The Fisher and The Manager
- By Kaitlyn Leung
- •
- 31 Jan, 2020
There is a classic Brazilian story that has been retold over many generations. It illustrates our tendency to spend our lives pushing for the societal definition of success, rather than filling our time with what we believe is important. Here’s my version of that story.
In a small, remote fishing village somewhere on the outskirts of Hong Kong, a tall man in a smart black business suit stands at the end of the pier, watching the sun slowly sink below the horizon. As he stands, he sees another man dressed in fishing overalls steadily rowing his boat towards the shore. Mightily impressed by the vast amount of fish on board, the tall man approaches the fisherman and asks:
“How long did you spend fishing today to have caught all this?”
The fisherman answers: “Not too long, just a few hours.”
The tall man is slightly bemused and asks: “Then why don’t you stay out fishing longer? You could catch even more fish and double your profits!”
The fisherman replies that this is enough to feed his family for a few days. When the tall man then asks him how he spends the rest of his day, the fisherman says:
“Well, in the morning I wake up and take a walk around the village. I have lunch with my family, and then I go fishing for a while. When I come home, I take a nap with my wife and play games with my children. In the evening, I go into the village to have a cold beer with my friends. We play the guitar and we’re all happy together.”
The tall man then tells him:
“Listen, I’m the manager of a large company. I could help you make a lot more money with your life. From now on, you should start fishing earlier and come home later, because then you could catch more fish. You should use those profits to buy a bigger boat and better nets. With better supplies, you could catch even more fish. Instead of selling your fish in this village, you should sell your fish in the city where there’s a much bigger market. With the money you make that way, you should buy a whole fleet of boats. Then you should move to the city and set up your own business specialising in the processing and trade of fish. This will take a lot more time, but it will mean even more profits in the long run. Once your company is set up, you should then expand your company into many branches, which you could manage from your headquarters in the city.”
The fisherman, having listened closely, asks:
“How long would that take?”
The president replies: “Probably about 15 to 20 years. But think, you would be the president of your very own corporation! Then, when the time is right, you could sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions!”
“Millions, and then what?”
The president smiles, and says:
“Well, then you could finally stop working and retire. You could move to a small fishing village, where you could take a walk every morning and breathe in the fresh air. You could have lunch with your family, fish for a while, and then go home to take a nap with your wife and play with your kids. When the evening comes, you could go into the village and have a beer, play guitar with your friends and all be happy together.”
The fierce desire to compete and conquer in this world is familiar amongst students and adults alike. Higher grades lead to better jobs, better jobs lead to higher earnings, and success in this world is based on what your yearly income is or how high up you are in your industry. From a young age, we are conditioned to believe that more is better; and most people have adopted a firm, inflexible and work oriented mindset in order to accomplish their goal.
We’re convinced that if or when we get the scholarship, or get a promotion, or a bonus, our problems will be solved and we’ll become happy. But in most instances, there will always be another unforseen problem, another goal, and we will be stuck in a never ending cycle of unhappiness. The only way out of this is to realise that, in life, the journey is far more important than the outcome. In many ways, life is like a video game. If you’re not having fun while you’re playing the game, it’s not going to get any more fun once you beat it. You play the game for the enjoyment of the process, not just for want of the outcome.
We don’t live in an ideal world, and sometimes people have to do things out of necessity. But to people in that situation, I’ll reference a quote by the American essayist Henry David Thoreau, who said: “it’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” We can’t always change the circumstances that life presents us with. But our outlook on life and the mindset with which we approach these circumstances is something we can consciously choose to be positive. Like the fisherman in the story, we can be more with less by appreciating what we have already.
Because it’s not what your life is that matters, but rather how you live it, that determines how happy you are.
