A rich American CEO of a Fortune 500 company is vacationing in Mexico in a small coastal village. He sits beside the pier, watching in fascination as the only boat on the water docks and a single fisherman begins unloading his catch: seven large, beautiful yellowfin tuna. Amazed at the quality of the fish, the American compliments the fisherman, and asks how long it took to catch them.
The fisherman replies “Not very long at all, Señor.”
The American then asks “Well… why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?”
The man tells him “Well, I have plenty here to support my family.”
“So… what do you do with the rest of your time?” asks the businessman.
“Well, Señor, I sleep late every day. Then, I get up and play with my children some. I fish a little. I go home and take a siesta with my wife. Then, I go to the village center, drink tequila, and play guitar and sing with my amigos. I have a very fulfilling life.”
Amazed, the American tells the fisherman “look here, amigo… I have a business degree from a prestigious university. I think I can help you out. If you just spend more time fishing, you could afford to buy a bigger boat and hire a helper. The extra money you could bring in by doing that will allow you to eventually buy a whole FLEET of boats and hire people to fish for you. You’d have enough fish coming in that you wouldn’t have to sell to a middleman, but directly to the processor. Pretty soon, you could open your own processing facility and even a cannery. You’d control the supply, the processing, and the distribution! You could leave this tiny village and move to Mexico City, then America… heck, you could soon move to New York to run your ever expanding enterprise!”
The fisherman asks the American “Well… how long would this take?”
The CEO replies “oh, I dunno… fifteen, maybe twenty years.”
“But what then?” Asks the fisherman.
“Oh, THEN is when it gets good!” The American rubs his hands together. “You see, THEN you can announce an IPO and sell stock in your company to the public. You’d be rich beyond your wildest dreams! You could make millions… heck, maybe even billions!”
The fisherman cautiously asks “Then what?”
“Ah!” Says the American gleefully, “then you can retire! Move to a small fishing village where you can sleep late every day, play with your kids, fish a little, take siestas with your wife, and drink and play music with your friends all night!”
Fin
Heinrich Böll, a German writer, is the author of this parable about a Mexican fisherman and an Investment Banker.
