Many people want to be rich, in order to do things they dream of. Once they will be rich, they will have time for what they really want: playing music, diving, sailing, riding horses, running marathons. But first they want to be rich.
Here below 2 wonderful stories teaching the same lesson in life: don’t waste your time “getting rich”. Skip the “getting rich” step. You can do many (if not all) things without a stack of money on your bank account. Be creative. You want to ride horses all day? Open a horse riding school. You want to sail around the world? Sell your house and sail. Want to learn Chinese? Go live in China for a few years.
Will it be easy? Maybe not, maybe yes.
Is it possible with enough motivation and passion. ABSOLUTELY YES!
But, please, skip the “getting rich” step first. Real happiness is not in getting rich, but is in doing what you love to do.
1 – The rich man and the fisherman
There was once a rich man, very wealthy, loads of money, loads of ‘bling’. Drove a big car, had a big company, a loud voice and……. he loved to fish.
One time he went to this beautiful little island where the weather was always beautiful, the sand soft and the water crystal clear. The palm trees swayed in the wind, and he wanted to go fishing.
There was no-one to take him fishing but he spotted a lonely figure lying in a row boat, stretched out, half asleep, straw hat on his head and one fishing line in the water.
He spoke to him and offered to pay him ‘big bucks’ to take him out fishing.
When they were out on the water he asked Joe, “What do you do every day?” Joe said in a relaxed voice, “I love to fish”.
After a whole day of fishing, they caught so many fish, the rich man was excited. He said “Joe, you’re sitting on a goldmine here. You should get another boat, then catch more fish. When you get more fish, you can buy more boats, and hire staff. When more staff come in and you catch more fish, you can move up to a large fishing boat and nets and really pull in the fish and the money. Then right over there, take those trees down and build a cannery, and can the fish right here on the island and export them and make tons of cash.”
Puffing on his cigar vigorously now he continued. “You can then open several other factories on the other islands and build the company. When you’re ready, you can float the company on the stock exchange and make millions…. Then, you can just lie in a little row boat and fish all day long”.
Joe was mystified. “But I do that now!”.
The rich man had no answer.