To all you of Acumatica consultants out there.
Things are booming. Acumatica has taken off like a rocket and we’re all scrambling to keep up with the demand.
That’s the nature of consulting. When it rains it pours. It seems like you’re either “really busy” or “really not busy”.
There are some dark clouds on the horizon with the recent dip in the stock market, but for now things are busy.
All of this busyness reminds me of the story on the bottom of this post.
When I worked at Deloitte in Los Angeles, us first year auditors enjoyed sharing and commenting on email chains. Especially during busy season. This was before Skype, Slack, etc. Things “went viral” in email because there was no social media yet.
We learned a lot of important lessons with those email chains. For example, George taught us all the importance of double-checking which email chain you are responding to, especially when new random email messages are constantly dropping in the top of your Inbox. The firm holiday party invite slipped into the top of George’s Inbox right as he clicked Reply All to a “less official” email chain. He ended up sending “Sophia Bush is hot” to the entire firm. George got recognized during the holiday party for that one 🙂
I appreciated those email chains. They made me feel part of a community. Hopefully AugForums.com does something similar for you.
One of those email chains hit me hard. I don’t remember where I was or what was going on that day, but the story in the email chain stuck to me like glue.
I thought it would be nice to reproduce that story here as a reminder to all of us busy Acumatica consultants about what is truly important.
Note: I did some Googling and found that this story is an adaptation from Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral (click here).
The Story
A successful American investment banker 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 yellowtail tuna. The American complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”
The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American 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 siesta with my wife Maria, then stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”
The American 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, 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 Mexico City, then Los Angeles, and eventually New York where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”
“But what then?”
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO, sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.”
“Millions.. Then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your children (now adults), take siesta with your wife Maria, then stroll into the village each evening to sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.”
🙂
Two More Things
If reading that caused you to reach for a tissue, here are a coupe of things that will make you reach for the whole box 🙂