Life.

[couch-potato]

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.
"Not very long," answered the Mexican.
"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.
The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.
The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life."
The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."
"And after that?" asked the Mexican.
"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."
"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.
"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.
"And after that?"
"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"
"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the Mexican.
"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."
And the moral of this story is: ......... Know where you're going in life... you may already be there. Also 42.

couch-potato Reviewed by couch-potato on 10-04-2007. Life. A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them. "Not very long," answered the Mexican. "But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American. The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" "I sleep late, Rating: 5

[geonagual]

Thats awesome and the truth...everything is a trade off....you work a lot, you make a lot of money but you have no time to enjoy other things...or...you dont work as much..you have time to do the things you enjoy, but you dont have as much money..
I personally trade off between the 2 throughout my life..that way I enjoy time off and still have a little ke-sash to do some fun stuff.

[Old Stoner]

Excellent post, CP. You got a few rep points for that one!

Too many people do not realize how good they actually have it!

Great post!

[Kai as a kite]

Yeah, I think about this stuff all the time. Especially living in a place where money and status matter so much, sometime's I'm grateful to be the broke ass college kid with possibilities rather than the corporate slave who drives around in a Bimmer, has a nice house, and a gorgeous wife. I think some people forget that this is the only life we get, and it's not for wasting.

[friendowl]

good stuff
life is giood

[krazy chino]

nice.....very true

[Born To Stone]

Yeh i have often wondered what a simpler style of life would be like, this reminds me of a programme in England called Tribe where he went to meet Tribes living all over the world, in one episode he lived with the Anutans on a small island and every person on the island helped make food and then shared it out amongst eachother, fishing together and sharing land for farming, they all seemed very happy and all shared strong bonds with eachother