The Banker And The Fisherman

Napoleon Hill said in his book Laws of Success:

“What a different Story people would have to tell if they would adopt a definite purpose and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming purpose.”

Some people just know from an early age that they are born to be something, often something in the creative world like an artist or writer or musician but as I've mentioned previously, for other people and I include myself in this category, it is not so obvious. Actually, for me looking back it should have been obvious, but I just ignored all the signs because I was too focussed on making money.

I'm just happy and grateful that I still have a few decades left where I can turn my life around and follow my purpose!

In lesson one, you looked at your specific gifts, talents and experience. You haven't picked up these things by chance, you discover your gifts and you develop your talents and discover what you're good at because you were meant to discover it. These unique gifts are hard-wired into your system, and it's from these talents and gifts that you are able to work out what your definite purpose is - the reason why you are on this planet.

Now, if you fail to work out what your purpose is you're simply not going to be able to live a happy fulfilling life. You will drift aimlessly and everything will feel wrong in life. It's as though you are trying to find your way with a broken compass, you may think you're heading west, but you're not you're just drifting with no sense of direction.

You will, unless you have firmly identified your purpose, never quite feel that you are in the flow, so it is absolutely imperative that you spend time figuring out what it is that you're good at and what you really love to do.

Your purpose is quite simply to spend your time doing those things.

As we observed in the previous Lightbulb Moment, often people will know what they love doing and what they're good at, but they don't believe they will earn money from doing it. That is what's known as a paradigm; a self-limiting belief that is simply not true.

You can earn money doing anything! Just figure out what your purpose is and start following it, and the money will naturally follow. In any event, most people want money so that they can spend their time doing the things that they love doing, so if you are already doing what you love, even if it's not making you millions, you're already well ahead of the game.

There's a lovely little parable in Tim Ferris’s book, “the four hour work week” about a fisherman in Mexico that illustrates this point wonderfully.

An American investment banker was taking a holiday in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. The boat had several large, fresh fish in it.

The investment banker was impressed by the quality of the fish and asked the Mexican how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.” The banker then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican fisherman replied he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman replied, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos: I have a full and busy life, señor.”

The investment banker scoffed, “I am an Ivy League MBA, and I could help you. You could spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats until eventually, you would have a whole fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to the middleman, you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You could control the product, processing and distribution.”

Then he added, “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City where you would run your growing enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But señor, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15–20 years.”

“But what then?” asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You could make millions.”

“Millions, señor? Then what?”

To which the investment banker replied, “Then you would retire. You could move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

Here are a few thoughts on this: enjoy the simple life!

For the fisherman, he already slept late, fished a little, played with his children, took a siesta with his wife, strolled into the village each evening, sipped wine and played guitar with his friends. 

He already had everything he wanted.

What is it that you love doing?

If you can make enough money to pay the bills and spend your time doing what you love and with the people you love, why would you ever need to earn more that causes you stress and takes you away from those people?

Let’s face it, that 70 inch TV, the Chanel handbag, the Rolex watch, diamond necklace or the shiny new car that you think impresses the neighbours is never going to make you happy.

So, why spend your life earning money to buy things you don’t need to try and impress people you probably don’t like that much anyway?

The truth is you can earn enough money to live off by doing almost anything.

So, just follow your purpose and it will be as though you're being guided by an unseen hand heading in the right direction and everything will fall into place.

If you can let go and let god, and have faith that life has got your back then you can relax, lead a worry-free life and be truly happy.

The key to happiness in your life is to not settle for that safe thing that brings in the money.

The key is to turn up and do what you really love.

Fall in love with an idea.

That's your life.

That's your purpose.

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Photo by Danica Tanjutco on Unsplash