It's not all work, work work said the fisherman

[Paul]

This is the story that started the “be more with less” movement for me.

 

While I knew all work and no play wasn’t the way, I thought I would forever be stuck in the cycle of working to live.

 

I thought I would always have a car payment, credit card debt and not enough month at the end of the money.

 

I thought I had to work harder to make more, buy more and have more. At one time, I really thought that would make me better somehow.

 

This story is my inspiration to slow down, reassess, and get real about how I want to live life.

 

A London investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mediterranean village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. 

 

Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. 

 

The banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

 

The fisherman replied, “only a little while".

 

The banker then asked "why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?" 

 

The fisherman said "I have enough to support his family’s immediate needs." 

 

The banker then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

 

The fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas 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.”

 

The banker scoffed, “I am a 1st class honours degree from Cambridge and i work for HSBC in The City and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. 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 processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to the capital and corporate HQ where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

 

The fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

 

To which the banker replied, “15 – 20 years.”

 

“But what then?” Asked the fisherman.

 

The banker laughed and said, “That’s the best part.  When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”

 

Fisherman “ £££,£££ Millions – then what?”

 

The banker  said, “Then you would retire.  Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

 

So wise words of wisdom there for those running on the life treadmill 100mph+

[HighlandTiger]

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”

― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy