There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach
in a small Brazilian village.
As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small
boat towards the shore having caught quite 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.”
“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 evening comes, I join my
buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout
the night.”
The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.
“I am a PhD in business management. 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 own production plant
for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of
this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other
branches.”
The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
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 asks, “And after that?”
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?”
Classic Brazilian
story, presented by Paulo Coelho on his blog: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2015/09/04/the-fisherman-and-the-businessman/
Similar stories are
popular in other cultures as well. Here is an example of the story with the
Mexican fisherman and the businessman: http://bemorewithless.com/the-story-of-the-mexican-fisherman/
