When I wrote last week about how I wasn’t football team material, I mentioned I planned to join the cross-country team instead. A few people asked if I ended up running.

I ran cross-country for three years. Was I any good? No.

The specifics of my slowness are lost to the sands of time, but, hey, I didn’t go out for the team to win races. I ran cross-country in the fall so that I would be in better shape at the start of the basketball season.

Basketball was my real love, but back then I wasn’t as tall as I am now. I knew if I was going to make the team and play, I would need to work harder and be in better shape than my teammates.

Sometimes we do the job we don’t want, in order to get the job that we do want.

Still, I had a good time running cross-country, made good friends, and learned lessons that have stuck with me.

I had a long-term vision, and I still do today. At the Illinois Treasurer’s Office we don’t worry so much about the next quarter, but about the next quarter century.

Politicians too often just worry about balancing next year‘s budget. If that’s all you care about, maybe you decide not to invest as much in education. After all, you won’t see the results of that for many years. Similarly, if your time horizon is just next year, it is easy to skip saving for your retirement because there will be time for that in the future.

In our office, helping families save for their child’s educational future won’t make an immediate impact on our state’s economy. But it will mean that in the future they will graduate with less debt, and we will have a more highly educated workforce that will be more attractive to employers.

Making it easier for people to save their own money for retirement won’t show returns to our bottom line tomorrow. But it will mean that our retirees will have greater spending power in the future, and they will be able to retire, opening up jobs for the next generation.

Investing in startup companies today won’t be nearly as impactful in the short term as it will be a few years down the road when they have grown and are providing jobs for a lot more people in our state.

I feel good about this because at this stage in my life, I am less worried about myself than I am about the future we are leaving for our children. If we put the work in now, we are much more likely to have the state we want for our children in the future.

P.S.: If you are more interested in the present than in the future, we have a program for you as well. Please check out our I-Cash website to see if we have money that belongs to you. We find about one-in-four people who check find that we have something for them. The average amount is about $1,000. Putting money back into the pockets of our citizens does have an immediate impact on our state’s economy, and I am very happy to do that, too.

A native of Gifford in Champaign County, Michael

Frerichs is Illinois’ elected state treasurer. He can be reached at michael. frerichs@illinoistreasurer. gov.