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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
by melvinmt 12y ago
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?”
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/09/08/the-fisherman-and-the-businessman/ http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/09/08/the-fisherman-and-the-...
- raldi 12y agoAnd then the fisherman got a horrible toothache and there was nothing he could do about it. A few years later, overfishing led to near-depletion of the local supply, and new restrictions were implemented on fishing licenses. The fisherman was unable to afford one, and yet he had no other means of supporting his family. By the end of the decade his wife and children were begging on the street. Meanwhile, the businessman was getting a massage at a ski resort in Switzerland.
- dredmorbius 12y agoUntil the ski resort closed due to lack of snow from global warming, his business failed as increasing amounts of financial capital were required for ever falling returns on new energy exploration, globalization collapsed due to increased fuel and energy costs making shipping child-labor textiles and fatuous electronics 12,000 miles uneconomic. If your model of the world suggests that fishing isn't a sustainable activity, I suspect you'll find that the rest of the economic system is going to fail not too long after that.
- raldi 12y agohttps://www.google.com/search?q=fishing+unsustainable https://www.google.com/search?q=fishing+unsustainable
- dredmorbius 12y agoYes, there are a great many present fishing practices which are unsustainable, virtually all of them industrial. It's one of the great ecological tragedies of the 20th century / industrial age. However primitive / simple line-fishing and small-net fishing have been practiced, sustainably, for thousands of years.
- sixQuarks 12y agoWhile the ski resort was closing, the businessman created a simple video game called Minecraft which he later sold for $2.5 billion. Now he has fuck you money and doesn't give a shit what happens to the economy.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoUntil the economy collapses and he realizes that money is just an abstract concept that works as long as the economy exists. He dies from hunger trying to fertilize his field with banknotes and get bees to offer him honey in exchange for an electronic cash transfer.
- qopp 12y agoThis isn't a perfect analogy for this situation because Notch is already wealthy enough to retire. He's worked hard, and made something people love. It would be like the fisherman worked 2 years can captured a solid gold fish. It's really the CEO that wants something out of the fisherman in this case.
- chasing 12y agoUgh. Parables can be used to demonstrate just about anything. There once was a fisherman, much like the one you describe in the parent comment. One day a businessman approached him with a proposal that would require more work, but would, in the end, result in much more financial freedom and stability. The fisherman declined the advice and went about his life, happily fishing for the days food and spending the rest of the day playing with his kids and drinking with his buddies. Then the kids grew up and his buddies started finding other things to do with their time, so the fisherman got restless. But he had no money saved up and no other skills, so he was stuck. Then there were a couple years during which the fishing turned bad and the fisherman and his poor wife nearly starved. Rather than spending all day fishing in frustration, it sure would've been nice to actually retire somewhere. But the fisherman was well past that point. It was either fish or go hungry. Or possibly both. And then his kids were all hit by meteorites and his town was invaded by aliens and the entire ocean dried up and everyone had to move to Mars.
- grecy 12y agoThere is a similar version of this told from an Australian perspective. Same moral. I experienced this attitude and culture first hand when I spent 2 years driving from Alaska to Argentina [1]. It's impressive how happy people are when they're not trying to " get ahead". [1] http://theroadchoseme.com http://theroadchoseme.com
- devinmontgomery 12y agoI know a lot of people like this - smart, talented people who want a lifestyle business. Being able to afford to do what you love for a living is awesome. Good for Notch, now he can.
- Anderkent 12y agoAnd then the businessman showed the fisherman photos of hundreds children that survived thanks to his charity donations, and the schools he's sponsored, and all the other ways he made the world a better place thanks to the money he made, and the fisherman was enlightened.
- leishulang 12y agoHard working might pay off in the future. But laziness pays off NOW.
- yalogin 12y agoPosting this to the wrong crowd here aren't you?