The Happiest Man in Atlantis (A Short Story)

alright today i wanna actually tell you a story so this is a story called the happiest man in atlanta have you heard it probably not because i wrote it this morning but i wanna read this to you i think it's a good one so let's try up i feel like i could rule where i know i could be what i want to put at all in it like a days off on a goal travel never look alright so once upon a time there was a prince and this prince was the richest man in he drank the finest wines he wore the finest clothes he slept up the finest women and he had servants attending to his every need and yet the prince was unhappy every day he would wake up in the palace those servants would bathe him 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 and 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 a sorrows away and he hears two sailors talking about somebody who they called the happiest man in they said that 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 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 he grabs 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 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 i see you you seek what cannot be bought but it's freely available all and i could 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 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 tell you now come back tomorrow before sunrise so the prince agrees aid decides to come back so he comes back and he says okay i'm ready tell me tell me what it is what's the answer i wanna be happy i won't 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 and he says yes it's the was the one with all the finest antique he says yes go in there i want you to find their finest golden cup 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 this says 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 shoot him away he comes back to the cave and he's pissed he said that was stupid that were you just trying to embarrass me that was impossible why did you do that so he says why was it impossible he says because that cup is so valuable why would he give it meat 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 says how valuable is your happiness what'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 arrival succeeds and you exchange it for envy a storm delays your ship and you barter your joy for worry these small inconvenience is the forgetful servant the rainy day you gladly hand over your happiness to the lowest bidder the prince is 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 learned to focus your attention on what matters because at any given time that the world is throwing a thousand things at you that you could choose to focus on but choosing to focus us on focus on what's valuable on what actually matters and not the small trivial convenience 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's returns the second day and he says i'm ready tell me and the man lays out two bowls two clay 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 and just dumps them in from a height and it's splashing the water turbulent that's spilling over the edges and then the second he just takes it takes truck 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 exaggerated it okay so when anything happens to you want you to react fully and violently just similar to that bowl but when the lunch bill rings i want you to mentally change your state and react like the second bowl okay so he goes down to the market and sure enough if he's looking for for he's looking for a fight somebody bumps into him and he somebody curse at them and he's reacting to every little thing that every every person does somebody short changes him one of the merchant short changes him and he gets gets angry at and and grabs his coins from him but then the lunch bill rings and he remembers the second bowl and he changes his state of mind and he waits for it sure enough a boy comes and he steps on his foot basically as sm as a shoe spills his tea but instead of reacting and shouting at the boy he simply helps him to his feet buys him a annuity tea the boy smiles thanks him and gives him a hug and and could it carries on it begins to rain but instead of reacting to the rain he simply sits under an aw and enjoys the pattern of the puddle that are being made and then me goes back up to the cave and the man asked and 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 bowl because you cannot control the pebbles but you can't control the nature of your water the comm 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 you 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 challenger three is 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 hold the gold in your vault i can't do that it'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 guru and the guru laughs and he says okay i will take the coins in exchange for the stone and he hands them the small stone that looks you know average and the prince is is this a joke i'm not buying this stone for a thousand gold coins he says really because this stalin 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 ever 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 it means something he says it does and he agrees to trade him the the gold for the stone he says no i don't need to your recall i'm dying tomorrow but you could 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 you can take make a still precious at we're or worthless a story can change a punishment into a blessing it could 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 meeting 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'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 thanks him and and the man says you know you came to find the happiest man in at atlanta did you find him and the prince laughs he says i did not find him but i became him alright i hope you enjoyed my story i had fun writing i hope you had fun listening to it maybe learned a little thing or two maybe you like the prince can learn to either up your level of focus focus 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 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 how you approach the next situation in your life so hope you enjoy the story 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 april sixteenth i'm doing something fun that you should check it out i'm doing a ceo boot camp for for anybody it's free totally free you can come and i'm basically gonna share my method of running companies that is very similar to what what and nyc they're calling founder mode and i wanna explain what i think founder mode is and how you actually do it it's gonna be pretty awesome april sixteenth you could find the link of the description below thank you for listening i feel like i could rude where to know i could be what i want to from at all in it like a days off on a less travel never looking back