What Really Matters When Everything Else Falls Away

The endless cycle of wanting more—better cars, bigger houses, luxury vacations—has become our society's default setting. But what if we're chasing a future that promises exactly what we already have in the present?

Through the powerful parable of a content Mexican fisherman and an ambitious investment banker, this episode challenges our assumptions about success and fulfillment. The fisherman, already living the simple life of family time and doing what he loves, is presented with a 15-year plan to build a fishing empire. The punchline? After all that work, he could finally retire to enjoy fishing and spending time with family—exactly what he already had from the beginning.

This story resonates deeply because so many of us sacrifice present joy for future promises. As we explore the concept that "less is more," we discover that our presence—not our presents—creates the most meaningful impact in our loved ones' lives. Rather than hustling toward some distant goal, what if we recognized the value in what we already possess?

The episode takes a powerful turn toward kindness and perspective as we discuss the practice of paying it forward. Those small moments when we ease someone else's burden—even briefly—create ripples of positivity that return tenfold. When we later reflect on the devastating Texas floods, we're reminded how quickly life's everyday frustrations fade in comparison to genuine tragedy, offering a sobering perspective on what truly matters.

Ready to shift your perspective from scarcity to abundance? Listen now and discover how acknowledging what you already have might be the greatest wealth of all. What small joy in your life deserves more appreciation today?

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Silver Roses Podcast
• 1:22 The Mexican Fisherman Story
• 4:15 Present Over Hustle: Family First
• 6:14 Finding Joy Through Helping Others
• 9:35 Reflections on Texas Flood Tragedy
• 11:55 Final Thoughts and Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello everybody, this is Silver Roses Podcast. This podcast is created for women, by women, to elevate women's voices. I wanted to just take a moment to talk about something I saw on Pinterest actually, which you guys hear me refer to that a lot, because I don't really look at social media. I know, I know I'm behind the times, but I don't care. I don't care because I just don't need it in my life. But anyway, I saw this really cool post that I actually wanted to bring to everyone's attention.

Speaker 1: 0:25

So we live very much in a world of driven by like marketing I'll put it that way and marketing and the media have created this basic. Basically, they've created this pretend situation where we all need to be cultivating this grand picturesque you know millions of dollars like lifestyle and that you need to be cultivating this grand picturesque. You know millions of dollars like lifestyle and that you need to be driving the porsche, you need to have the boat, you need to have the mansion, you need to have the cars, you need to go on the vacations, you need to post that all online so that everybody sees you. You need to do all of these things. You need to do it. You have to do it. If you don't do this and you're not doing anything with yourself, what are you even doing? Like you know what? What are you doing with your time? What are you doing with that? You know, junkie job, or is your job junkie? You know, like there's this pressure, this ultimate pressure for everybody to be getting more and more and more and more. And this post struck me because the end goal, the end teaching, is less is actually more. So I want to tell you the story that's in the post and then I'm gonna relate it to even myself here.

Speaker 1: 1:26

So the story goes that there's this fisherman, there's a mexican fisherman at a pier, and so he's sitting on the pier, he's gathering his nets up or whatever, and this investment banker comes along and he says to him oh, you know, like how many fish do you catch a day? And the fisherman says I catch about 10 fish a day. He was like well, what else do you do with your time, you know, besides fishing? Because now the investment banker is like well, how could you spend your time fishing and only be catching 10 fish a day? He says, well, you know, I hang out with my wife, I hang out with my kid. He does whatever activities is interested in. I sleep in a little bit, um, you know, and then I do my fishing. The investment banker says to him well, you know, you could, um, you can take that extra small extra time that you have for yourself and catch a few extra fish. And he was like and then you can, you know, actually put that to bring you in more money.

Speaker 1: 2:06

And the fisherman was like, oh, you know, that sounds really good. And then the investment banker says you spend x amount of time fishing and you save up x amount of dollars. Then you can move from doing it yourself to hiring somebody to help you out, and then you can kind of remove yourself from the situation. You start to expand and build up an empire and then, once you have enough people under your wing in mexico, you could actually take and move this operation, really, you know, operationalize it and pull it up. So you have this base in mexico, but you also have other areas that you have fishermen. You pull yourself out of the scenario entirely, entirely, where you're not fishing at all anymore and you're able to cultivate this entire organization that is producing millions of dollars for you, based off of the fact that you have this expertise in fishing and you've taught these other people how to do it, you've hired these other people to do it and you're basically running the entire thing.

Speaker 1: 2:56

And the fisherman guy's like, oh my god, that sounds you know that that sounds great. Like, how would I do this? How long would it take? And the fisherman and the investment banker is saying, oh, you know, it'd take you about 15 years 10 to 15 years, maybe more, to really get everything up and running, doesn't that? And then the fisherman says to him okay, well, what would I do? Like, you know, it'd be nice to have money. But like, what would the end goal be here? What would happen? Said, well, after 15, 20 years, once you're all settled and you've worked this hard and you're able to, you have this empire now. Um, you'd probably end up, you know, you'd go back to Mexico and you'd be able to relax and live a simpler life and you know fish and spend time with your family and, you know, do your hobbies that you like to do. In the little video clip, the person who's hearing the story is like, yeah, but isn't that exactly what the fisherman has right now? And the person telling the story key takeaway is Well, yes, the fisherman already has everything that the end goal is. That is, the end goal is to be able to spend time with your family, spend time doing things you love and then just having something to sustain yourself.

Speaker 1: 3:53

Now, granted, in the empire story, they build up a whole organization. It could be a legacy you're passing down to your children. I could see the benefit there, obviously, but those 20 years or so that you spent building that empire, you weren't with your family. You were focusing on that empire, and herein lies the problem, and this is something that I had myself, and I think my son-in-law probably struggles with this a bit because he's a hard worker as well. We want so much for our families. We do want to have a legacy. Right like who wouldn't want to leave a whole?

Speaker 1: 4:20

The beauty of being able to leave a legacy to your children, to be able to say, like I built this and I'm handing this to you for you to not take care of this and it'll go on for generations, that's an amazing gift. But, based on the things that I've experienced, your presence is also the most amazing gift you can give. My husband will always say to me he's always said to me I'm not a rich man, but I'm going to show up and I'm going to give you all I have. He's probably one of the most fantastic human beings that I know. If he knew I was talking about him like this, by the way, he'd be like, ah, he'd be like, ah, stop it. And he would tease me for getting emotional about him.

Speaker 1: 4:57

But it's true, I really don't need the glitz and the glamour and the riches. Are they nice? Absolutely. I think I just talked about it on a prior episode that you know we were able my family and I were able to afford to go on this really beautiful vacation recently. I was proud to be able to provide that and it's a beautiful memory. But had we not gone, we still would have had memories, it just wouldn't have been in the caribbean.

Speaker 1: 5:22

You know like there's things to appreciate here and, and I could guarantee you, no matter how dire your situation is in this current moment, there must be something. And if there isn't something that is giving you some light or some linger of hope, what can you do to help create that something? What is it that you can cultivate and just hold on to in your life currently? That's positive. It does not have to be a physical thing. It could be a thought, it could be something, some place that you go and that's your spot that you go to. It really could be anything. It could be a memory that brings you joy every time you think of it and in that moment of remembering, your body is getting that energy of joy and you're getting that vibrational energy of joy. That energy that you will create within yourself is the most important thing that you can have.

Speaker 1: 6:10

Everything else can fall to the wayside and I sincerely mean this and this is why I talk so much about meditating, I talk so much about all these other things. We've been brainwashed to think that we have to hustle and there's this whole hustle culture and you have to have four or five odd jobs and side flows and that's not. Yes, all those things great. I'm not saying I don't want any of that. I research businesses all the time and how to launch different, various businesses. This is who I am. I like looking at stuff like that for the next opportunity.

Speaker 1: 6:37

But, on that same note, I am fiercely protective of the time that I have with my family and my husband. I am fiercely protective of that Because, at the end of the day, the rest of this doesn't matter. They matter the most, and being able to have the privilege to spend time with them and being able to have the privilege to worry about them is it's a blessing. It's truly, truly a blessing to be able to even have that in my life and in your lives. To have somebody to worry about means you have someone that you love. Like how pure is that? How pure is it to just say that when you worry for someone it's because you love them and that energy there, that love that you feel for that person, remove the worrying element out of it and turn it into positive vibrational energy.

Speaker 1: 7:19

I worry about my family members. Well, you know what I do with that worry. I actually visualize the best possible outcomes for them. That's what I do. They don't even know I do this actually now that I think about it, but I do it all the time. I visualize scenarios that I'm able to actually help my family members that I think might need a little boost here and there. To be able to have that honor to do something to make a difference in someone's life, that is really the biggest thing. That would be. The biggest gift you could give is to ease someone else's burden, even if it's just for a brief, a brief, mere period of time. What a tremendous gift to be able to give that to somebody.

Speaker 1: 7:57

I fantasize about that all the time, even randomly, at strangers, or even like when I'm a shop writer at the grocery store. I'm actually always on the lookout for people who might might a little help. I mean, who hasn't been at the checkout line at a grocery store and been worried do I have enough in my account to cover all the groceries in my basket? Now, now I don't have that issue, but it doesn't mean that groceries aren't hella expensive. I was actually just talking about it with my cousin and sent her a picture of about $200 worth of groceries that I came home with and it was abysmal. And I'm not even buying good stuff Like I'm buying some of the healthier things, but it's not like I'm getting organic meat, organic fruit and all that Like if I did, I probably wouldn't be able to afford anything Like. And so I always have an eye out for people who you know might be in a situation where, like if they don't have enough, I'm always ready to be there to say like, hey, I would do it, I would help anybody in a heartbeat like that, I don't care about being repaid, just being able to do the good deed. That's huge. That's huge.

Speaker 1: 9:05

Paying it forward is a big deal. If you have the opportunity to pay it forward, even if it's in a small way to brighten someone else's path, you need to do it. You have to do it Because the light that it will provide you is immeasurable. It really is. Think, think about it, and I want you to keep an eye out for opportunities that you can do this for somebody else, that you can pay it forward for someone else, and it'll come back to you. Ten times. It really will. There's no other way to say that. It just comes back around. So I hope it gives you all something to think about, but always be on the lookout for that. Even if it's a small act of kindness, just something to help someone else, it goes a long way for you and for them.

Speaker 1: 9:41

I do want to take a moment on this episode, just taking a minute to drink some water before I talk here, because I'm already in an emotional wreck this week, so chances are I may burst into tears again, so let me just take a beat here. But I just want to take a moment to uh, to acknowledge the people in texas that have suffered these tremendous losses because of the floods. I've been following the story since it unfolded and it's heart-wrenching and seems so senseless and I can't imagine what these families are going through, of these young kids. I saw a uh a post on instagram which podcast has that I felt compelled to comment on because I was stressed out as usual over the weekend not as usual, but I was stressed out because my kids' first day of summer camp was on Monday of this week. Now we're in New Jersey, so it's not, you know, I'm far from danger or anything like that.

Speaker 1: 10:41

My point is that I was stressed out about this. I'm stressed out about dropping them off because it conflicts with my meetings for my job, and I was stressed out about picking them up and you know I'm going to miss, I'm gonna have to work late. How am I gonna juggle this? And you know I'm stressed out about all this stuff and then the flood happened and it seems so stupid to be stressed about juggling my work with my kids. At least I still have my kids to worry about, because not because at least I still have them to worry there's these families out here that have lost young people and it's just heart-wrenching.

Speaker 1: 11:16

As you can tell, it's hard for me to talk about. I'm sure a lot of us feel this way and aren't acknowledging it, so I wanted to take a moment and do my best to acknowledge it without completely breaking down with all of you. But I just wanted to take a moment here and just acknowledge the situation and what the amount of lives that it has destroyed, the amount of lives that this tragedy has touched, and I do hope that the survivors and the people like myself who are removed from the situation, that we are seeing this as an opportunity to appreciate more what we have and the people in our lives today. Thank you for being with me today. I appreciate all of you and I will catch you on the next one, take care.