I watched a lot of Walt Disney's Silly Symphony cartoons when I was growing up. One of my all-time favorites was "The Grasshopper and the Ants." It's based off of Aesop's "The Ant & the Grasshopper" fable.
Here's the gist: The ants work all spring, summer, and fall collecting food in preparation for the long winter. The grasshopper does not and instead is focused on relaxing and enjoying his life in the moment. Winter comes and the grasshopper almost starves/freezes to death, but the ants take pity and save him.
The End.
Most of us understand the business cycle, but just in-case:
Like the Earth, economies have economic seasons as well. Hence the phrase, "green shoots", when the economy begins to show growth is akin to Spring. Then the summer where every day is filled with new, bigger orders. Which is followed by Autumn where orders begin to slow eventually leading to Winter where work is sparse and difficult to find.
Regardless of where we're at in the business cycle, "ant mentality" leaders always keep Winter in mind when they are allocating resources.
Scarcity dictates efficient spending during lean times. The most important time to budget wisely is when revenues are the highest. There might be times it would be better to save investment capital to cover future bills rather than chasing that 2-3% profit on another order.
The idea here is to ensure capital for scare times (Winter) is included in all of your budgeting.
If you've never seen "The Ant and the Grasshopper", (Disney took down the Silly Symphony short) check out the link below.
