Hello Steemiters,
I was one of seven children growing up. I am the third oldest. My mother was mostly single and none of our dads were around. Yep, There were 3 different men that were little more than sperm donors for me and my siblings existence. My mother didn't hold any significant jobs and we were on and off welfare every few months. If it wasn't for food banks and free meals at churches I don't think I would be around to be writing this. I seriously remember eating canned corn for weeks on end. I remember how amazing it tasted with ground black pepper and cheap vegetable oil spread when my stomach spasmed with hunger. Now I can't even look at a can of corn without my stomach aching. I remember being made fun of at school for wearing the same cloths for days straight. I remember the triumphant feeling of finding a black and white TV in the garbage that would only pick up 2 channels. I remember the horrible feeling of realizing the next morning that our electricity was shut off after thinking the TV was broken because it wouldn't turn on. I remember the first dollar I made and what I spent it on.
When I was 9 years old I saw a boy begging for change outside of a small convenience store. I saw him have some success, but I thought it would be better if he offered some kind of service for the change people would give him. I went to a big super market and began to offer people help packing their groceries in their car. After I was finished packing the groceries in old Aunt Mables car I would ask her if she had any spare change. The first day I made $10 in 2.5 hours. I know that doesn't seem like much, but minimum wage was 3 bucks an hour. That summer i managed to save up a thousand dollars. I don't think my mother had ever even seen a thousand dollars before. That summer my entrepreneurial spirit was born, From there on out I would never be broke, or so I thought.
Even though I was dirt poor I never really felt bad about it. I was always happy, and I never suffered from any kind of depression when I was younger. Some people are depressed because they don't have money. If I don't have money it's because I'm depressed. The solution to any financial trouble for me is to find out and correct what's bothering me. Not having money at any particular time has never really bothered me. There is a reason why being broke doesn't bother me. For me, being broke is only temporary. I have a solid understanding of the principles of making money. I learned them at a young age and with little to no guidance.
Ever since I saw that boy begging for change outside of the convenience store I asked myself why. Why did some people give him change and others outright ignored him? It occurred to me that there were many different reasons for them to not give him any change. But seeing the look in their eyes when they gave him money, I noticed that emotion was a motivating factor. They felt sorry for him, they felt like they were doing a good thing. In this world emotion seems to be the ultimate currency. Eliciting emotion from people can actually be perceived as valuable to people. Money has perceived value. If you want someone to part with something they perceive as valuable, you have to offer them something that they perceive has equal or more value than what they are parting with. The grocery packing service I offered was perceived as valuable as the spare change that people were willing to give me for doing it.
In short, in order to make money you must offer something of perceived value in exchange for it. This is the principle that I live by. I say “perceived” because value is subjective. You may upvote this article because you personally found some value in it. Or you may have found value, but it wasn't equal or more than the value of an upvote to to you.
So, the first principle of making money is offering something of equal or greater value in exchange for it. Like I said, this is a principle I live by. There a couple other principles that I abide. They are pretty much common knowledge and are very simple. It seems that people ignore them because of their simplicity.
The second principle of making money:
Buy low, Sell High
I always try to buy/trade/barter something for less than its perceived value. If people are consistently buying an item for $300 used, I won't buy it for a penny more than $200. If they are consistently paying $1,000 for it new, I won't pay a penny more than $600. It's more difficult to buy stuff new with this principle, but not impossible by any sense of the word.
The Third Principle making money:
Everything Is For Sale
Because I only buy things that are consistently perceived more valuable than the amount of cash that I'm willing to part with, I will sell anything I own at any time. Everything I own is for sale for more than what I paid for it. I've bought a car with a blue book value of $7,000 for $3,500. I actually owned it for less than an hour and was offered $5,500 for it. If I'm at a gas station filling up my car and someone wants to buy it on the spot, I'll sell it right then and there. I'll take an uber home, or take the bus if I have to. To be quite honest I'll walk home if I have to, Or maybe ill just add a ride home to the terms of the sale.
This is the framework to making money. I could add a bunch of filler and sprinkle it with buzzwords, but its unnecessary and down right crappy to do that. Just remember these three principles and try to implement them in your life and you will see your net worth increasing.
1.) Offer something of value
2.) Buy low, Sell High
3.) Everything Is For Sale
Follow me!
I will be writing solid real world examples on how to make money. I'll be going over some of my past and current ventures. I'll be showing some of my go to tools for buying/trading/selling and all the while adding value to my net worth.
Thank you for reading. I hope you got something out of it. But just in case you didn't, Here's a video of a person who actually saved someone's live while playing Pokemon Go.