If you want to enjoy beautiful scenarios, see people enjoying life, go to the beach. The waterfront has a way of calming nerves, relieving stress, and freeing up one’s mind to think.
One of the great stories by the clever Paulo Coelho is about the fisherman and the businessman. It is a story about what success is. Below goes the story:
“There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach. As he sat, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite a few big fish.
The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while. Maybe about 30 minutes.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and the evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing, and dance throughout the night.”
The businessman suggested the fisherman.
“I am a well-traveled, educated, and exposed successful businessman, I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your production plant for canned food, and your distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to a bigger city, where you can set up a head office to manage your other branches.”
The fisherman asked, “And after that, what next?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”
The fisherman further asks, “And after that, what next?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing, and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”
Many times, we spend a lot of money chasing money, at the expense of living in the moment. Enjoying the small things in life, which are meaningful like spending more time with friends and family and playing the games we enjoy.
Copyright Mustapha B Mugisa, 2021. All rights reserved.
