Chad Daniels

The first Wednesday of every month, my friends and I go to the local tavern affectionately known as “The HOB”, have a drink or two, and play the open mic night along with some of the other regulars. It’s always a blast, but last night was, by far, the best time I’d had there.

Last night was one of those nights where the energy was at such a level that you are able to get outside of yourself and actually experience the present moment, in all of it’s beauty. Today, I found myself reliving last night. Everyone putting their cares away, singing, dancing, and just having unguarded fun. While I was daydreaming away, it made me think of a parable I’d read years ago, and I wanted to share it with you all now. Perhaps you’ve read it before, but sometimes, when you get in the rhythm of every day life, you forget to ask yourself, “why am I doing this?” “What do I ultimately want?”

So here it is. The parable of the fisherman and the businessman:

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?”