Catch! A Fishmonger's Guide to Greatness [Hardcover]

Cyndi Crother (Author), The Crew of World-Famous Pike Place Fish (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2003

The Pike Place fishmongers are almost as famous as the market they work at, lovingly profiled in the media and treasured by those who watch them go about their work each day with style and smiles. In "Catch!, Cyndi Crother tells their story--or rather, lets them tell it, in this unusual combination of oral biography and business blueprint. Using the fishmongers' examples, letting them explain their work lives and their personal lives, the book explores the issues of goals--both financial and humanitarian--and intention, showing how the crew itself creates these goals in collaboration with management to everyone's satisfaction. "Catch! examines the power of possibility, taking such guiding principles as coaching and acknowledgement that are lacking into many businesses and showing that readers too can be the prime movers in their own experience.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In consultant Cyndi Crother's Catch! the fabled Pike Place Market fishmongers in Seattle explain a shared philosophy of work and life in their own words. The author's work as anthropologist--she interviewed and flung fish with 17 crew members--allows her to translate their inside jokes and shoutouts into habits of mind to "transform ordinary into great." Crother manages to keep Piscean puns to a minimum (stop floundering, how to get off the hook) and skillfully applies the principles of mind-over-matter cognitive psychology. Several phrases are key. "It's all over here," is an expression of personal responsibility and choosing a positive response to create the outcome. "What you say is what get" is a mantra for using choosing your words to change your mind.

These ideas of self-reliance, intention and language as reality are not new. Yet Crother gives them a fresh and practical application in the photos of individual fishmongers and in their words. Whether reading about Jeremy's ordeal of chemotherapy or Bugge's finessing the customer who was showered with ice from a flying fish, readers will find the most animated and instructive stories since Finding Nemo. --Barbara Mackoff

From Publishers Weekly

Popular with tourists and television cameras alike for its employees' fish-throwing antics, Seattle's World Famous Pike Place Fish Market was labeled by CNN as America's "most fun place to work" in 2001. But it's "the philosophies behind the fun" that have made the fishmongers (and their consultant/Svengali Jim Bergquist) the darlings of the business-motivational lecture circuit. Quality assurance and corporate training expert Crother has collected their briny New Age wisdom in this slender but still turgid and repetitive volume. There's little here about actually running a fish stall-"I try to clean the cooler out as much as I can in terms of getting rid of all the fish" is as substantive as it gets-but there's a lot about personal growth and transformation, forging meaningful relationships with customers, and being present in the fish-selling moment. The message is one of empowerment and fulfillment, embodied in the slogan "it's all over here" (meaning "each person is solely responsible for his or her thoughts, feelings, emotions, decisions, actions-everything") and oft-repeated mantras about "generating greatness" and transcending our circumstances by "choosing" our attitudes and actions. The fish-mongers thus underscore the familiar business-motivational theme that even the most mundane service-sector occupation is an opportunity for self-actualization, a conceit generalized to such non-seafood contexts as stalled traffic ("I have learned not to resist where I am because that is where I am") and even personal health ("I am choosing to make this a powerful event in my life," one worker says of his brain tumor). Ultimately, though, the fishmongers' Buddhist-inflected doctrines ("our perceptions determine our reality") as gathered by Crother amount to little more than positive-thinking bromides. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 137 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 1 edition (December 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576752542
• ISBN-13: 978-1576752548
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #776,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Inspiring, December 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Catch! A Fishmonger's Guide to Greatness (Hardcover)

If you have been unhappy with your job and feeling as though you are trapped, then this book is the perfect first step towards changing your life. I have read both of the previous books based on the philosophy of the amazing workers at Pike Place Fish, and was already inspired by their refreshing attitudes. I have also had the pleasure of watching them interact in person at Pike Place Market in Seattle, and they are exactly as they present themselves on the pages of their book. However, having them tell their stories in their own words truly makes an impact on the message, causing this to be the better of the three books. After reading this book, it is impossible to walk into work the next day without it affecting your relationships and attitudes towards your job. Beyond the work environment, it also creates a ripple effect that changes the way you relate to others in your personal life.

After reading this book, I feel as though I know the fishmongers a little better, and appreciate their help in changing the way I deal with the people and issues in all areas of my life.

This should be required reading for any company that wishes to become "World Famous" and make a difference for their employees and customers. Don't just buy one copy of "Catch", get one for a friend and share the gift of awareness and contentment with others.

And if you're ever in Seattle, don't miss a visit to the guys at the market! The fish is second to none, and the fishmongers have a way of making your day special.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most inspiriational book I have read lately!, March 5, 2004

By 

Paul Eade (Kennewick, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Catch! A Fishmonger's Guide to Greatness (Hardcover)

If this book does not inspire you to come alive and get going with your life, nothing will. And it is not some philosoper's old boring stuff; it is real life from ordinary fish mongers. It is down-to-earth information that is easily read, easily undetstood, and easy to apply to your own life. I plan to reread this little book several times a year to remind me what any person can easily do to become "great."

The whole idea of the Pike Place Fish Market is inspirational. If you have ever been to the market in Seattle, you will be quite inspired and maybe even a happier person right away because if it. The people who work there are inspirational. They are succeeding personally and as part of a team. They are very happy to be working where they are. They have a formula for success that is really working, and working for ordinary people. This is why they sell tons of fish on the Internet. This is why they perform training programs all over the country. This is why they sell so many books and videos and T-shirts.

If you do not check into this source of inspiriation you are losing out. I'm so glad I know about Fish!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Turns a tedious, dirty job into an adventure., February 1, 2006

By 

David G. Stokes (St. George, Utah, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Catch!: A Fishmonger's Guide to Greatness (Paperback)

I don't know about you, but when I think about working in a fish shop, all I can think is; I'll never get that smell off my hands. I was in Seattle about 16 years ago and went to Pike Place Market. I don't remember seeing that particular fish market, but the whole market is pretty cool. This is a fantastic book. The thought of the motley crew of guys pictured in the book getting along and having fun is nothing short of amazing. The shop is proof that you can have fun, learn, and make a lot of money doing just about anything, if certain rules are observed. One of the main secrets of their success is the ability to be taught. So many people, especially after working in the same occupation for a number of years, or reaching a certain age feel like they know it all, and are not willing to try anything new. These employees each essentially 'own' a piece of the business. With ownership it's easier to accept responsibility and get a feeling of success and euphoria. This company also holds biweekly meetings, as well as huddles at the start and end of each day. The stories of each employee as portrayed inspired me, even if they were embellished by the author. The author did an exemplary job writing this book, and I would recommend it to anyone working for themselves or for an employer, after all, we are all working for ourselves anyway.