What Defines the Good Life?

A college business course offers a parable for students to consider and discuss. It involves a fisherman who lives a simple life on an island. He fishes a few hours every day. The few fishes he catches he uses for his family and sells to friends. The man spends the rest of the day with his wife and children. He loves to nap. The fisherman feels contentment and would not change anything.

A graduate M.B.A. visits the island and determines how the fisherman could become rich. He suggests to the fisherman ways to catch more fish, start a business to sell the fish, open a cannery, maybe even issue an I.P.O. When successful, he could donate some of his fish to hungry children worldwide and might even save lives.

“And then what?” asks the fisherman.

“Then you could spend lots of time with your family,” replies the visitor. “You would have made a difference in the world. You would have used your talents, and fed some poor children, instead of just lying around all day.”

The class requires students to apply this parable to their own lives and describe their impressions. 

Is it more important to have little, accomplish little, yet feel relaxed and happy and spend time with family? 

Or is it more important to work hard, use talents, perhaps start a business, maybe even make the world a better place along the way?

A simple parable arouses a variety of responses. 

David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times writes, "It occurred to me that there were two sets of virtues, the resume virtues and at the eulogy virtues. The resume virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral - whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love?"

Living a balanced life requires ways to share creativity, talents, and strengths with others without feeling overwhelmed. A healthy life involves self-nurturing. Developing your emotional assets and revealing them to those around you creates joy and satisfaction. As the fisherman discovered, naps nourish the mind and body.

How do you define the good life?