Investment Lessons from Ants
For the sake of my health, I try to swim once a week. This morning, while relaxing by the poolside after my laps, I noticed a team of ants carrying the dead carcass of a honey bee.
I believe ants possess traits that we can learn from to become better investors.
First, good investors are focused and intentional. The ants I observed this morning were completely absorbed in their task of transporting the dead bee back to their nest. To them, the bee represented a massive payoff — rich in energy from the honey and protein that could feed many ants in the colony. None of the individual ants were slacking off in a corner or wandering around aimlessly to satisfy personal curiosity. Instead, they remained focused on productive work for the colony’s survival: scouting for food and, once a valuable find was discovered, working together to transport it back for everyone’s benefit.
Similarly, good investors stay focused on growing their net worth. They dedicate time and energy to identifying the best investment opportunities — whether in stocks, property, precious metals, or cryptocurrencies — based on their background, education, and experience. Once they find promising opportunities, they deploy their resources intentionally to acquire them and, where possible, increase their positions. They avoid frittering away capital on fleeting pleasures like constant fine dining or frequent overseas travel simply for instant gratification.
That is not to say fine dining or travel are bad. There is a time and place for both. They can serve as ways to relax, recharge, and reward oneself for hard work. However, they should not become the main purpose (raison d’être) of one’s life. I like to imagine myself like those ants after successfully delivering the dead bee to the nest. For me, that means after building a solid investment portfolio, the resulting wealth will not only support a comfortable retirement for my wife and me, but also allow us to explore the countries we’ve always wanted to visit.
In contrast, I know people who take a short-term view of investing. They might put money into gold or silver hoping for a sudden price spike so they can fund a family holiday. Everyone is free to use their money as they wish, but I find this approach — chasing near-term gratification — far less meaningful.
I also noticed how little could distract the ants from their task. While I’ve already touched on focus in the use of capital, good investors also maintain strong mental focus. In today’s world, it’s incredibly easy to get sidetracked by media and social media, drifting away from what truly matters. One’s attention can easily shift to what an influencer is wearing or eating, yet none of that is more important than our own future well-being and financial security. I aspire to have the ants’ remarkable ability to tune out distractions and stay focused on what really counts.
A second valuable trait is the ants’ ability to take calculated risks. As I watched them methodically moving the dead bee along the path to their nest, a mischievous thought crossed my mind: what if I disrupted their progress by sweeping the bee away with water? While carrying such a valuable load, the ants must also weigh the risks — for example, that the bee could be stolen by other creatures through forces beyond their control, rendering all their effort wasted. Yet they proceed because their “leadership” has likely calculated the numbers: allocating enough ants to transport the prize while assigning others to different tasks with good probabilities of success. This appears to be a deliberate reward-versus-risk assessment.
Personally, I apply similar thinking when investing in cryptocurrencies. I evaluate the likelihood that a particular coin will reach a certain price target and allocate capital accordingly. Some well-established cryptocurrencies have a high probability of hitting modest targets close to current levels. Others are less proven but offer the potential for massive “moonshots” — though with lower probability. I invest in both categories, always doing careful research, especially on the moonshot candidates, focusing on factors like potential institutional adoption.
Finally, we can learn diligence from ants. None of the ants I saw were slacking off; they worked steadily to move the dead bee. The same applies to good investors. While buying or selling an asset may take only moments, finding the right opportunities requires significant time and effort in research, tailored to one’s financial means, knowledge, and ability.
Interestingly, the Bible also speaks highly of ants. Proverbs 6:6-8 says: “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.” And Proverbs 30:24-25 adds: “Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer.”
In other words, the Bible portrays ants as wise creatures. Good investors are likewise wise in how they use their time and attention — choosing to focus on growing their capital to meet future needs. Conversely, those who squander their youth partying and living only for the moment, without planning for the future, act unwisely.