One of my favourite parables.

Having reread Atomic Habits by James Clear, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of stories and how they can teach us profound lessons. Not only do stories bring fresh perspectives into our lives, they also make those lessons long-lasting, memorable, and easy to share with others.

I’ve often struggled with depressive envy, or as the Germans put it better, Glückschmerz. This feeling is only human and it’s something I fight frequently to overcome. But there is a parable I regularly recite to myself to help me continue working hard, climb at my own pace, and ground me in my present journey. That story is the parable of the fisherman and the businessman.

It follows a fisherman who catches just enough every single day to feed himself and his family. He spends the rest of the day relaxing with his village. However, one morning, a businessman visits the fisherman and attempts to convince him to fish for longer, to build a fleet, and to hire others to work for him, as it would enable him to never fish again. The fisherman asks him, “After I’ve acquired such an empire, then what?” The businessman tells him that building such a wealthy business would allow him to relax with his village and family every day and fish whenever he likes. The fisherman then asks, “Isn’t that what I am doing right now?”

This parable shines a light on how society prioritizes economic growth over contentment and how we often already hold the keys to the lifestyle we are desperately fighting for.

While I don’t believe this parable should be taken as a lesson for complacency or abandoning personal goals, it brings me immense comfort. It reminds me that life isn’t a race, as there is no finish line, and that comparing ourselves to others doesn’t bring us greater contentment; it just puts us back into a race we built within our own minds.

References

Böll, H. (1995) 'Anecdote Concerning the Lowering of Productivity'. Translated by L. Vennewitz. In: The Stories of Heinrich Böll. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, pp. 628–630.

Bostrom, N. (2001) The fable of the dragon‑tyrant, Nickbostrom.com.

Clear, J. (2023) Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Penguin Random House.