Remarks at Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, January 31, 2001
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a recent trip to one of your beautiful islands..., I had the opportunity to take a break and go fishing, and overheard a conversation between a Harvard businessman on vacation, and one of the local fishermen. The fisherman had a small boat with several large yellow fish tuna....The business man complimented the man on the quality of his fish, and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman replied only a little while. The business man asked...why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The fisherman said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.
The businessman then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a nap with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I drink a beer and play the ukulele with my friends. I have a full and wonderful life."
The business man scoffed, "I'm a Harvard MBA, and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, you could buy a bigger boat. With the money from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats. Eventually, you'd own a fleet of fishing boats...You'd make millions of dollars!"
"But what then?" asked the fisherman.
The business man said, "Then you could retire - move to a small fishing village where you could sleep late... fish a little... play with your kids... take a nap with your wife...stroll down to the village in the evenings...where you could drink a beer... and play the ukulele with your friends!"
0 comments:
Post a Comment