Enjoy the present

Today I watched a beautiful video from Martijn Doolaard recapping his third year of renovating a ruin in the Italian Alps. It made me dream of doing such a project myself one day.

As I was dreaming away, the story of the fisherman and the banker came to mind.

Once upon a time

An American businessman is on vacation in a small coastal Mexican village. He sees a fisherman pulling his small boat onto the shore with a few large fish. The businessman compliments the fisherman on the quality of his catch and asks how long it took him to catch them.

"Just a little while," the fisherman replies.

The businessman asks, "Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The fisherman responds, "I have enough to support my family’s needs."

The businessman asks, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The fisherman smiles and says, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, and stroll into the village in the evenings to sip wine and play guitar with my friends. I have a full and busy life."

The businessman scoffs, "I’m a Harvard MBA, and I can help you. You should spend more time fishing and buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds, you could buy several boats, then a fleet. Instead of selling to a middleman, you could sell directly to the processor and eventually open your own cannery. You could control the product, processing, and distribution."

"And then?" the fisherman asks.

"Then," the businessman continues, "you can move to Mexico City, then to Los Angeles, and eventually New York City, where you can run your expanding empire."

"And how long will this take?" the fisherman asks.

"Fifteen to twenty years," says the businessman.

"And then?" the fisherman asks again.

The businessman laughs, "Then you can sell your company for millions and retire! You can move to a small coastal village, sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, and spend your evenings drinking wine and playing guitar with your friends."

The fisherman smiles and says, "Isn’t that what I’m doing already?"

Food for thought

And so I looked around my apartment and realized I already have a beautiful place and an idyllic life.

Every time I think of this story, I'm reminded to take a step back and enjoy the life I have.

We spend so much time looking at the future, thinking what our life could be like if we do this or that. Days, months and years pass by and before we know it, our lives have changed and we find ourselves reminiscing on the "good old days".

So maybe it's time to pause, appreciate what we have and live in the present.