The Happiest Man in Atlantis (A Short Story)

Transcript from https://podmenti.com/t/13dfca9816307265

Alright, today I want to actually tell you a story. So
There's a story called The Happiest Man in Atlantis.
Have you heard it?
Probably not,'cause I wrote it this morning. But I wanna read this to you. I think it's a good one. So let's try it out.
I feel like I can rule the world, I know I could be what I want to
I'll put my law in it like my day song. On the road, less travel, never looking at it. Alright, so once upon a time, there was a prince, and this prince was the richest man in Atlantis.
He drank the finest wines, he wore the finest clothes, he slept with the finest women, he had servants attending to his every need.
And yet the prince was unhappy. Every day he would wake up in the palace
The servants would bathe him and robe him and he would look out into the land and he would just feel empty and unhappy.
And so one night the prince decided
Enough of this. I'm leaving here. I'm running away.
And he dresses up like a common man and he sneaks out of the castle.
And along the way as he's m leaving the castle, trying to leave the royal palace.
He uh stops at a bar.
And he's drinking his sorrows away and he hears two sailors talking about
Somebody who they call the happiest man in Atlantis.
They said that the man is very old and that he's supposed to die in three days.
So the prince interrupts them right away. He says, I need to meet this man before he dies.
They said, Well, you could try, but he lives far away. He lives in the cave near the cliffs.
Um, he used to be a rich king and now he's given it all up. He lives in this cave.
So the prince decides what do I have to lose? Just another day of elegant misery? No. Packs a bag and he uh
He grab his backpack and he just decides, Okay, I'm gonna go.
So he
Gets to the cave.
And he says he meets the man and he says
They call you the happiest man in Atlantis.
And the man says, Well names are curious things. I've never claimed such a title, but
It seems to have found me. What do you seek?
And the princess Happiness. I have everything that a man wants, and yet
I feel nothing but emptiness.
The man says, uh
Ah, I see. You you you seek what cannot be bought, but is freely available to all.
And I could teach you, it's actually very simple.
He draws a triangle.
on the cave wall. He says all everything you need is in this triangle.
And he says, Okay, tell me.
Says, come back tomorrow before sunrise and I'll tell you then.
And the princess tomorrow. What can you just tell me now?
And the man says, What kind of guru would I be?
This is a story. I can't just tell you now. Come back tomorrow before sunrise. So the prince agrees.
And he decides to come back.
So he comes back
And he says uh
Okay, I'm ready. Tell me tell me what it is. What's the answer?
Um, I wanna be happy. I want the answer. And he says, I could tell you, but you really wouldn't understand. So
I will help you learn.
And he says, Okay, and he then the man gives him a coin.
Single gold coin.
And he says, I want you to go down to the market. Do you know that shop at the top of the market? He says, Yeah, it's the the one with all the finest antiques. He says, Yes. Go in there.
I want you to find their finest golden cup.
And buy it with this coin.
And he says, w one coin, I mean that would cost thousands.
It's just
Go buy it with one coin.
So the
Prince agrees and he goes down to the market and he goes to the shop and he takes the coin and he
He picks up the cup and he says, Um, I'd like to buy this they said
Okay, sure. Uh and he hands them one coin.
Is this a joke?
It's cost thousands of coins.
He says, I'll take it for the coin. Can I buy it for this one coin?
And they
Say, get out of here. And they have to shoe him away.
He comes back to the cave and he's pissed. He said, That was stupid. Um, that were you just trying to embarrass me? That was impossible. Why did you do that?
He says, Why was it impossible?
He says, Because that cup is so valuable. Why would he give it me for to me for one coin?
He won't just give away something valuable that's essentially free.
And so the man asked him.
Let me ask you, how valuable is your happiness?

What do you mean?
says how valuable is your happiness.
It's the most valuable. It's priceless.
He says, Then why do you give it away for so cheap?
A servant spill your wine and you trade it for a piece of your anger.
A rival succeeds and you exchange it for envy.
Storm delays your ship.
And you barter your joy for worry.
These small inconveniences, the forgetful servant, the rainy day, you gladly hand over your happiness to the lowest bidder.
The prince was upset.
But he knew it was true.
And the man goes up to the triangle and he adds one word.
He writes the word.
Focus.
He said, Today you learn to focus your attention on what matters.
Because at any given time the the world is throwing a thousand things at you that you could choose to focus on.
But choosing to focus on focus on what's valuable on what actually matters and not the small trivial inconveniences of your life.
is the first thing. It is robbing you of your happiness.
The prince turns over the coin.
And he reads what's on the back of the coin. It turns out this wasn't just a normal gold coin and it says
Never trade what is precious for what is trivial.
So the prince says, Okay, I got it. What about the other two?
Just come back tomorrow.
For number two.
So he returns the second day.
And he says, I'm ready. Tell me.
And the man lays out two bowls, two clay bowls, and he fills them both with water.
And so they're filled with water and now he takes a
pile of rocks that he has. And then the first bowl he just splashes the rocks in, just dumps them in from a height.
And it's splashing, the water's turbulent, it's spilling over the edges.
And then the second, he just takes it.
Takes each rock, puts it in the water gently.
And the water remains roughly calm. Small ripple, but roughly calm.
And the prince is just watching this and he says, Did you notice?
Yeah, of course.
He says great.
Today I want you to go to the market.
And for the first hour, I want you to react like the first bowl.
Really exaggerate it.
Okay, so whenever anything happens to you, it should react fully and violently, just similar to that bowl.
But when the lunch bell rings, I want you to mentally change your state.
And react like the second ball.
Okay.
So he goes down to the market.
And sure enough, he's looking for uh for uh he's looking for a fight, somebody bumps into him and he shoves him, he curses at them, and he's reacting to every little thing that every s every person does. Somebody shortchanges him, uh one of the merchants shortchanges him and he gets gets angry at him and and grab his coins from him.
But then the lunch bell rings and he remembers the second bowl.
And he changes his state of mind.
And um
He waits for it. Sure enough.
A boy comes and he's
Steps on his foot.
Basically smudges his shoe, spills his tea.
But instead of reacting and shouting at the boy, he simply helps him to his feet, buys him a new teeth, the boy smiles
Thanks him, gives him a hug and and w carries on.
It begins to rain, but instead of reacting to the rain, he simply sits under an awesome and enjoys the pattern of the puddles that are being made.
And then he goes back up to the cave.
And the man asked him, he says, Well, what did you learn?
The the prince says.
I saw that the world did not change, but I did.
The first bowl, everything was a disturbance. And the second bowl, the events were simply events. They were neither good or bad until I made them so.
The man says yes, this is the second key.
You learned to calm your state of mind. You became the second bull.
Because you cannot control the pebbles, but you can control the nature of your water.
The calm bowl still feels the pebbles, but it does not allow a small disturbance to overtake its entire nature.
And this is the difference between reacting
And responding.
And so he wrote on the wall.
The second word.
State.
Said, when you learn to manage your state, when you enter a situation
Choose how you will feel because if you enter a situation
Optimistic and charming and playful and determined.
You will make totally different choices than if you enter a room.
feeling tired and stressed or frustrated, you'll make completely different decisions. And those decisions become your destiny.
So
Control your state of mind and you will control your life.
Come back tomorrow for challenge three. It's gonna be the hardest one yet.
So he
Comes back the next day.
And he's ready for challenge number three.
But he says before you come
Make sure you bring all the gold in your vault.
All the gold in your vault. I can't do that. There's too much. He said, Bring a thousand coins of gold.
So the man goes back.
And he drags a thousand coins of gold to the cave.
He's like, Oh, you're one of those kind of gurus, huh? And uh the guru laughs and he says
Okay, I will take the coins uh in exchange for the stone. And he hands them the small stone that
Looks like
Yeah.
Average.
And the princess, is is this a joke? I'm not buying this stone for a thousand gold coins.
He says, Really?
'Cause this stone was given to me by your father.
Your father who died when you were young, he came to visit me at the cave as well before he died.
He told me, he said one day, I hope this never happens, but if my son ever comes
To give him the stuff.
He says, Is that true?
He said it's true.
And he said.
So this stone might look worthless to others, but to you I'm assuming it it means something.
He says it does.
And he agrees to trade him the the gold for the stone. He says, No, no, no, I don't need your gold. I'm dy tomorrow.
But you can see you've learned the third lesson.
Which is
The power.
Of story.
And he goes to the triangle and he writes the word.
Story.
He said, You see
A story can t make a stone precious or worthless.
A story can change a a punishment.
into a blessing. It could take a disaster and turn it into a triumph.
And um the world is simply full of events that are really meaningless until you choose to give them a label. You choose to give them a meaning. It is the story you apply to something that gives it
it's weight and worth in your life. It gives it the meaning in your life.
And he says,
These three together that I've showed you.
Your focus will determine what you see.
Your state will determine how you feel.
And the story determines what it means. You master these three and you've mastered the art of living.
And the prince understood. The prince gets up.
He thanked him.
And and the man says, You know, you came to find the happiest man in Atlantis. Did you find him?
And the prince laughs. He says, I did not find him.
But I became him.
All right. I hope you enjoyed my story.
I had fun writing it. I hope you had fun listening to it. Maybe you learned a little thing or two. Maybe you, like the prince, can learn to either up your level of focus, focusing on
What is what is truly valuable, not the trivial.
State.
So choosing how you step into a situation which will change the way you respond and those decisions become your destiny.
And lastly.
The story. So the the labels you put on things. You broke up with your boyfriend. Is that the end or is it the beginning of something, right? You get to decide. That meaning is up to you. And that meaning will totally change how you uh how you approach the next situation in your life. So hope you enjoyed the story. Uh I'm Sean. Thanks for thanks for listening. Oh, by the way.
If you're here right now, I don't know when you're listening to this, but April sixteenth, I'm doing something fun. You should check it out. I'm doing a CEO boot camp for um
For anybody, it's free, totally free. You can come. And I'm basically going to share my method of running companies uh that is very similar to what
What uh in Y C they're calling founder mode. And I wanna explain what I think founder mode is and how you actually do it.
Um it's gonna be pretty awesome. April 16th, you can find the link in the description below. Thank you for listening. I feel like I could rule the world and know I could be what I want to.
I'm putting my law in it like my day's off On the road less travel never looking back