In a little Mexican village by the sea there once lived a local fisherman. Every day he would go out in his little boat to catch fish and one morning, as he returned to dock with three very large fish, a tourist approached to marvel and congratulate him on the size of his catch.
The tourist just happened to be an MBA graduate from Harvard Business School. He asked the fisherman if he had been out fishing for a long time to haul such magnificent fish. “Oh, no senor!” said the friendly local, “just a couple of hours.”
The trained Harvard MBA immediately saw the commercial potential and he just couldn’t resist but share his business acumen. “Well, my friend, if that’s what you can do in a couple of hours just imagine what you could achieve if you fished all day.”
The fisherman shook his head and then replied, “Si senor, but I only ever catch enough fish each day to supply my family’s needs.”
The businessman continued the exchange. “That must be gratifying but tell me, it’s still early in the morning; how do spend the rest of your day?”
The simple fisherman smiled warmly and replied, “Well, I go home and take it easy with my wife who takes care of our little hacienda. We tend to our garden and have some lunch together and then, my wife and me, we always have our siesta in the afternoon. Then, we meet our friends and family in the square and we talk together. We drink some wine, sing a few songs, and I play the guitar.”
The businessman just couldn’t contain himself. With a wise and knowledgeable look he said, “Look, my friend, you’ve got it all wrong. I’m an MBA graduate from Harvard. Let me to tell you what you should be doing.” The Mexican shrugged his shoulders and so the businessman continued. “If you take your boat out and fish all day you will bring home a bigger catch. You can then sell the extra fish at the market for a tidy profit and soon you will be able to get a bigger boat. Then, in a year or two, you will be able to buy another boat, and another, and you can employ people to work them for you.”
“But then what would I do, senor?” asked the fisherman.
“Well, after a few more years you would then invest in a cannery and start to handle everything yourself. Production, packaging, marketing, sales and distribution; the whole shebang!”
The fisherman was intrigued, “And then, what next, senor?” he asked.
“Then you expand the business. You move to New York and establish yourself in America. And after that, you begin exporting to the international markets.”
“But then, what would I do, senor?” came the reply.
By now the Harvard graduate was really excited and with a hushed voice he said, “Then you move to up-town Los Angeles. Twenty years from now, you float the company on the stock-market, become a multi-millionaire and retire a rich man!”
“Si, but then what would I do, senor?” the fisherman asked politely.
The businessman was incredulous: “Why… why then you buy yourself a nice little place down here in Mexico. You do a little fishing, spend some time in your garden, have siestas in the afternoons, spend time with your family and friends, drink a little wine, sing a few songs together and play your guitar!”
The local fisherman was silent for a moment and then he said, “Tell me, senor, just how difficult is it to get an MBA anyhow?”
Rob Parsons
