Principles to Work By
Media Options’ owner has a background in the fish business. Seafood Commodities is a real tough business with a cut throat attitude and a warehouse full of hard nose businessmen (fishmongers). Remind you of another industry?
Anyhow, when he started out in the fish business, his first day on the job, his boss took a framed sheet of paper off the wall and handed it to him and said, “learn this and don’t ever forget it”. It was a list of ten items in a nice hardwood frame with a title that simply said “The 10 Tenets of Charlie Tuna”.
I need to discuss the domain I own!
These were the principles that guided the owner’s daily decisions and business, not to mention his casual response to nearly any question asked of him. We thought that they, although rough around the edges, were good principles with solid underlying meanings that apply to nearly any business. At the very least you’ll surely get a good laugh. Here they are:
The 10 Tenets of Charlie Tuna:
- I’m not Mother Theresa, I’m here for a profit
- You can’t run a whore house without any whores
- Get your ducks in a row before you pull the trigger
- As Reagan said to Bush during a debate, “I paid for this microphone”
- Don’t crowd the mourners (a reference to not over stepping your boundaries)
- Don’t offend my sense of logic
- Go play Mickey the Dunce (i.e. – play stupid and see what you can learn)
- Don’t be backwards about going forwards
- When you woke up today, what did you tell yourself?
- Tire Kickers are like leeches, they suck your time