No, this post is not about a bird.
In my youmger years, I worked on Wall Street in sales, and as a money market trader. One of my clients was a huge employee pension fund from a prominent municipality that invested. I had a good relationship with the manager of the fund, who was young like me. One day he called me up and said, "I have a choice for you to make. I have $40 million to invest. You can have the whole $40 miilion now, or share it with the other 3 firms who do what you do and you each get $10 million each month for 4 months. Which way do you want to go?" I said, "Wow, that's a big decision. I should ask my boss." The fund manager said, "OK. Get back to me right away."
I immediately went to see my boss, a partner in the firm and an older, very experienced financial expert. I told him about the choice. $40 million now or $10 million each month for 4 months. He looked at me. "Are you kidding me?" he asked forcefully. "After the first month something could happen. They could use the $40 million for something else and there would not be another $10 million each month." He said, "Don't be stupid. Take the $40 million!" I ran back to my desk and called the fund manager. "We'll take the $40 million," I told him. There was a pause at his end. Then he said, 'My boss said I can't give the whole $40 million to one of you four. I have to distibute it equally. You each get $10 million." I took the $10 million. I went to tell my boss. He said, "You left $30 million on the table. You didn't get it. Because you hesitated."
What did I learn from all this? i learned a very valuable life lesson. If offered a choice of getting something now or even more later, take the now. Because there might be no later.
To this day, whenever presented with a choice of "now or later" I do not hesitate, I always take the "now". A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
