Fishing on the beach

There is a very well known story of a man who was fishing on a beach, when a businessman came up to him and asked why he didn’t use a net? The fisherman replied with, why would I use a net? The businessman replied, well if you use a net you could catch more fish and save money to buy a boat. “Then what” Replied the fisherman. Well then you could catch more fish, save more money and buy more boats until you have a fleet of boats. “Then what” replied the fisherman. Then you can retire... when the fisherman cut in and said “then I can stand on the beach and fish”.

Why do we go to work every day? I was talking to my colleagues the other day and they were talking about what they would do if they won a heap of cash. Some said they would start an orphanage others talked about travelling the world. This got me thinking, I realised I had no idea what I would do. What would you do?

This also got me asking the question, why do we work so hard when happiness can be found without having the nicest car or the flashiest house? There was an advert on the radio a while ago which talked about selling cokes on the beach and making that your business. Some people do it, I have seen many people working and having a perfectly adequate life selling food at parties or clothing at raves etc, now although these people are a bunch of hippies they are happy.
So what makes us happy?

How is failure or success measured? Is success measured by personal growth and satisfaction or is success measured by the perception of others. In other words, is failure measured by not being yourself and it depends entirely in the eyes of your peers?

How often do we do things purely because it seems like the right thing to do or because society is telling us this is how it’s supposed to be? We are taught at varsity to think out of the box. What I find amazing is that we have to be taught to think out of the box. You often hear we can learn from children. Why is that? We were children once, then we were taught to only think in the box and then when we are old enough we are allowed to think out of the box.

Here in lies the problem, some people don’t learn to think out of the box, they simply do the ‘robot- sheep’ thing and do what they are told. They never truly find what really makes then happy. Have you ever heard someone complaining about not being able to do something for whatever reason, or have you ever found yourself complaining that life is constantly against you. What is stopping us from being happy? Why do we always crave more? When is enough?

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