An American investment banker was 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 and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”
The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked, “but 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 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 American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA 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 Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15 - 20 years.”
“But what then?” Asked the Mexican.
The American 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!”
“Millions - then what?”
The American 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.”
I wonder sometimes
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Whats the point?
of chasing your tail...
Scream to be green raises an interesting point, I hadn't heard this one before but here is a parable that made me think today.
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5 comments:
Thanks for stopping by my site! That parable always makes me think...and wonder what the hell I'm doing with my life.
Come back often! :-)
http://www.screamtobegreen.com
I was SO afraid when I saw your comment over at Green Bean Dreams! My blog is "spelled with a k." I thought, I haven't read this post/comment set yet... how could I have already commented... but thankfully, we are both "spelled with a k!" By the way, love your blog!
--Erika
So you "feel the pain" of having a name commonly spelled with a c as well.
Thanks!
Kory
With our Productivity gains of the past 40 years we could, as a society, be living comfortably on a 3.5 day work week. Or we could all buy cell phones, iPod's and laptops and work 50 hour weeks.
I say that typing on a laptop that is charging my iPod, having just got off the cell phone with my wife.
Crap!
I hear ya there. My father once said, you can have time to make money or you can have time to spend it, rarely will you get both.
I think its a matter of finding that happy balance.
and by the way, I still say the ipod is the hybrid car of the recording industry. No need for stacks of media be they cd's tapes, 8tracks, whatever. And the battery life is phenominal compared to the truckload of duracells we all used to pump into our walkmans 20 years ago.
of course some might argue that its far more fulfilling to participate in the creation of live music than to keep feeding at the trough of commodified disposable pop-crap, to which I say... "well you have obviously never heard me play the guitar."
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