The Fisherman

Been meaning to write this post for a while and was reminded of it this morning at the men's breakfast, A few times I have been given this story recently
(this copied version copied from http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/09/08/the-fisherman-and-the-businessman/)
'
There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.
As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.
The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”
The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.
“I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”
The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”
The fisherman asks, “And after that?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”'
-------

It sort of speaks for itself although not sure on the going out for a drink part but that's just me. It also can not be considered lazy just time spent elsewhere away from core work.
Also it is sustainable, the business man fails to realize that if you over fish you do not get the large fish anymore. Also his afternoon could be spent deciding how to fish better , reflecting on mistakes done.
I try and relate this to the IT business , I enjoy helping people and fixing things. but sometimes it doesn't work and I am finding it takes strength to tell people when you are going to fail with out wasting time. but equally having reflecting time and the ability to come back to things afresh not working late can solve difficult issues. I meant to spend this morning preparing a sermon for tomorrow but needed to get this out of my mind so will come back to the PC later.

Happy New Year 2012

Morning

Guess its time for an update before the year runs out and not much seems to have changed this year, I am still in the same job at Fitsystems in Brighton which I enjoy, still with my lovely wife and Daughter living in the same flat in Haywards heath.

But taking a closer looks things are moving on,my wife has in the last year passed a course in Child care and her driving theory test and has got permanent leave to remain in the UK.
My daughter has settled well in to both nursery's and we are waiting to hear what school she will be going to in September and is getting increasingly independent and now has a book instead of a blankie and enjoying Octonauts on Cbeebies.

In the last year I have passed 2 exams making me now a Microsoft Certified IT professional. and grown my own business see www.TomSeymour.co.uk part time although the website is a work in progress as I am relaunching the company in February having not advertised since August whilst doing exams and working on my future plans.

I am still trying to work out whether to stay in my current role or not as I need to do extra work to survive which I enjoy and there is not much stress as that all gets passed up to my boss. As he does not filter the sensitive areas down to us.

France Holiday.

Morning

In September for a late summer holiday, we spent almost 2 weeks in my parents flat in France. This was the first time I had taken Ju-hee and Hanna there and we had a great time visiting the area fortunately I did not have to practice too much of my French managing to get away with basics and pointing. Although I did give up at the idea of going through a MacDonald's drive through on my own. But that was mostly due to the fact there was a big queue and everything was on the other side.

Due to the very warm autumn we have been having we still managed some beach time and I enjoyed a swim in the sea. We also did some other sight seeing, although Hanna was disappointed that none of the castles had princesses in them. But the view from the top was worth climbing for especially in Apremont.

Hanna asked me a few weeks afterwards if we could go to the big boat where daddy's car can have a party in the bottom so I guess she remembers the trip. She enjoyed the bunk beds on the ferry and had trouble deciding which one to stay in even after the lights went out.

Since my last blog, I have passed the Microsoft exam 70-680 which means I am now a Microsoft windows 7 technology specialist and I am taking another exam next week to compliment this. I am also still working for Fitsystems and independently although I have decided to stop advertising whilst I work out our long term plans in order to keep progressing.