“A wise prince should never remain idle in peaceful times, but by industry make such good use of the time as may serve him in adversity, so that when fortune changes she may find him prepared to resist her blows.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
It’s important to avoid resting on your laurels or becoming complacent. Things may be going well for you now, but the long experience of history teaches us that circumstances and “fortune” can change quickly. Let’s say you have a great job, family, and a nice place to live. Life is good and the future is bright. It is easy to coast along and slip into a life of leisure. But we know that circumstances can change. You must be proactive to prepare for the proverbial “rainy day.”
Do you have sufficient emergency savings? Are you actively eliminating debt and investing for future retirement and your children’s education? Do you have sufficient insurance – health, auto, home, disability, umbrella, etc.? Do you have an estate plan in place? Are you taking care of your physical and mental health? Are you keeping your mind active, learning, and reading consistently? Are you continuing to strengthen your skill set and add new skills? Have you looked at any supplemental sources of income? Are you continuing to strengthen your relationships and build new relationships, helping others, and expanding your network? These are just a few items, but it’s important to be diligent in always building up your defenses to guard against and mitigate the impact of a negative turn of events.
Relating to the business world, Warren Buffett says, “The really good business manager doesn’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘This is the day that I’m going to cut costs,’ any more than he wakes up and decides to practice breathing.” In other words, the time to keep your overhead under control and prepare for downturns is before you’re forced to do so.
Machiavelli continues in “The Prince” comparing [mis]fortune to a violent river flooding the land:
Still, the fact that a river is like this doesn’t prevent us from preparing for trouble when levels are low, building banks and dykes, so that when the water rises the next time it can be contained in a single channel and the rush of the river in flood is not so uncontrolled and destructive…[Mis]fortune is the same. It shows its power where no one has taken steps to contain it, flooding into places where it finds neither banks nor dykes that can hold it back.
Read more from Niccolo Machiavelli in “The Prince.“
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