Fisherman or Entrepreneur.

I received this in my email - it's quite a good read. Although I think the fisherman probably doesn't exist in the econs world because he doesn't have unlimited wants.

A Singaporean scholar entrepreneur was at the pier of a small coastal Malaysian village, when a small sampan with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small sampan were several large ikan kurau. The Singaporean complimented the Malay on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Malay replied, 'Only a little while, Tuan.'

The Singaporean then asked, 'Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?' The Malay said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The Singaporean then asked, 'But what do you do with the rest of your time?'

The Malay fisherman said, 'I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take nap with my wife, Minah, stroll into the village each evening where I sip kopi and play guitar with my kakis. I have a full and busy life, Tuan.'

The Singaporean scoffed, 'I am an entrepreneur with MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to JB, then KL and eventually Singapore where you will run your expanding enterprise.'

The Malay fisherman asked, 'But Tuan, how long will this all take?'

To which the Singaporean entrepreneur replied, '15-20 years..'

'But what then, Tuan?'

The scholar laughed and said, 'That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO in Singapore and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.'

'Millions, Tuan? Then what?'

The Singaporean said, 'Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take naps with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip kopi and play your guitar with your kakis.'

'You mean being an entrepreneur; you have to go through all that to finally get to where I already am, Tuan?'

And here ends my pathetic attempt at reviving the class blog!