Mr Kenny Yap, aka Kenny the Fish, certainly had a way of relating some principles of how he learn to survive the business world by studying some of the hardy features of 9 fishes, namely:
1) Arapaima - One of the biggest freshwater fish in the world. As in business, try to be a big fish like the Arapaima so that you would not be eaten up by others.
2) Cardinal Tetra - If you are small, try to swim in groups as the chances of survival as a group is higher. In business, think about merger, collaboration and acquisition.
3) Goldfish - Eat as much as possible during the warm weather where food is plentiful. Thus during a business downturn, ensure that you have sufficient reserves available to sustain yourself instead for folding up.
4) Guppy - Learn the survival skills of the Guppy. These are ornamental fishes that can be found in almost any drain or jungle stream.
5) Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta Fish) - Have the fighting spirit of the Betta Fish in protecting its territory. Fight for your market share.
6) Arowana (Dragon Fish) - Survive to a ripe old age like the Dragon Fish whose ancestors are believed to have lived during the age of the dinosaurs. Ensure that your business has a succession plan. This is often overlooked in business. This is also critical for any organisation as well as government-in-power.
7) Lou Han Fish (Flower Horn Fish) - Extend your network by adopting the features of the Lou Han Fish with their lively and friendly approaches to customers.
8) Rainbow Fish - Do not forget to reflect on life like the colour on the Rainbow Fish without which, may prove meaningless in doing business.
9) High Fin Loach Fish - Finally, to survive and sustain in this competitive world of ours, learn to create niches for your business as the Loach Fish does in nature. The fish learns to eat whatever that is left on the bed by evolving or adapting its mouth so that it can eat / suck up directly from the bottom of the bed without much effort.
Each of these fishes has certain UNIQUE strengths that one can learn from so as to help one survive this competitive world of ours. Please enjoy Kenny-the-Fish's speech, one of the shortest, yet most impactful speeches that I have ever come across.
Mind Map Blog by Choon Boo LIM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
