My First Million - The Happiest Man in Atlantis (A Short Story)

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

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All right, 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, because I wrote it this morning. But I want to read this to you. I think it's a good one. So let's find out. I feel like I can rule the world.

I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like no days off. On a road, let's travel, never looking back. All right, 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 wines.

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 to 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. He sneaks out of the castle. And along the way as he's leaving the castle trying to leave the royal palace, he 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.

He used to be a rich king and now he's giving 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, he packs a bag and he grabs his backpack and he just decides, okay, I'm going to 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 prince says, happiness. I have everything that a man wants and yet I feel nothing but emptiness. The man says, uh, I, I see. You seek what cannot be bought, but is freely available to all. And I can teach you. It's actually very simple. He draws a triangle on the cave wall.

He says, everything you need is in this triangle. And he says, okay, tell me. He says, come back tomorrow before sunrise and I'll tell you then. And the prince says, tomorrow, 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, okay, I'm ready. Tell me what it is. What's the answer? I want to 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 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? And he says, yeah, it's the one with all the finest antiques. He says, yes, go in there. I want you to find their finest golden cup.

up and buy it with this coin. And he says, one coin. I mean, that would cost thousands. He says, 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, I'd like to buy this. And they said, okay, sure. And he hands them one coin.

They say, is this a joke? It costs 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 shoot him away. He comes back to the cave and he's pissed. He said, that was stupid.

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 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? He says, What do you mean? He 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 spills your wine and you trade it for a piece of your anger. A rival succeeds and you exchange it for envy. A 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 bitter. The prince was upset, but he knew it was true. And the man goes up to the tree. 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 world is throwing a thousand things at you that you could

choose to focus on, but choosing to 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 he says 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 in the first bowl he just splashes the rocks in just dumps him in from a height and it's splashing the

water is turbulent, it's spilling over the edges. And in 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? He said, 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, I want you to react fully and violently, just similar to that bull but when the lunch bell rings i want you to mentally change your state and react like the second bull okay so he goes down to the market and sure enough he's looking for uh for he's looking for

he's looking for a fight somebody bumps into him and he shoves somebody curses at them and he's reacting to every little thing that every every person does somebody short changes him uh one of the merchant short changes him and he gets it gets angry at him and grabs his coins from him but then the lunch bell rings and he remembers the second bowl and he changes his state of mind and uh He waits for it. Sure enough, a boy comes and he 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 tea. The boy smiles, thanks him, gives him a hug and carries on.

It begins to rain, but instead of reacting to the rain, he simply sits under an awning and enjoys the pattern of the puddles that are being made. And then he goes back up to the cave. And the man asks him, he says, well, what did you learn? And 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 bowl. Because you cannot control the pebbles, but you can't 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. He 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 challenges three is going to 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 this 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 the guru laughs and he says okay i will take the coins in exchange for this stone, and he hands him this small stone that looks, you know, average. And the prince says, is this a joke? I'm not buying this stone for a thousand gold coins. He says, really?

Because 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. And he told me, he said, one day, I hope this never happens. But if my son ever comes, to give him this stone. 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 means something he says it does and he agrees to trade him the gold for the stone he says no no no i don't need your gold i'm dying tomorrow but you can see you've learned the third lesson

which is the power of a story and he goes to the triangle and he writes the word story He said, you see, a story can make a stone precious or worthless. A story can change a punishment into a blessing. It can take a disaster and turn it into a triumph. And 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 its weight and worth in your life. It gives it the meaning in your life.

and he says these three together that I have 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 thanks him 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, and 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 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 labels you put on things. You broke up with your boyfriend. Is that the end or is at the beginning of something, right? You get to decide. That meaning is up to you. And that meaning will totally change how you approach the next situation.

your life. So hope you enjoyed this story. I'm Sean. Thanks for, thanks for listening. Oh, and by the way, if you're here right now, I don't know when you're listening to this, but April 16th, I'm doing something fun. You should check it out. I'm doing a CEO boot camp for anybody. It's free. Totally free. You can come. And I'm basically going to share my method of running companies that is very similar to what in YC, they're calling Founder Mode. And I want to explain what I think Founder Mode is and how you actually do it. It's going to be pretty awesome. April 16th, you can find the link in the description below. Thank you for listening.