On Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 48 (How 2 Tuesday #13), I answer the question I get more than any other: how do you quit your job and become a professional fisherman? My answer is simpler and harder than most people want to hear. I did not have contacts, experience, or family in the industry. I slept in cars, scrubbed boats, and worked for free until I made it. In this solo episode I lay out exactly how I did it and why commitment beats everything else.
Listen now: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · or press play in the player above.
My answer is simpler and harder than most people want to hear. You determine exactly what you want, then you go to where the work is and you commit completely. If you want to work on a charter boat, go walk the docks, talk to the captains, and tell them you want to work for them. They will not hire you at first, so you stick around, work for free, clean fish, scrub toilets, and sleep in your car if you have to. One day someone will not show up, and you will be in. The method is the same whether you want to be a flats guide, an offshore captain, or an elk guide. Just do it.
I did virtually everything wrong that can be done wrong. My father was not a professional fisherman, I did not grow up near the ocean, and I did not know a single person who had ever guided. I slept in cars, scrubbed toilets, worked eighteen-hour days, cleaned boats, hung around fly shops until they wanted to kick me out, worked for free as a camp cook, washed dishes, built fences, changed bearings on trailers, taught fly casting for free, and lived in a commune with twenty other people. I did all of it with a giant smile on my face, because I was committed.
I cannot give you a fixed timeline, and I will not pretend to. It depends entirely on your commitment and your willingness to do whatever it takes. I can tell you this much: it is going to take longer than you think and it is going to be harder than you think. The first dock you walk up to may not be the right one. If you stay committed and keep doing the work, it will happen for you.
No. When I started I had no contacts, no family in the industry, and no experience. The fact that you do not know anyone doing what you want to do, the fact that you have no contacts, the fact that you have no experience, none of it matters. What matters is the commitment to making it happen and then doing all the work that is involved. Commitment and work ethic beat connections every time.
I was working a summer job in Yellowstone National Park and walked to the Yellowstone River with an eight-and-a-half-foot Orvis fly rod I did not know how to use. I saw what I thought was a fish floating two feet above the water, until I realized I had simply never seen water that clear. It was a nineteen-and-a-quarter-inch Yellowstone cutthroat trout holding a foot below the surface. After about two hours of changing flies and chasing the right drift, I caught that fish, and when I landed it I felt an inner peace I had never known. In that moment I knew I would be a fisherman forever.
Just do it. If you are not happy with your job, your life, or your situation, change it. In my opinion, being happy, hungry, and doing what you want is far better than being safe, fat, and unhappy. Make the decision, go where the work is, and out-work everyone around you until you become indispensable. Take it or leave it, but that is the advice that comes from my own experience and from watching many others do the same thing.
Here is the exact path I followed and that I give to everyone who emails me asking.
I walk through every one of these in detail, with the stories behind them, in the episode. Press play in the player above.
For years people in the outside world kept asking me when I was going to get a real job, or whether I really thought I could make a living fishing. Then, at some point, that stopped. People quit doubting me and started asking me how they could do the same thing. That shift is what Malcolm Gladwell calls the tipping point, the moment things change and tip toward success. I think it happened because I kept doing what I loved long enough, through the fourteen-hour days I never complained about, that people figured out I was onto something. I tell that whole story in the episode, so press play in the player above.
The real beginning for me was a summer job in Yellowstone National Park. I brought a fly rod I had no idea how to use, walked to the Yellowstone River, and saw what looked like a fish floating above the water. The water was just so clear that I had never seen anything like it. It was a nineteen-and-a-quarter-inch cutthroat trout, and after about two hours of changing flies and chasing the right drift, I finally caught it. When I let that fish slip back into the river, I felt a peace I had never known and decided right there that I would be a fisherman forever. I tell it in full in the episode, so press play in the player above.
The people I have watched make it into the professional fishing world, and into other paths that looked impossible, all had one thing in common. It was not talent, it was not contacts, and it was not money. It was commitment. They did not stop when it got hard, when someone told them it was impossible, or when they had to sleep in a car and work for free. They had made the decision and they stuck with it. That is the difference between the people who make it and the people who do not, and I unpack exactly why in the episode. Press play in the player above.
In my opinion, being happy, hungry, and doing what you want is better than being safe, fat, and unhappy. That is my advice, and you can take it or leave it. It comes straight from my own experience and from watching many others make it happen in fishing and in other industries where the path is not clear and nothing is guaranteed.
If you are sitting on a change you want to make, make the decision and go do it. It will take longer and be harder than you expect, but if you commit, I can promise you it will be worth it. Email me your questions at podcast@saltwaterexperience.com and press play in the player above.
Robert (listener question) · Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point · Yellowstone National Park · Yellowstone River · Yellowstone cutthroat trout · Orvis fly rod · charter boats · flats guiding · How 2 Tuesday · Saltwater Experience
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's How 2 Tuesday series I break down one practical skill or lesson at a time, from fishing technique and gear to travel and the mindset that got me into this life in the first place, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
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