I have been thinking about this issue this year. Doing nothing or Doing Something. I think all that matters is that you enjoy one or the other. After you're gone, does it really matter?
Here is a favorite story of mine.
A wealthy entrepreneur from New York went on a two-week seaside holiday on the coast of Costa Rica. On his first day there, he was impressed with the quality and taste of the exotic fish he bought from a local fisherman. The next day, the American encountered the native Costa Rican at the dock, but he had already sold his catch. The American discovered that the fisherman had a secret fishing spot where the fish were plenty and the quality superb. However, he only caught five or six fish a day.
The New Yorker asked the local fisherman why he didn't stay out longer at sea and catch more fish.
"But Senor," the fisherman replied, "I sleep in late until nine or ten every morning; I play with my children; I go fishing for an hour or two; in the afternoon I take a one- or two-hour siesta; in the early evening I have a relaxing meal with my family; and later in the evening, I go to the village and drink wine, play guitar, and sing with my amigos. As you can see, I have a full, relaxed, satisfying, and happy life."
The American replied, "You should catch a lot more fish. That way you can prepare for a prosperous future. Look, I am a businessman from New York and I can help you become a lot more successful in life. I received an MBA from Harvard and I know a lot about business and marketing."
The American continued, "The way to prepare for the future is to get up early in the morning and spend the whole day fishing, even going back for more in the evening. In no time, with the extra money you could buy a bigger boat. Two years from now, you can have five or six boats that you can rent to other fishermen. In another five years, with all the fish you will control, you can build a fish plant and even have your own brand of fish products."
"Then, in another six or seven years," the American continued while the Costa Rican looked more and more bewildered, "you can leave here and move to New York or San Francisco, and have someone else run your factory while you market your products. If you work hard for fifteen or twenty years, you can become a multi-millionaire. Then you won't have to work another day for the rest of your life."
"What would I do then, Senor?" responded the fisherman.
Without any hesitation, the wealthy American businessman enthusiastically replied, "Then you will be able to move to a little village in some laid-back country like Mexico where you can sleep in late every day, play with the village children, take a long siesta every afternoon, eat meals while relaxing in the evening, and play guitar, sing, and drink wine with your amigos every night."
The moral of this story is straightforward: Like the Costa Rican fisherman, you too can experience more leisure time - a full, relaxed, satisfying, and happy life today instead of fifteen or twenty years down the road. Tens of millions of people in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and many other countries have such a lifestyle. Contrary to popular belief, however, such a lifestyleis not based on being a multi-millionaire. A full, relaxed, satisfying, and happy life is achieved by living the principles laid out in The Joy of Not Working.
