The Meaning of Work

An businessman was vacationing on the eastern coast of Mexico. A thorougly American man despite being the son of immigrants, he still remembered his Spanish. At the beach one early afternoon he struck up a conversation with a fisherman who was mooring his little boat. He saw that the fisherman had three enormous fish.

"So, how long did it take you to catch those fish?" he asked. "They're beautiful."

"Oh, maybe an hour, señor."

"An hour? That's all? What do you do the rest of the day?"

"Oh, I go to the cantina and have a drink with my friends. I play a guitar, and we sing songs. Then I go home to be with my wife, and we take siesta. When I wake up, I play with our children."

"Well, I'll have you know, señor, that I am a Harvard educated businessman, and chief executive officer of my own company, and I'm telling you that you could do much better than you are doing."

"How is that, señor?" the Mexican asked politely.

"To begin with, if you stayed out at sea longer, you could catch more fish, right?"

The fisherman looked down and rubbed his chin. "This is true."

"If you catch more fish than your family needs, you can sell what's left. Then, after a while of doing that – and if you save the money – you could buy another boat with the money, and hire others to catch fish for you. You give them some money or fish, and take a profit. You could continue this until you have many boats, and you would make a lot of money."

"What would I do with the money, señor?"

"Well, you would sell all these fish to the cannery that I saw a few miles from here. You would make a large profit over time, until eventually you could either buy the cannery or start one of your own. If you worked hard enough with your own, you certainly could buy the other cannery or drive it out of business. Then you continue this kind of acquiring until you have an empire, a fish empire! Then you would move to a large American city and hire number people to take care of your money and invest it. You would be very rich."

"I see, señor. And how long would this take?"

"That depends on you, but somewhere between five and twenty years."

"Then what would I do when I am rich?"

"Why, then you would retire."

"Retire? What is that, señor?"

"That's a time of rest when you do anything you want."

"Such as ...?"

"Oh, anything, like enjoy the beach, go to bars and sing songs, take naps, play with your grandchildren..."