the fisherman and the industrialist

I received the chapter on professional coaching written by Catherine (*).

In one of the sections, Catherine is making the point that if you want to change something in your life - being it in your private life or at work - you first have to know exactly what you want. This seems basic but if you think it through it is not that basic at all.

Knowing exactly what you want or what you are aiming for is half of the job.

Catherine makes her case with a beautiful story of the fisherman and the industrialist that I already want to share with you as a teaser for the book.

Do you know the story of the fisherman and the industrialist?

A fisherman was fishing for relaxation at the water’s edge when a rich industrialist walked by and spoke to him. “You’ve caught a lot! You must be a good fisherman.”

“Yes,” replied the fisherman. “It’s going well today.”

“Do you know you could earn a lot of money doing that?” replied the industrialist. “If you buy a boat and some large nets, you can catch even more fish and sell them. Then you can be rich, like me.”

“And what do I do then?” asked the fisherman.

“You can enjoy life,” said the industrialist.

The fisherman replied: “What do you think I’m doing now?”

Enjoying life does not have to be difficult. The key is to find a balance in all that you do. If you want to change something in your life, you first have to know exactly what you want. This is why you need to set yourself some well defined goals.

It's not about being a fisherman or being an industrialist, it is about knowing what you really want to be: the fisherman or the industrialist or maybe both, industrialist during the day and fisherman in the evening ...

Lance, a man with a well defined goal even a mission ...

(*) Catherine Poissonnier has contributed a chapter of about 20 pages on executive/life coaching to the NMTH-book. I know Catherine for a while and I know how good she is in her field of coaching; when I read her chapter for the first time, I was really impressed by the content; knowing Catherine I would not have expected anything else. It’s a chapter with lots of examples written with the purpose to demystify coaching. You can find Catherine's coordinates on LinkedIn.