An American investment banker was at the pier of a quiet coastal Mexican village when a
small boat docked with just one fisherman aboard.
Inside the small boat were several large fish, and The Banker complimented the fisherman
on his catch. ‘How long did it take you catch them?’
he asked. “Oh, only a little while,” the fisherman
replied. The banker was intrigued, and asked why the
fisherman didn’t then stay out longer and catch even more fish.
‘I already have enough’, was the response ‘I have plenty to support what me and my
family need’. At this point, the banker was confused, and
asked, ‘but… what do you do with the rest of your time then?’
The fisherman smiled and said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children,
take siestas with my wife, and 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 banker immediately saw the opportunity. He said,
“I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you. You see, if you spend more time fishing
and catch more fish, you can use the proceeds to buy a bigger boat. You’ll then be able
to catch even more fish, which will allow you to buy several boats - so you can have
a whole fleet of fishing boats out there catching fish every day.
But here’s the real beauty, instead of you selling your catch to a middleman, you can
sell it directly to the processor and eventually open your own factory where you can even package
the fish yourself. Think about it, you could then control the product, the processing and
the distribution. You’d own the whole supply chain so you could really maximise profits.
Of course, you’d need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to perhaps
Mexico City to start with. But eventually as the business grows and you build your brand,
you’ll be able to expand to maybe LA or even New York City and run your expanding
enterprise from there.’ When the banker finished speaking, the fisherman
paused for a moment and asked, but how long will this all take?’
To which the banker estimated, maybe 15 to 20 years or so.
“But what then?” asked the Mexican. The banker laughed and said, “That’s the
best part. When the time is right, you can announce an IPO, and sell your company stock
to the public and become very rich. You could make millions!”
“Millions, huh’ the fisherman responded, ‘and then what?”
‘Well’ the banker said, “Then you could retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village
where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your
wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with
your amigos.” And thus concludes, the story of the banker
and the fisherman.
And after hearing this, there’s one question you should be asking yourself:
What is your ideal day?
Seriously, if you were trying to visualise your perfect day from start to finish, what
would it include?
Now, for many people, of course it’s not going to be quite as simple and peaceful as
what the fisherman wanted. However, I think that story does highlight that our ideal day
often doesn’t require as much money as we think.
A perfect example of this, is when people say their perfect day would be relaxing on
the beach in the sun, maybe listening to some music or chatting with some friends.
Because, the cost of that is zero.
And sure, you’ll need some money for a place to live and food and so on, but I bet the
actual amount of money you need is less than what you’re picturing.
For example, if you moved to a country where there’s a much lower cost of living, perhaps
like Thailand or Brazil, you could live like royalty on an incredibly small budget.
Now, you may be wondering where I’m going with this. After all, this youtube channel
is largely built around the idea of business and making more money.
However, I think it’s important to remind ourselves that the purpose of making money
is to try and live a happier and more fulfilled life, not just making money for the sake of
it. Money is the tool that allows you to do what you actually want, it’s not the end
goal in itself.
And so, I genuinely encourage you to write out your dream day, and then work out the
real amount of money you would need for that, as when you write it out, it probably isn’t
as high as you think.
And sure, being ultra wealthy no doubt has some huge advantages, I’m definitely not
disputing that. But I recently heard someone talking about how they want to be a billionaire.
And I think the question to ask there is, why?
I know, that sounds like a dumb question, who wouldn’t want to be a billionaire, right?
But, when you really think about it, to become a billionaire is going to require an insane
amount of work. There’s no two ways about that; to build a company that’s worth billions
is going to consume your life. And for most people, it’s not worth the stress that may
come with that, along with the impact on your health, the missed opportunities and lost
time with friends and family.
In fact, a study of 450,000 people found that after reaching an income of $75,000, an increase
in money did not correlate with an increase in happiness. Once you feel financially secure
and have what you need, endlessly chasing more and money without any real reason, didn’t
make people happier at all.
And thus, it’s not surprising that we hear of billionaires who end up depressed. Sure,
they may have more mansions and cars, but if they’re working so much that they don’t
even have time to enjoy it, then what’s it all really for?
I’ve genuinely heard stories of multi-millionaires complaining they have no time to spend with
their kids, that they’re always stressed because of their business, and that they can
never truly relax on holiday as the work’s non-stop. Or some worry that having so much
money sabotages their relationships with people, or makes them feel like a target when they’re
out in public. But if those are the things they care about, spending time with family,
relaxing and doing what they want all day - then why do they keep focusing on making
more money instead?
Just having a vague idea of ‘I need more money’ is an endless pursuit that won’t
get you what you really want.
Rather than saying you need more money before you can be happy and live your ideal life,
figure out how much money you actually need for whatever it is you want.
And if you do work that out, I think for a lot of people, more of a lifestyle business
may suit them better. Something that makes a good amount of money, enough to do the things
you want, but without dominating their life entirely. A billion dollars may sound nice,
but what’s it really for?
Of course, the amount of money your ideal life needs is different for everyone.
For some people, you may already be able to do what you want. Maybe you can just move
to a cheaper country, become semi-retired, and spend most of your days reading at the
beach or hiking in nature.
For other people, maybe the lifestyle you want does require more money, but it’s very
likely that it’s not billions or even millions. So work out how much money you actually need
to make it a reality, so you can work towards that.
Because again, I repeat: Money is the tool that allows you to do what you actually want,
it’s not the end goal in itself.
And so yes, this channel will continue to post videos about business and how you can
earn more money and live a richer life.
But in the back of your mind, always remember the story of the fisherman and the banker,
and how your perfect life, might be much closer than you thought.