A couple of weeks ago I sat next to a man on an airplane and noticed that the read Good to Great. I commented on the book, and how it was helping transform our company, and we got into a conversation.

He brought up the book Fish!

The story is based on the Pike Place Fish market in Seattle, which I had  heard about. Now I want to go and visit it urgently.

It is known to be a happening place, with fish flying through the air, and an infectious spirit of fun and excitement transcending from the workers to the customers and on to visitors, who go there not just for the fish, but the buzz of the place.

Go to YouTube and search for “Pike Place Fish” and you see plenty of flying fish. You also get the notion that the Pike Place fishmongers don’t necessarily agree with the way the “fish philosophy” has become commercialized by corporate trainers and consultants.

The story in this book is fictional. It frames four concepts to make any business vibrant and exciting, and as a result successful:

1. Choose your attitude
2. Play
3. Make their day
4. Be present

And everything else will fall in place.

I will not tell you the story any further. You can buy the book used on Amazon for a couple of dollars, and you can read the whole thing in an hour or two. Do it. You will go to work and check the place out with a different set of eyes and a new spirit. You won’t learn anything you don’t already know, but it’s like flossing your teeth. You go to the dentist and after you leave, for the first few weeks, you are good about flossing every day. Then you skip a day, and two, and you need to be reminded again, probably by the dentist, to kick start the process.

Read Fish! and then go to work, on your work.