The Mexican Fisherman story | How much money is enough ?
The Mexican Fisherman story was originally told by Heinrich Böll about an encounter between a tourist and a small fisherman on a European coast. This enlightening short story tells you about that one question that has interested humanity for a long time now. How much money do you need to be happy?
The Mexican Fisherman story
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village late one morning when a small boat docked. Inside the small boat was just one fisherman who had already caught several large fish. The American complimented the fisherman on the fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The fisherman replied, “only a little while.”
The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had caught plenty enough to provide for his family’s needs for quite a while and even to give some fish away to others in the village.
The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, and stroll into the village where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”
The American scoffed. “I am an experienced businessman and can help you,” he said. “You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could have a fleet of fishing boats, open up your own cannery and control all of the distribution,” he said. “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to a bigger city to run the expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will that all take?”
To which the American replied, “Oh, 15 to 20 years or so.”
“But what then?” asked the Mexican.
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time was right, you would sell your company and become very rich. You would make millions!”
“Millions – then what?” asked the Mexican.
The American said, “Then you could retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, and stroll to the village where you could sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.”
To which the fisherman responded, surprised, “isn’t that what I already have right now?”
Lessons from The Mexican Fisherman story
Stop Chasing What You Already Have
The most striking takeaway from this story is that the banker wanted the fisherman to pursue a life that provided that which he already had. A sad reality of life is that most people follow in the exact same footsteps outlined by the businessmen in the story above…without realizing that the outcome we so desired in the first place, may in fact be available to us today, if we allowed ourselves to view the world with a new lens. A lens that is called TODAY.
Realise Your End-Goal
It’s important to note that the investment banker did not say that the end-goal was financial wealth.The end-goal, as pictured by the banker, was the ability to spend our time as we wish with whom we wish to spend it with, just as the fisherman was doing.Blinded as he was, even the banker knew that monetary value comes in the form of what the money can be exchanged for, not the money itself.
More is not always better than enough.
In fact, being content is the key to living within your means. When you’re content with the life you have, and you live out of an abundance of gratitude, your values get aligned with your spending. Learning to be content, practicing gratitude, and aligning your spending with your money values will give you a rich life that doesn’t depend on having more.
Your daily life should reflect your values
While the businessman was laying out a roadmap to get to a fulfilling life, the fisherman had already reached that destination. He had just taken a more direct route. The journey is more important than the destination
Time is the real currency of life, not money
If the fisherman took the businessman’s advice, he would end up with a lot more money, but much less time.Two decades is a lot to spend on something you don’t really enjoy doing. And, once that time is gone, you can never get it back.
Where The Mexican Fisherman got it wrong !!
If the life of the fisherman never changed – if he never got sick or went into debt or lost the ability to fish – he would probably be fine with his current plan.
However … that’s not reality.
To work just enough to meet your family’s needs is like living paycheck to paycheck. So, we could probably safely assume that the fisherman wasn’t saving for retirement, didn’t have an emergency fund, and had nothing saved for his kids’ college education. Obviously, he doesn’t give us a great example of wise financial planning. The way he’s going, he’ll have to work until he dies. He’ll never be able to retire.
But again stories aren’t meant to address every possible circumstance. If we begin to argue about what ifs, then we miss the whole point.
Instead, we focus on the lessons outlined above, and how we can apply them to our own life. We may discover there’s a better path which is balanced.
If you shortcut to the destination you won’t undergo real transformation. Imagine you won the lottery tomorrow: you’d achieve your financial goals, but without the life experience to cope with your change in circumstances.
That’s why you see so many musicians and actors struggle after hitting instant fame at a young age. They have all the success, without the full journey.
Final takeaway
The fisherman in the Mexican Fisherman story gave us an excellent example of how to live a rich life without a lot of wealth. Pursuing money more than you actually need in your own life would require you to make many sacrifices. Sadly, in the process, we miss out on living the very life we seek to live in the future. You might need to take on extra hours at work or you might have to give up on things that you enjoy doing. So, try to find a balance between sacrificing for your future and living your best life today. Allocating a little more time to play a guitar with our friends today instead of a distant tomorrow, having that picnic time with our family this Saturday or diving deep the book that you were planning to read from months perhaps would lead to a more fulfilled and contended life!
Read more : The Four Burners Theory | How to Manage Your Ambitions
( https://thebrightdelights.com/the-four-burners-theory-how-to-manage-your-ambitions/ )
Books for more insights :
Ikigai – The Japanese secret to a long and happy life ( https://amzn.to/3r8dpK5 )
Think Like a Monk ( https://amzn.to/3o5uW3P )
Man’s Search For Meaning ( https://amzn.to/32DKfJs )
Yes To Life In Spite of Everything ( https://amzn.to/3rZXYTr )
The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life ( https://amzn.to/3oszDVJ )