The Businessman and the Fisherman
An American businessman was on holiday in a fishing village in the south of Mexico. One morning, he met a young fisherman with a small boat full of lovely, yellofin tuna fish. “What a beautiful tuna” the American exclaimed.
“How long did it take to catch them?” the American asked. “Oh, about 2 hours”, said the fisherman. “Why didn’t you fish for longer and catch more?”
The Mexican replied, “I didn’t want to fish for longer. With this I have enough fish for my family”.<o:p></o:p>
“But what do you do with the rest of your day? Aren’t you bored?” The fisherman smiled, “I am never bored. I get up late, play with my children, watch football, and take a siesta with my wife. Sometimes in the evenings i walk to the village to see my friends, play the guitar, and sing some songs”.<o:p></o:p>
The American couldn’t understand, “Look, I am a very successful businessman. I went to Harvard University and i set business. I can help you. Fish for four hours every day and sell the extra fish you catch. Then, you can buy a bigger boat, catch more, and earn more money. Then buy a second boat, a third, and so on, until you have a big fleet of fishing boats. You can export the fish and leave this village and move to Mexico, or LA, or New York, and open a fishing business”.
The fisherman smiled, “But how long will all this take?” The businessman thought about it for a bit, “Probably about 15 to 20 years”, he said.<o:p></o:p>
“And then what, Senor?” asked the fisherman. “Oh, that’s the exciting part” laughed the businessman. “You can sell your business and become very rich, a millionaire!”<o:p></o:p>
“A millionaire? Really? But what do I do with all the money?” The young fisherman didn’t look excited.<o:p></o:p>
The businessman could not understand this young man. “Well, you can stop work and move to a lovely, old fishing village where you can sleep late, play with your grandchildren, watch football, take a siesta with your wife, and walk to the village to see in the evenings where you can play the guitar, and sing with your friends all you want”. <o:p></o:p>
The fisherman’s wife and children came running to meet him. “Papa, papa, did you catch many fish?”<o:p></o:p>
“I got enough for us today and tomorrow, and some for this gentleman”, said their father. He gave the businessman some fish, thanked him for his advice and went home with his family.
<o:p></o:p>
What is the moral of this story:
1. Money makes the world go round
2. Understand what really matters in life
3. Don't listen to other people's advice
4. Work more, earn more
This story was taken from student's book "New Headway. Elementary" by Liz and John Soars.
What Alan told is quite true.
There are quite a number of "uncertainty" and "what if" and that is why so many people are still busy with works and cannot stop their career at this moment even though they have made a lot of money and the amount of saving is quite enough to feed their families afterwards. Furthermore, you must see you might lose more than you can think at this moment if you stop earning money in your career and generally give up making new values in the work.
As a matter of fact, People cannot tell you when to stop, what is to be done or what is not to be done. You have to understand what you have in your hands and what you might lose once you stop fishing and return home at once.
I suspect that the intention of the story is to portray the fisherman's choice as the right one. But to me the moral of the story is that "two people can be completely wrong, in completely different ways".
It's great that the fisherman lives for today. But... today does not last forever. He has enough fish for today and tomorrow? Great. But what if the day after that he falls and breaks his leg, gets a serious illness, or a tropical cyclone hits the coast and kills him? What if, in short, he was suddenly no longer around and able to provide for his family? (Or worse and more certainly... what about when he gets old and infirm and unable to fish?)
The idyllic life then seems rather less than idyllic.
But then, so is giving up all of it to pursue ever increasing amounts of money, just so that you can have enough to fall back on decades from now.
If there's a moral to be taken from it, it would be that you need to think about tomorrow and the days beyond, without completely sacrificing today.
Finding that middle way is probably the single hardest thing that any of us needs to do in life.
Is there any way or steps to start with it
Thanks :)
Be clear at your goal.
Otherwise, you'll waste your time.
