Archives for July 2019

Before the 1980s, Japan hadn’t imported a single piece of fish.

At the same time, and on the other side of the world, the Norwegian Government was bleeding money through salmon fishing subsidies.

Norway needed to find a market for its salmon. And what better market than an almost-pescatarian country paying 5x as much for fish used for sushi vs. fish used for grilling?

There was one problem, however.

Japanese didn’t eat raw salmon. Everything about it was wrong. The colour, smell, the shape of the head. But perhaps the biggest issue was the widespread fear that salmon contained parasites that could make you sick.

Enter Bjorn Olsen.

Throughout the 1980s, Olsen led arguably one of the greatest campaigns to change consumer perceptions.

What started as a complete failure, where no government representative or major fish company would touch raw salmon, turned into a massive success following a shrewd partnership with Nishi Rei (think: the Kraft Foods of Japan).

Olsen orchestrated the sale of 5,000 tonnes of Norwegian salmon at rock-bottom prices to Nishi Rei, in return for their commitment to sell the salmon in their stores as fresh sushi. It worked a treat. Nishi Rei’s endorsement meant salmon sushi became widely adopted across Japan.

Soon after, the rest of the world followed suit. In the United States alone there are now over 4,000 sushi restaurants grossing over $2 billion annually, compared to a non-existent market 50 years ago. Now when I see a colleague lunching on salmon sushi, I smile and think of Norway.

And to top it all off, Bjorn Olsen also moonlights as a 7th Dan Aikido Black Belt and is the Chief Instructor of the Norwegian Aikido Federation. Could he be any more badass?

H/T Planet Money Podcast for their delightful story telling. You should check out their episode on this topic here.

Your customers don’t care about your excuses.

They don’t care about a supplier’s late delivery, a rogue employee’s poor service, or a government’s stiff change in policy. They’ve got their own lives to lead, businesses to run, and problems to solve.

What they care about is you delivering on a promise despite the head winds.

In a buck-passing world, companies that take failure on the chin have an advantage over those that deny wrongdoing: they’re often given a second chance.

When faced with the option of denial and losing a customer for life vs. taking it on the chin and getting a second chance, there really is only one choice.

In 2016, five friends and I built a boat made from recycled plastic bottles and travelled the length of the Mississippi River. I’ll write more about it in a later post, but if you’re interested, you can watch the short documentary we produced here.

One thing I learnt was everyone will have an opinion about what you should or shouldn’t do.

Part of our preparation was to seek advice from others. Surprisingly, those who’d travelled the river before said “you’re going to be fine”, whereas those who hadn’t said “you’re unlikely to make it safely”. Some even went as far to say “you’ll likely die!”

We can’t control others’ opinions, but we can control who we listen to.

What we allow through our ears, we allow into our minds, and ultimately into our actions. Had we listened to the people with no experience on the river, we’d have never set sail in the first place.

When embarking on a challenging endeavour (job, relationship, travel, or project), it’s worth considering the believability of each person offering you an opinion. Ray Dalio says that we should give a higher weighting to the opinions of people who are experienced and wise in the area we are seeking advice in. When preparing for the Mississippi River, I spoke to more than 5 people who’d done it before. They helped me see the challenges I’d be facing in a clear light, rather than projecting their fears of the unknown on to me.

In the weeks and months ahead, you’ll no doubt have to make a few important decisions. The question is: who are you listening to?

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers” – Voltaire

It’s easy to speak, hard to listen, and even harder to ask thoughtful questions that cut to the heart of an issue.

It feels like there is a natural evolution there:

• By speaking, we seek to be heard
  
• By listening, we seek to hear
  
• By asking thoughtful questions, we seek to deeply understand the other person and their point of view.

How convenient that I’m writing this post in the early morning. So today with my teams, I’m going to practice holding back knee-jerk opinions, and try and ask thoughtful, helpful, and generous questions instead.

Ever since I was a boy, the name Nobel sparked a sense of awe within me. The Nobel Prizes are widely considered to represent the pinnacle of human achievement across chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, peace, and economics. But only recently did I learn about the man behind the prizes, and the sad story of how they came to be.

Born and raised in Sweden, Alfred Nobel was a success by all traditional measures. He was a leading chemist and inventor, most known for inventing dynamite, and was a wealthy businessman due to his work in the arms industry.

In 1888, an obituary was accidentally written for Nobel following the death of his brother, Ludvig. What Nobel read brought him deep sadness, “the merchant of death is dead”, and “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”

7 years later, just one year before Nobel’s death, he signed away 94% of his assets to create the Nobel Prizes, in the hope of leaving a better legacy in death than he did in life.

When I read this, I felt sadness that this was the genesis of such a revered prize.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a fan. The Nobel Prizes celebrate the feats of remarkable individuals and who inspire millions of people each year.

However, this story reminded me of the saying “all that glitters is not gold”, and how it’s important for us to be aware of and acknowledge that there is often a messy grey area within many of our favourite stories.

This weekend I played my first game of football in over a year. To make matters worse, it was an 11-a-side 90-minute grueller. I was surviving, but barely.

Deep into the second half and up 4-3, we launched a cracking on-target shot, only to be blocked by a defender’s arm in the penalty box. This mistake meant we were awarded a penalty, which is where the ball is placed 10 metres from the goal, and we had a free shot to score against the goalkeeper.

The tentative looks on the faces of my team mates told me they were staying well away from the task.

Heart pounding, legs trembling, I approached the ball and imagined myself as Lionel Messi extending the lead for Barcelona in the Champion’s League final.

Whether by skilful strike or simple luck (let’s be honest, it was luck), the ball sailed into the net.

The rush of emotion that I felt in this amateur Saturday kick-around gave me a tiny insight into what it must feel like to be the player taking the deciding shot in a high-stakes sporting match. What pressure they must feel. And more importantly, what confidence they must possess.

I likely won’t be taking another penalty shot for at least another year, but I loved the experience from this weekend and what I learnt from it. Despite it being a low stakes game, I still had to muster the confidence to overcome my insecurities, say “I’ll take the shot”, and then follow through with action.

What would happen if we applied this type of attitude to our work and relationships? Would we see different results? Could we make things a little better?

It definitely feels like it is worth a try.

When Stan Lee pitched Spider-man, his publisher said it was “the worst idea he’d ever heard”.

He said the character wouldn’t work because “people hate spiders”, “teenagers are sidekicks, not heroes”, and “a superhero shouldn’t be unattractive, poor, love-troubled, and an orphan”.

But Stan couldn’t shake his gut feeling, so he put Spider-man in the final edition of a magazine that was being cut due to low sales.

The magazine flew off the shelves.

Fast-forward to today and you can’t go anywhere without seeing a child in a Spider-man t-shirt or with a Spider-man backpack.

Stan’s advice was “if you have an idea that you think is genuinely good, don’t let anyone talk you out of it”.

I didn’t hear this story until today, but I can still remember how I felt, sitting in the movie theatre, watching Spider-man for the first time.

Stan’s decision that day, to put an idea out into the world despite the opinions of other, has had a huge impact on me and many others.

I highly recommend taking two minutes to hear Stan tell this story.