Let's face it -- we generally prefer exciting to nonexciting. We watch Die Hard 17 instead of The Secret Life of Fungi. We dream of vacations in Hawaii instead of North Dakota. When looking for investments for our portfolios, we gravitate toward companies that are on a tear, ones with exciting stories and prospects, instead of firms that have been quietly and profitably cranking out widgets for 77 years.

But, you know, there are some fascinating aspects of fungi. (Single-celled slime molds, for example, have been known to work their way through a maze in order to reach food at the end.) And North Dakota features a lot of breathtaking scenery, including farmland and wilderness. And seemingly boring stocks can actually take your breath away, if you give them a chance.

Heart-pounding investments
But let's get back to those exciting investments for a second. I know all about them. I invested in Intuitive Surgical in 2006, and watched it quickly triple in value in just over a year, going from around $100 to more than $300. It's a very exciting company, and I still have great hopes for it, but alas, it dropped to below $100 recently before recovering to the mid $150s. It's not for the faint of heart.

Similarly, I watched a $3,000 investment turn into more than $200,000 some years ago, following a recommendation by Fool co-founders David and Tom Gardner. That stock, too, ultimately retreated considerably, and those who weren't on the ball lost a lot of ground.

Powerful tortoises
Meanwhile, if you tear your attention away from the flash and sizzle of hot stocks, you'll find that there are lots of sleepy companies quietly churning out profits year after year, and making people rich in the process. (And our current economic environment presents the best kind of opportunity to invest in them.)

Think about Warren Buffett, for example. His Berkshire Hathaway has handily outperformed most stocks over decades. How has he done it? Not with companies like Intuitive Surgical, but largely with insurance, and with a portfolio of stock in companies such as banks, newspapers, railroads, and consumer products makers -- Coca-Cola , for example, and Union Pacific .

I'm as guilty as the next investor of thinking that I'll get the biggest bang for my portfolio from exciting stocks with stories of possible great growth right around the corner. But if you look over lists of companies that have performed spectacularly over the past decade, and decades, they sport a whole lot of seemingly boring enterprises. Here are some I dug up when looking for outstanding long-term performers:

Company

Business

10-Year Average Annual Return

Denbury Resources (NYSE: DNR)

Oil and gas operations

32.1%

Transocean (NYSE: RIG)

Offshore drilling

12.5%

Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG)

Real estate

10.7%

Deere (NYSE: DE)

Agricultural products

10.1%

Mosaic (NYSE: MOS)

Agricultural nutrients

10.1%

Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) Continued...