Swimming Against the Current
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Is Your Business Dead in the Water?
Entrepreneurship is hard. Meetings. Emails. Calls. Sales. Proposals. Negotiation. Payroll. Taxes. Accounting. Hiring. Firing. HR. PR. Customers. Competitors.
Your team is pulling in different directions. You’re glued to your phone at the dinner table. Every family vacation is interrupted by some “emergency.” The never-ending pressure of knowing it all falls on you. Oh yeah, every now and then you're making some money.
That's just Tuesday.
What started from passion doing work you love has turned into a fight for your life. You’re not even trying to reach the shore anymore, you’re just trying to keep your head above water. The hopes of work-life balance and promise of “freedom” start to feel like a cruel fairytale. You show up but you’re checked out.
It’s no wonder that the second you see something working for someone else your first instinct is to start doing it too. "If it worked for them, it'll work for me, right?" And it does, for a little while. It’s good enough to get by but never good enough to get it right.
Next thing you know, your lifeless business is floating downstream with the rest of them: remarkably ordinary.
Getting by. Going nowhere. Maybe giving up.
Running Upward
"Even a dead fish swims downstream." (Pastor Shawn Frasher, Calvary Chapel Morgantown)
This quote from my pastor in a sermon last week got me thinking. At first, just about fish. Salmon, actually. Then about something much bigger.
Do you know much about salmon? Yeah, neither did I. But I’m the kind of nerdy person who hyperfixates on things so once I started, I kinda couldn’t stop.
Most salmon are "anadromous", which literally translated means "running upward" (Greek) describing fish that migrate from the sea into freshwater rivers to spawn known as the ‘salmon run.’
Salmon battle upstream against an unrelenting current, dodging birds, bears, and barriers to return—almost miraculously—to the place they were born. There, they’ll lay 3,000 to 14,000 eggs.
Many are eaten. Some die of exhaustion. Few ever make it. Only 1 in 10 survive the journey.
It gets crazier. The longest freshwater salmon run is held by the Alaskan Chinook “King” Salmon, swimming upwards of 2,000 miles on the Yukon River during this remarkable journey. As a point of reference, that's over 300 miles further than the United States from top to bottom. That would take 31 hours straight driving at an average of 65 miles per hour.
It's a stressful journey for even the healthiest fish.
60 days.
2,000 miles.
They don’t eat.
They barely sleep.
Life and death.
Always fighting.
Through the pain.
Against all odds.
Running upward.
With purpose.
Salmon, Survival, and Significance
So, what does this have to do with entrepreneurship?
Everything.
It's easy to accept the way things are and just float downstream with everyone else.
It's easy to give up in the unrelenting current and drown in something ordinary.
It's easy to go with the flow and never do anything that matters.
But that’s not why you started.
It all started with an idea, a vision, a conviction. You saw something broken in the world and knew you could fix it. You wanted to create something more, something different. Not just a business, but a force for change. A missing piece only you could provide.
It was never just about making money. It was about making a difference for yourself, your family, your team, your customers, and maybe even the world. You believed in what you were building. You believed it mattered.
You're not just moving forward. You’re running upward.
You're not just surviving. You’re creating significance.
You're not just building a business. You’re leaving a legacy.
Anadromous Entrepreneurship
You're more like a fish than you think. Bet no one’s ever told you that before.
Experience. Salmon return to birthplaces for maximum impact. Your history isn't random, it's preparation.
Obstacles. Salmon don’t create life in easy waters. They push against the current. They're running upward. You know change happens against the current, not with it.
Risk. Salmon give everything they have. You've risked security, relationships, and comfort for work that matters.
Instinct. Salmon don't choose their fight. They can't help it, neither can you. It's who you are.
Legacy. Salmon's offspring live long after they're gone. If you get it right, your work can create an impact far beyond your lifetime.
Food for Thought
So is your business limply floating downstream, or are you running upward?
For the few who make it, reaching their destination isn’t just about completion, it’s about contribution, making the waters better for those who follow. Only 1% of the 3,000-14,000 salmon survive to adulthood. 30 to 140 lives from a single salmon? That’s remarkable.
I'd be thrilled to have that kind of exponential impact in my life.
I want to leave the world a better place than I found it. For me, that means hearing "well done, good and faithful servant." Loving husband, father, and friend. It's growing old and grey with every business I touch. Never making the same mistake twice. Helping brave leaders share bold ideas that matter.
Here is some food for thought...
What are you fighting for–or against?
What matters more than money?
What kind of world do you hope to create?
We're all leaving a legacy. What will yours be?