“A man that is thoughtful and studious, and wisely forms [plans] in his mind, and diligently pursues them; the [result] of it is, generally speaking, prosperity and plenty: such a man is usually thriving and flourishing; and this holds good in things spiritual, as well as in things temporal” – John Gill
We live in a time where everything has to be done quickly without any diligent preparation. When we decide what to eat, we rarely plan ahead. Rather, we just go with what we are in the mood for in the moment. If we want to lose weight, we want the method that will help us lose weight as quickly and effortlessly as possible. We don’t want the method that requires creating a regimented workout and diet plan. The same goes for building wealth; our preference is to find the path that can give us the most money as effortlessly as possible. While there are indeed some who have acquired vast sums of wealth seemingly quickly and with little effort, Solomon is teaching us that the path that will most likely result in abundance will be the planned-out path.
“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty” – Proverbs 21:5
I have previously written about how diligence is necessary in order to become successful. Rather than repeat the things I wrote about previously, I want to focus on the pitfalls of being hasty in the things you want to do.
Merriam-Webster defines hasty as “done or made in a hurry; acting too quickly: overly eager or impatient; exhibiting a lack of careful though or consideration”. To be hasty is to rush headlong into things without careful deliberation. Those who tend to be very hasty often find themselves on a roller coaster of financial ups and downs. One moment, a hasty decision resulted in a bunch of money. The next moment, another hasty decision takes all that money away. Over time, the person who has gone through life in this way will typically not be in the financial position they were hoping for. Rather, they will still be struggling.
Unfortunately, social media has fooled us into thinking that the people who are normally successful are those who “struck oil” metaphorically speaking. Rarely do we see videos of gray haired people who, over the course of many decades, slowly built their wealth. Rather, the videos that trend are those that feature young and attractive people who became wealthy quickly. As I mentioned earlier, there are those who did become wealthy very quickly, but they are the exception and not the norm. Yet the glut of videos online would have you believe the exception is the norm. When you choose to imitate the patterns of those who hastily acquire wealth, you’ll find out that their path is not only nearly impossible to replicate, but also filled with a lot of disappointment and regret.
One of the keys to success that is not found with those who are very hasty is that of planning. A hasty person refuses to plan before they act. They see it as a waste of time. They see it as putting effort into something that won’t contribute to the money they want to make right now. Since they refuse to plan, that means that they aren’t thinking through the decisions they are making. They aren’t considering the pros and cons of the ideas that they formulate. As a result, they set themselves up for failure. As someone once famously said, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail”.
As we are about to enter into a brand new year, now is the perfect time to plan for 2026 and beyond. Don’t settle for just creating new year’s resolutions, put together a new year’s plan.
“The thoughts of the diligent are as necessary as the hand of the diligent” – Matthew Henry
If you need help putting together a good plan to execute your financial goals, don’t hesitate to contact me. As your financial planner, let’s make sure that through diligent planning, the future success that you hope to achieve is realized.