Release the Foul Hooks

I came across a term recently that has been haunting me as I consider the implications for my life and for those I coach.

The term is "foul hook."

In fishing, a foul hook is simple to define but hard to accept. It means the fish is snagged by the hook somewhere other than the mouth, which means the fish did not strike or choose the bait. It was caught by accident or by force: hooked by the fin, snagged in the gills, or caught in the body.

It looks like a win when as you pull it into the boat. But anyone who understands the craft of fishing knows the truth.

That fish was never yours, even though you pulled it into the boat.

In business and in life, it is no different.

Every day, under pressure, we can foul hook our way to a "win," personally or professionally.

In business, it could be sales numbers: a deal closed through pressure rather than alignment, or a client won through overpromising rather than truth. It could be a hire who was running from their last environment but not running toward your mission. It could be an investor chasing momentum, not conviction.

On paper, it looks clean. Revenue hits. Headcount grows. Capital lands. The scoreboard lights up.

But foul-hooked deals do not hold.

The pressured client churns. The misaligned hire disengages. The hype-driven investor vanishes the moment volatility shows up. What you thought was traction reveals itself as drag.

Growth without mutual consent is not growth. It is friction waiting to surface.

A clean hook is different. It requires patience, positioning, and discipline. The customer chooses you because the problem is real and the solution resonates. The partner believes in the model because the logic is sound. The talent joins because the mission speaks to something internal, not because compensation overrode confusion.

Clean hooks create retention. Clean hooks create referrals. Clean hooks compound into equity.

Forced relationships decay. Chosen relationships endure.

Why do we foul hook in the first place?

We foul hook because we are impatient, because we are afraid the right opportunity will not come, and because we want the win more than we want the right win, even if it means forcing a catch rather than earning one.

Great leadership is about restraint, stewardship, and selection.

If you have to push someone across the line, pause. If you have to inflate the narrative to secure commitment, step back. If you feel resistance that logic cannot reconcile, listen.

Pressure closes, but alignment compounds.

Release the foul hooks.

Then go find the ones that choose you.