Fly fisherman egos, WTH is up with that?!?!?

Pondering a few things about fishing lately and it occurs to me that the ego is one of the biggest downfalls for fishermen in general, not just fly fishermen. I believe this is why instructional videos sell but seem to not be heeded much. Same with advice given, no matter how correct it is. This is a strange phenomenon and it puzzles me. What is it about us that doesn't allow us to accept advice and makes us learn the hard way about these things.

Now, why am I thinking about this? Many of you know that I intend to, at some point, make my living through fishing and specifically fly fishing. There are a lot of possibilities about how I may do this but to be successful I feel a significant understanding of your customer and their needs/wants is mandatory. So I am trying to find some keys to being successful and I am seeing that ego may be one of the keys to this.

There are so many ways to be pre-prejudiced about many things in life, not just fishing. There are so many pieces of info that are available to us as citizens it can be overwhelming and causes many of us to be "instant experts" on many, many subjects. I know that I easily fall in to that category on many things. I wonder how I can overcome this human tendency and get people to look past their egos?

Example: Last year at the One Fly a person walked up to me and asked what the P on my hat was for, it was a Permian hat, I told him and he was shocked. He had graduated from Midland Lee! Nearly 25 years after we were vicious rivals in the world of West Texas HS football he we were on a river in Oklahoma fishing and introducing ourselves. A younger bikedog would have eschewed this Rebel and gone on in his own tunnel-visioned world thinking that all was right because someone from Permian no doubt could better a Lee Rebel at everything.

Thankfully I am an older, and hopefully wiser, person and Merc and I became friends. As such I have learned tons about fishing and having fun with Merc. We have been on several trips and share a passion for lots of things. To me this is a perfect example of not letting ego prevent a great experience from happening.

Now the real question is how to get people to move past their own egos and accept life and experience as it comes to them. That may be a real conundrum but I have some ideas and I hope to try them out in this world of fishing and maybe be a success. We will see!!!!