What Are We Really Chasing in Life?

There is a well-known story about an American businessman and a Mexican fisherman.

The businessman is sitting on a dock in a small fishing village in Mexico. He watches the fisherman row back to shore with a few large yellowfin tuna on board, and he asks how long it took to catch them. The fisherman says it did not take long. The businessman then asks why he does not stay out longer and catch more. The fisherman just says the fish he caught are enough for his family.

The businessman does not understand, so he asks what the fisherman does with the rest of his day.

The fisherman says he wakes up naturally, goes out to catch a few fish, comes home, plays with his children, takes a nap with his wife, and in the evening goes into the village to have a drink and play guitar with his friends. To him, that is already a full day.

The American is still not convinced. He says he is a Harvard MBA and offers to help. If the fisherman spends more time fishing, he can buy a bigger boat. Then he can catch more fish, buy more boats, build a fleet, open a factory, expand the business, move to a bigger city, and eventually build something large enough to impress everyone.

The fisherman asks how long all that would take.

The American says fifteen to twenty years.

The fisherman asks what happens after that.

The American smiles and says that by then the fisherman can retire, go back to a quiet fishing village, wake up whenever he wants, catch a few fish, spend time with his children, nap with his wife, and play guitar with his friends in the evening.

The fisherman looks at him and asks, a little puzzled: isn’t that what I am already doing?

What exactly do people pursue in life?

When I first heard this story, I was twenty-something and had just started working. I found it deeply annoying, which is probably a sign it landed.

At that point I was studying late, trying to catch up on technology I had missed in school, telling myself it was for the future. Someday. That was the whole logic. Someday I would have the life I wanted to live.

The fisherman story asks a simple question: what if someday is now, and you just haven't noticed?

I don't have a clean answer. I still work toward things I don't have yet. But the story is useful precisely because it doesn't let you answer it easily. It just keeps sitting there, asking whether the version of success you are running toward actually describes the life you want.