7 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Love Fishing

Entrepreneurs love to fish. It may even be fair to say that anglers are naturally entrepreneurial in spirit, whether they have their own business or not. As it turns out, entrepreneurship and spending a day out on the water to fish are not that different from each other. So many entrepreneurs gravitate towards the sport because it presents endless learning opportunities and teaches skills and lessons that are valuable when running a business and being an independent self-starter.

If you’re a budding angler, an entrepreneur on the rise, or both, you will surely be able to relate to this list of seven reasons entrepreneurs love fishing.

1. Fishing is an Exercise in Patience and Persistence

All anglers know that every day can’t be a good fishing day. Still, that shouldn’t stop you from doing your best and showing up consistently, ready to practice your skill, whether it's on a fishing boat or a fishing pier. It requires patience and persistence to master a fishing technique and to get to know your target fish species and the waterbody you’re fishing. The only way to develop them is by practicing. The more you cast, the bigger your chances are of landing a fish. Fishing does not require great inborn talent. Some may come into the sport seemingly built for it, but even the most ill-equipped angler can only improve over time as long as they consistently cast. 

Entrepreneurs learn early on that there’s no such thing as overnight success in business. This type of grit is a characteristic that any new entrepreneur can learn from sport fishing.

2. Fishing Teaches You to Consider Other Points of View

Great anglers see things not from other anglers’ perspectives but from the point of view of the fish they’re angling for. This is perhaps the secret of the most consistently successful anglers. Learning about a fish’s environment, what it eats, and how it behaves in weather and water conditions allows a good angler to know what can get a fish to bite. Even a day of fishing will make you realize that you can’t target a rainbow trout with the same techniques and bait you might use with largemouth bass. 

One lesson entrepreneurs can learn from fishing is to consider not what other entrepreneurs would think but to see things from your target audience’s perspective. The powers of observation anglers practice toward their catch is the same level of observation entrepreneurs can use when thinking of how to better sell to customers.

3. Fishing Trains You to Balance Risk-taking and Planning

Anglers plan the same way entrepreneurs plan. As an angler, you need to exert effort in studying any given place you’re planning to fish and the fish you’re planning to target and prepare accordingly before heading out to fish. Entrepreneurs are the same — a good business person always has a plan before launching, with a good understanding of their business model and what they need to do for marketing purposes. 

Planning protects anglers and entrepreneurs from all the other risks involved in their respective pursuits. Budding entrepreneurs can learn all about how to discern which things are within one’s control and which circumstances and situations to let go of if they go out for a day of fishing.

4. Fishing Forces You to Slow Down

Entrepreneurs are people on the go. They’re self-starters who find and take advantage of opportunities wherever they go. That is the entrepreneurial mindset, after all. Fishing presents entrepreneurs with a different type of opportunity that may feel counterintuitive but is very productive — the chance to slow down. Slowing down allows entrepreneurs to reset and recharge, which is crucial, especially for making decisions or coming up with an innovation.

5. Fishing Develops Your Openness to Change

The openness to change separates a one-off entrepreneur from one who survives in the long haul. The market is volatile, and if a business founder can’t keep up, pivot, and innovate, there’s a good chance their business won’t survive.

The same with being an angler; if you can’t adapt to different situations and switch to sustainable fishing practices, you won’t be able to enjoy fishing for long. Even your target fish species can change over time, especially if they live in ecosystems with heavy fishing pressure. Flexibility in ever-changing circumstances is an essential entrepreneurial soft skill learned from fishing.

6. Fishing Reveals Character

Deciding on taking on a particular person as a business partner? Take your candidates out to fish. See how they behave out in the great outdoors — are they open to learning new things? Do they have a good head on their shoulders? How do they deal with stress and things not going according to plan? How do they relate to their local communities? Before engaging with another individual, you need to know these things, and a fishing trip will allow you to see them on display.

7. Fishing Encourages You to Build and Serve a Community

Entrepreneurs and anglers are, at first glance, self-starter lone wolves. Still, any good entrepreneur or angler will tell you their success in either pursuit relies on the communities they’ve built for themselves. Fishing teaches an entrepreneur the importance of having and serving one’s community as the key to success. Great anglers serve their local communities by practicing sustainable fishing methods to ensure that fishing will be alive and well for generations. The mindset of helping others and leaving a legacy is a valuable lesson that all entrepreneurs can learn from participating in the fishing community.