It’s another scorching day here in Vietnam. Rather than leaving today as I had intended, I’ve decided to spend one more night along the coast of the South China Sea in Hoi An. This is a beautiful little town with beautiful little beaches and beautiful little old ladies wearing traditional Vietnamese cone-shaped hats.

There’s a cool ocean-breeze blowing inland today. As I sit here in the shade of a fig tree next to one of the canals that pass through the old part of town, a fisherman just now came over next to me and cast his line into the water. As it flew by, glimmering in the mid-day sunlight, I caught a glimpse of the tiny minnow dangling from it’s hook.

This little minnow got me thinking. While in the western world we’d just buy our fishing bait in a store, since I didn’t see a shopping bag in his hand, I assumed he had caught it himself. Of course, he could have just eaten the little fish right away but instead he chose to use it as bait, casting it back into the water and waiting for a bigger fish to bite. When he catches the next fish he’ll have another decision to make, eat the fish, or cast it in, yet again, and wait for a bigger fish.

Since I love analogies so much, I couldn’t help but apply the principles of catching fish to the principles of catching dreams. It’s perfectly fine to go after the small fish, what you do with them once you catch them, however, is what determines your level of greatness.