Mirror Me

Besides the new struggles living in Los Angeles has introduced to me (I'll bore you with those another time) a new friend named James passed this along to me in a group mailer and strangely enough, it more than resembles/reflects my position I tried to impress upon them during a conversation he, my Susy, his Thijske and an actress named Jennifer (I met at that meeting, see pics below) were talking about. I left that conversation feeling misunderstood and certainly could have done a better job explaining myself as I'd done. This short story does it far better than I managed. Read on...

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village.

A tourist complimented the local fishermen
on the quality of their fish and asked
how long it took him to catch them.

“Not very long.” they answered in unison.

“Why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?”

The fishermen explained that their small catches were
sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.

“But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

“We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children,
and take siestas with our wives.
In the evenings, we go into the village to see our friends,
have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.

We have a full life.”

The tourist interrupted,

“I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!
You should start by fishing longer every day.
You can then sell the extra fish you catch.
With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.”

“And after that?”

“With the extra money the larger boat will bring,
you can buy a second one and a third one
and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.
Instead of selling your fish to a middle man,
you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants
and maybe even open your own plant.

You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City ,
Los Angeles , or even New York City ! [

From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.”

“How long would that take?”

“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years.” replied the tourist.

“And after that?”

“Afterwards? Well my friend, that’s when it gets really interesting, ”
answered the tourist, laughing. “When your business gets really big,
you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!”

“Millions? Really? And after that?” asked the fishermen.

“After that you’ll be able to retire,
live in a tiny village near the coast,
sleep late, play with your children,
catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife
and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.”

“That’s what we are doing now” Replied the fishermen

And the moral of this story is:

........ Know where you're going in life.... you may already be there!!

The Hollywood Hotties…I’m married to one of them, I think. 🙂

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Friends

Over the years, I’ve had some amazing life experiences and done/seen things many people dream or just talk about doing someday. I’ve been monetarily wealthy and even famous for a time. I’ve met thousands of people and along the way have hundreds of acquaintances. I also have a few true friends and they can be counted on two hands.

I just need to share these words one of those friends shared with me a moment ago. It was in response to something I wrote in Facebook about the struggles of finding a place in LA I can actually afford since the current phase of life I’m in is of a poorer nature, especially relative to my current surroundings.

Kent’s words picked me up this morning. Thanks man, I love you.

“is reminding you the universe has the best in store for us all. Everything happens in an instant…..we perceive it as a linear process, your home and you have been aligned, it just hasn’t appeared that way to you….YET….it is about to….you will be so happy about the way everything works out…having money is an illusion of making things easier…not better……you’ll see….infinite love and grati..dude!”