“And we’ve been takin’ care of business…”
Dateline: The St. Lawrence River
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Constant hard work leads to success, greatness will come.”
— Dwayne Johnson
My keys to success are simple, three “Cs”: consistency, confidence and courage.
Consistency comes first for a reason thanks to my love of music and The Rolling Stones and The Beatles vs. Question Mark and the Mysterians.
The Stones: 57 years on tour, 240 million albums sold worldwide, eight no. 1 hits, on Jagger’s 75th birthday a fossil stonefly was named after him — Petroperla mickjaggereri.
The Beatles: Ranked the no. 1 group of all time with 20 no. 1 hits, 600 million albums sold, 1.6-billion records sold, and their song “Yesterday” is the most covered song of all time.
Question Mark and The Mysterians: “96 Tears” is a cool song but formally classified as a “one hit wonder,” as are more than 500 musical groups/musicians who only once in their career cracked the top 20 with a hit single.
Granted any hit is special, but “Greatness” is rarified air. “Greatness” only comes through the long haul. “Greatness” is defined by consistency.
Be great year after year, play after play, you get membership in the Hall of Fame.
Be great once, you get membership in time to go to a new team.
“The secret of success is consistency of purpose.”
— Benjamin Disraeli
“…every day takin’ care of business…”
Cards on the table, I’m good friends with Bill Lowen and Matt Herren. In fact Matt’s and my friendship began when he called me up and starting yelling at me over some story I wrote. I don’t remember what the story was about, but I know the story wasn’t about him because while he was chastising me I had to look him up in the B.A.S.S. media guide to see who was giving me grief.
We became friends during that “conversation” and have remained so for years talking on the phone (no yelling) both during and after the season.
So I’m biased with these two, there you go.
The other day I was looking at the 2019 Angler of the Year standings and look at what I saw…
Bill Lowen going into the St. Lawrence gig is sitting in fourth place and Matt Herren is sitting in ninth.
So I thought I would do some research. (Yeah I know, shocking.)
In the six tourneys played this year Bill has averaged a 20th place finish, toss out the first gig where he sort of sucked (47th place) and his average place is 15th.
For Matt over the six gigs this year he’s averaged 22nd place, toss the first event (56th) and his average is 16th.
Bill: “I’ve always been considered a consistent angler especially in the beginning when I was fishing for a paycheck, needed to get paid to take care of my family so I couldn’t swing for the fences so to speak. That’s changed some over the years.”
Matt: “Not me. I’m like all over the place and that’s led to a hiccup in my performance over the last couple of years, this year though I got back to being me. I’m just fishing, taking what the lake gives me, just being consistent in my approach.”
Uh huh…what do I think? They are an odd couple who somehow blend well together.
That’s the two of them fishing together on Lake Ontario before the St. Lawrence event, and yeah relax the water there is not off limits so it’s copacetic.
Bill is 43 years old, been fishing the Elites since there were Elites, 14 years now…
…has been married to Jennifer for 16 years…
…and has two children, his daughter Nevaeh (Heaven spelled backwards), and his son, Fischer (like you know…fisher).
Matt is 56 years old and has been fishing professionally since 2003, 16 years…
…has been married to his wife, Candy for 35 years…
…and has two boys…Josh and Jacob…
…and two granddaughters…Emerson and Avery.
“…every way we’ve been takin’ care of business…”
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
— Robert Collier
Bill: “Hey Matt, how long we’ve been friends now, you know hanging together?”
Matt: “Huh, good question, let me think, since back when Denny Brauer retired. How long has that been Bill?”
Bill: “Um, hmm don’t really know when that was…”
Matt: “Me either, hey db, since Denny Brauer left that’s how long, just look that up…”
Bill: (chuckles) “Obviously too darn long.”
Six years. Jeeze.
Bill: “You can’t put a price on how our friendship helps each other…”
Matt: “That’s right we get to compare notes…”
By the way if you haven’t caught on yet, I’m interviewing them both together, you know, a challenge.
Bill: “Look at it this way, each one of us out here has two-and-half days of practice, but when we share thoughts and info it’s like having five days of practice.”
Matt: “We compare notes like is the bite shallow or deep, info that helps each of us solve the problem in our own ways.”
I checked, it’s legal, and I know done by most, if not all of the anglers out here.
Bill: “And I can, ‘borrow’ some of his lures.”
Matt: “Huh…”
“…It’s all mine takin’ care of business…”
“In baseball my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency the numbers will be there at the end.”
— Tom Seaver
Matt: “It’s been a good year, we are both catching fish. It’s important out here to have people who are friends, people who know you, who you can trust and learn from. Being consistent is so very important and Bill reminds me of that.”
Bill: “A little bit of luck don’t hurt none either.”
Consistency the first key to success in my book.
Consistency is what gets you through the highs and the lows in the game, in business, in life.
Consistency brings understanding and patience to chaos.
Yeah sure I wig out at times, we all do. Sure I have emotional and professional rollercoaster rides, but in the end I remind myself I’m just a working stiff needing the next paycheck. That is the chorus of my life and what instills in me, and Bill and Matt, a workmanlike attitude in getting the job done.
In their case “the job done” is:
Catch more fish one fish at a time.
Catch bigger fish one at a time.
And do it…consistently.
db
“…we’ve been takin’ care of business.”
Takin’ Care Of Business
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
“Slow and steady wins the race.”
— Bill Lowen