My experience in life thus far has suggested to me that it's not about saving, but about growth and pushing forward. You can scrimp and save, but if you instead put your resources to task and try to grow, you can move up to the next level, where your savings from the previous level are a pittance.

It is of course inherently more risky, and requires effort, but it seems like a better choice.

A case example is my uncle; a member of his family racked up some huge medical bills due to a hospital's mistake decades ago. He is starting a somewhat risky business venture, and I asked him why he wasn't instead getting a job and working. He told me that the bills were so great that working a regular job would never be able to pay them off, and so this was his only option.