A few days ago I stumbled upon a great little story.
Who wrote it?
No-one – at least reachable by Google – really seems to know. Update: It was written by Heinrich Ball. And there does seem to exist a few variations of it. Maybe you have heard it before.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and that you take a couple of minutes to reflect upon where you are going in life.
An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.
“How long it took you to catch them?” The American asked.
“Only a little while.” The Mexican replied.
“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” The American then asked.
“I have enough to support my family’s immediate needs.” The Mexican said.
“But,” The American then asked, “What do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor.”
The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds you buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”
“Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”
“But what then, senor?”
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”
“Millions, senor? Then what?”
The American said slowly, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos…”
Henrik Edberg is the creator of the Positivity Blog and has written weekly articles here since 2006. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Gothenburg and has been featured on Lifehacker, HuffPost and Paulo Coelho’s blog.
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18th April 2007
An interesting story with great lesson worth grasping, to make life stress free and happier.
Great Story & yes.
Enjoy What you Have First!
well really nice story…n u learn lots.must earn only how much is needed… not gather more n more..as its back to square one,,,,,,so no point ,,njoy life to hte fullest,,,like tht fish man…..tht6s wat i believe in…
…cheers…
Yup. It’s about keeping your long-term priorities straight. Work hard to enjoy your life but not TOO hard that you forget to admire the sceneries along the way. Of course, it pays to have insurance ready since it can be a pain to require medication and treatment and you’re broke.
Interestingly, there’s a fellow that pushes for enjoying life now instead of waiting for decades to do so. It’s at http://www.fourhourworkweek.com.
The website’s name itself brings to mind the earlier comment about “Anekdote von der Senkung der Arbeitsmoralâ€. But if what I understand what little I’ve checked so far, it seems to focus more on quality of the work instead of quantity of hours put in…
Anyways, the book will be out soon and I hope it’s interesting for you. Until then, good fortune mi amigos as I sit back with my guitara :D
nice quote and concept, but there’s one thing that the millions would buy and that’s options; for the fisherman and his family and even his community. the millions could provide security for generations of poor people, years after the fisherman had died.
Nice short story! It is indeed related to reality. Everybody wants to be rich (except for those that think they’re hopeless). Some just think it’s impossible! But try to check this out http://davidseah.com/archives/2007/04/18/a-review-of-tim-ferriss-the-4-hour-work-week/
Thanks
Truly a wonderful story. Pity more of us do not follow his example and logic.
Wow! This is a wonderful little read. Thoroughly enjoyable and straight to the heart if not perhaps a little to the gut.
Thank you.
Love this story, which basically boils down to “know what you’re *really* trying to achieve in life”
If you could fish for a few hours and have enough to live on for a day, everyone would do it, driving the price of fish down, forcing you to fish more. That is why most Mexicans have to work ridiculous hours to make enough to starve, those are the only jobs that exist. They’re working those same jobs here, but they pay a bit more.
Even if you could do that on a given day, what about the next day? What about poor fishing season? What if you get sick and can’t fish anymore?
You have to work hard to make enough to scrape by, then you have to work doubly hard to have enough to save up so you can stop working someday. The goal should be speeding the whole thing up.
This is just folly.. it presents a fictional ideal that nobody has any access to. You can’t quit your stressful job and go ANYWHERE that allows you to work a few hours a day and survive. Not yet.. but if we all work together, and I mean everyone -work-, no welfare, we can each work less and enjoy our families more.