You know, the saying: “Don’t Count Your Chickens Until They are Hatched.”

It’s build on an Aesop fable that goes something like this.

A farmer’s son, is daydreaming as he walks to town with a pail of milk balanced on his head. His thoughts: “The milk in this pail will provide me with cream, which I will make into butter, which I will sell in the market, and buy a dozen eggs, which will hatch into chickens, which will lay more eggs, and soon I shall have a large poultry yard. I’ll sell some of the fowls and buy myself a handsome new suit and go to the fair, and when the young ladies become amorous, I’ll puff my chest and toss my head as I pass them by.” At that moment, he tossed his head and lost the pail full of milk. His father admonished, “Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.”

As children and young adults we take countless uncalculated risks.  As we mature and grow wiser, we learn from our mistakes, and the mistakes of others, and we become increasingly risk averse.   Since the beginning of time — well at least since Aesop in 600 B.C. — the wise and mature sentiments have been “look before you leap”, “once burned, twice shy” and, “don’t count your chicken before they are hatched”.

If you think about that, it becomes easy to understand why those of us who are prepared to take risks — calculated risks — are the ones who are most likely to reap fortunes.

The financial fiasco of 2008 and 2009 are quite literally behind us.  Some of us will choose to batten down the hatches and never put ourselves in a position to have to deal with that again.  Others will look into the future at the opportunities that are presented while so many are shaking in their boots.

The time may never be better invest in your future.  If we go back to Aesop’s fable; the chickens are hatching and it’s time to do something with them.