But he said that these are actually pretty dangerous and since they’re long, they make pretty fast strikes. You’d have to catch them very safely.
Now, he caught it very normally, and I could’ve caught it the way he did too. But we didn't know how dangerous these were, so for newbies like me and my brother, he was saving our asses big time.
There are other forms of luck as well, like;
Placebo of luck - where you believe luck is in your favor and is coming your way.
Novelty of Luck- Justin Bieber experienced this, where he got an advantage of being noticed by an agent, posting videos on YouTube when it was new.
Risk management of luck- This is where you hedge your bets and cut down on the number of losses you have. There’s a phrase called letting a 1000 flowers bloom. Which means you plant a 1000 flowers but focus on watering the ones that are growing the best.
Have you ever heard of Kenny G’s music?
If you ever got on an elevator, most likely yes.
Most of the elevators have his music on, and having sold over 75 million copies of his album, that still isn't where the bulk of his fortune was made from.
I’m sure there were a lot of elements of luck in that process itself. But it was him investing in Starbucks before it got big that made him his biggest fortune. That’s risk management of luck at play.
Perhaps my brother and I want to be better at fishing. What are the 3 habits that we need to keep on practicing to gradually get better at it? Let’s find out.
The 3 habits of skill building
The first one is a little obvious:
Recurring Practice: We’d need to frequently, or every so often go fishing to inherently get better at it. The recurring practice helps the brain to pick up patterns and the body to feel familiarity in doing the same task. You get more comfortable each time and start to use less energy than when you did the first time.
Shared Responsibility: My father hosted this little fishing trip, but next time it could be me, and next time after that it could be my brother. But the important thing is that distributed ownership will keep the momentum alive. If it’s always the same person hosting, then on the days that they aren't able to, no one would be fishing.
A participating Audience: If my brother was fishing alone and caught his fish as late as he did with us, that demotivation would’ve been enough for him to leave and go back home. But because he was with us, we kept on motivating him and keeping him optimistic.
And such feedback is crucial.
We all need feedback in some form or some level. Especially when we’re learning something new. Because in the process, we will feel dumb, and we will feel like we’re extremely bad. These are predictable barriers whenever you’re doing something new.
And it’s easy to think like this and give up, so that is why it’s important for someone to be there to uplift you in such times. Even small wins and little progress should be acknowledged and celebrated. Being seen and being heard are traits almost everyone yearns for. We need that habit for skill building.
But what if you’re doing something alone and no one gets it?
I used to be someone who did things alone for a very long time. Because I never thought that the people around me would understand the things I’m doing. But knowing this didn’t do me any good. So, I started to share what I do with just my close friends.
They seem to love what I do and never forget to share that thought. It was enough to keep me moving.
Now, for the biggest question, what happened to all the fish that we caught?
It was almost 1 am when we came back to land, and my dad and his friend were discussing what to do with the fish. We had a wedding to get to; it was my cousin's wedding. So everyone, including my mom, would be quite busy.
My dad said no, we don't want it. So did my dad’s friend. We ended up giving all of the fish to the guide.
My mom was asleep when we came home. The next morning she asked where all the fish we caught were. I told the story, and she was annoyed.
Yikes. Never assume was another lesson we learnt that night. But let's recap what we learned today.
Slow vs Fast: Empty your mind and learn from people better than you at the skill, and realize that we’re slow only because we’re not skilled enough.
Element of Luck: Luck is an important factor of success, but you attract it more with the amount of effort you show and the way you engineer luck.
Recurring Practice: Practice every so often the skill you want to build to become more fluent.
Shared Responsibility: Gather a group and take distributed ownership to maintain momentum.
A Participating Audience: Little feedback is still feedback, and it’s important to keep you motivated and moving. Share what you do with the closest people or the audience that you serve. Don’t keep it to yourself.
See you next Sunday!
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