A lot of people liked Carries graduation speech. I hope she didnt mind publicly sharing it. The Mexican Fisherman A businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The businessman complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied it’d only been a little while. The businessman then asked why he didnt stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his familys immediate needs. The businessman then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? The Mexican fisherman said, I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos; I have a full and busy life, señor. The businessman scoffed, I am a Harvard MBA and I 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 and eventually open your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA, and eventually New York City where you would run your expanding enterprise. The Mexican fisherman asked, But señor, how long will this all take? To which the businessman replied, 15-20 years. But what then, señor? The businessman laughed and said, Thats the best part! When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions. Millions, señor? Then what? The businessman 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 a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos. The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, Isnt that what Im doing right now? -Author Unknown How should we see success? I recently read about an Australian woman named Bronnie Ware. She was a palliative nurse who cared for patients the final 12 weeks of their lives. As she counselled the dying people, she recorded their regrets and wishes, eventually discovering a common pattern. Bronnie Ware then wrote a book, called “The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying”. I am not going to go through all 5 wishes, but only 3. Pause I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Many patients didn’t realize the full benefits of old friends until it was too late. They had gotten caught up in their own busy lives, letting good friendships deteriorate. Family always comes first, but it is important to also have friendships to be encouraged in. Remember that the biggest asset you can have is relationships. Life is about people, not things. Pause I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. Bronnie reported that every male patient regretted spending so much of their lives working, no matter the occupation. Each one wished for more time to instead focus on their companionship with their spouse and their children’s youth.. I believe most people don’t think this one applies to them. We all think it’s for that man or woman who is a workaholic, doing 80 hours a week. But I don’t believe any person ever looks back on their life and says “Man, I wish I would have worked more”. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Money never made a man happy, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.” Pause I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all. From the standpoint of these people, laying on their deathbed, it was easy to see many dreams had gone unfulfilled. Our society is so concerned about the norms and the status quo. We are pressured by our parents, friends, media,and teachers to go about our lives a certain way. And many people accept it and go along the wide path, never accomplishing what they were born to do. God gave you your life for a reason; it is not for anyone else to live. Your talents and interests are for a specific purpose in being a positive influence in the world. If you do what you need, you’re surviving. If you do what you want, you’re living. After reading about this nurse’s findings, I was curious and researched what young people strive for most in life, or what success is to them. Overwhelmingly, the results were money, a great career, and power. Things that at the end of our life, suddenly don’t matter so much anymore, as these patients realized. As young people, we sometimes have a narrow mindset. The fisherman taught us that we sometimes focus too much on our future. There is danger in waiting so long to live the life you want. The Australian nurse discovered that we sometimes focus too much on the present, on ourselves. I believe the way to live a truly successful life is to have the correct perspective. To live in the present, always aiming at the goal of our future. When I look back on my life 60 years from now, I don’t want to have any regrets. None of us do. I urge us all, as graduates and the audience, to live our lives in the right perspective. Class of 2014, I challenge you to live in such a way that the preacher won’t have to lie at your funeral. I challenge you to listen more, give advice less. I challenge you to strive for joy, not happiness-- as happiness is fleeting, but joy goes beyond circumstances. I challenge you to put others before yourself. Live selflessly, not selfishly. I challenge you to live a life well lived, so when you near the end, there are no regrets. I could try to inspire you. I could say we’ll all succeed and change the world. I chose instead to challenge us. You see, we won’t change a thing just by graduating and going to college or work. We have to make decisions daily to BE the change, not try to make it. Now, on behalf of my class, I would like to thank the biggest “challengers” in our lives thus far. Thank you to Mr. Uppena, Mr. Gruen, and the school board for establishing the environment that we all have so grown in. Thank you to all of our teachers and support staff that have guided us through our years, helping us to learn far more than just common school subjects. Thank you to the community for your support through sports, fundraisers, and other events all these years. And thank you most of all to our parents. For raising us, helping us to make those wise decisions, and instilling in us the small town values so important in living our lives.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 20:04:54 +0000
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