Hard Decisions

What does bamboo have to do with investing?

There's a type of bamboo that spends years growing underground before you ever see it.

For up to five years, nothing happens above the surface.

No shoots. No progress. No visible results.

Then suddenly, it breaks through - and can grow 90 feet in a matter of weeks.

So, Les Brown asks, "The question is, did the bamboo take 5 weeks or 5 years to grow?" I love this video.

When it was underground, building a foundation strong enough to support what was to come, was that part of it's growth?

You bet it was.

And so many meaningful things in life work like that:

• Learning a language
• Building a skill
• Getting in shape
• Growing your wealth

For a long time, it feels like nothing is happening.

Until it does.

We love the shade.

We just don't always love the planting.

Because planting looks like:

• discipline
• repetition
• delayed gratification

And most of it happens when no one is watching.

I loved that graphic so much, I'd printed it out a few years ago and put it on my fridge, moving it up on the magnet each year as the kids grew.

Then, true story, my three high school kids had a party one night when we were out, and when we came home, I found that paper crumpled up on the kitchen floor. Muddy boot print - smelled like the floor of a bar.

But hopefully it's sunk in :).

I love it because the graphic says so much about so many things:

• Easy decisions → hard life
• Hard decisions → easy life

And financial decisions are some of the hardest:

• Investing instead of spending
• Paying down debt instead of carrying it
• Setting up automatic contributions
• Saying no when everyone else is saying yes
• Not spending more than you earn
• Picking the smaller apartment, living at your parents' house for a few more years, putting off upgrading your phone, doing the used car instead of the new one, subway instead of Uber etc.

It feels the opposite of exciting.

In fact, it can feel:

• annoying
• restrictive
• even pointless

Because you don't see the payoff right away.

But here's the truth:

The people who build wealth aren't doing extraordinary things.
They're doing ordinary things—earlier, and longer.