Rule 5 - No One Looks for the Second Fish
Story time - The legend about a uni prank.
A student, wanting to cause chaos, hid a raw fish in the drop-ceiling of a rival’s kitchen. The smell was horrific. The victims tore the kitchen apart, eventually finding the rotting fish. They cleaned.
They scrubbed.
They celebrated.
Problem solved.
Except… the kitchen continued to smell for weeks. It got worse.
The problem: No one looked for the second fish.
The prankster knew that if you find one obvious culprit, you stop looking. So he had hidden a second fish.
Don't Settle for the First Answer
Most of us live our lives clearing away the "first fish." We find the obvious annoyance, we bin it, and we assume we’ve won. But problems are rarely that linear. Problems are complicated, layered, and often deceptive.
When you only fix what’s right in front of your nose, you’re just treating a symptom. To actually solve a problem—to get the "smell" out of your life for good—you have to look deeper. You have to assume that the first solution you find is only half the story.
In health: You take an aspirin for a headache (first fish), but you don't look at your hydration or your screen time (second fish).
In relationships: You apologize for a specific argument (first fish), but you don't address the underlying resentment or lack of communication that caused it (second fish).
In habits: You delete an app to stop wasting time (first fish), but you don't address the boredom or anxiety that makes you reach for your phone in the first place (second fish).
If the "smell" persists after you think you've fixed it, you haven't looked deep enough yet.
The Blind Spot (The Business Bit)
Founders are the world’s best "first fish" finders. A customer complains? You refund them. A staff member quits? You hire a replacement. A deadline is missed? You work until 2 AM to finish it.
But if you don't look for the second fish, the broken onboarding process, the bottlenecks, or the total lack of focus, you are doomed to keep stinking of fish forever. You’ll be exhausted, and your business will still stink. Systems are how you find and remove the second fish before it even starts to rot.
Homework: The Deep Scan
Take a recurring problem in your life and assume there is a hidden layer you haven't touched yet.
Identify the "Lingering Smell": What is a problem that you feel like you "fix" every few weeks, only for it to come back?
The First Fish: What is the obvious, surface-level thing you usually do to "fix" it?
Find the Second Fish: Ask yourself "Why?" three times. Why did that happen? Why did that happen? And why did that happen?
Example: "I'm always out of money." -> Why? "I spent too much on takeout." -> Why? "I was too tired to cook." -> Why? "Because I don't meal prep on Sundays." (Found it. The second fish isn't the takeout; it's the lack of a Sunday system).
Stop scrubbing the floor and start looking in the ceiling. Find the second fish.
