> We are all, no doubt, born for a wise purpose.
I've heard and seen this time and time again and yet there's no advice on how to find that purpose. It's always easy to say, "do what you love" but how do you find what you love?
Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
51–60 of 206 posts
Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
#52A good way to make money is to sell a book about how to make money.
Reminds me of that dude who made a rather impressive amount of money posting classified ads on how to make money where the "secret methodology" being sold turned out to be a set of guidelines which simply instructed the buyer to follow suit.
Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
#53> We are all, no doubt, born for a wise purpose. I've heard and seen this time and time again and yet there's no advice on how to find that purpose. It's always easy to say, "do what you love" but how do you find what you love?
Do lots of varied things, gravitate towards the ones you enjoy the most.
Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
#54Don't Blab >>> This chapter/paragraph goes against everything I believe in, the entire opensource community is based on sharing. I am an aspiring farmer with a tech addiction and if it wasn't for people sharing their successes through YouTube and a lesser extent farmers that write books, this "City Boy" wouldn't have survived my first year on the farm. I also agree Internet sucks in the country, but it's still better…
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Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
#55> Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt. There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt. It is a slavish position to get in... Well, that put student debt in perspective no ?
> I do not speak of merchants buying and selling on credit, or of those who buy on credit in order to turn the purchase to a profit.
Did you really just not read the article at all? He is clearly referring to things like consumer debt rather than investments.
Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
#56> Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt. There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt. It is a slavish position to get in... Well, that put student debt in perspective no ?
He clarified this point it a bit in the second paragraph:
"Mr. Beecher advised young men to get in debt if they could to a small amount in the purchase of land, in the country districts. “If a young man,” he says, “will only get in debt for some land and then get married, these two things will keep him straight, or nothing will.” This may be safe to a limited extent, but getting in debt for what you eat and drink and wear is to be avoided"
In some ways, student debt is similar to land in that it can provide a return on investment that allows for paying off the debt over time. The main difference being that land is tangible and can be sold to pay off the debt completely.
Borrowing for food, clothing, and other items that tend to be used up or worn out before they're paid off does seem like a terrible idea.
Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
#57Funny how some of it seems like good common sense and then you get
> Some men have a foolish habit of telling their business secrets. If they make money they like to tell their neighbors how it was done. Nothing is gained by this, and ofttimes much is lost. Say nothing about your profits, your hopes, your expectations, your intentions. And this should apply to letters as well as to conversation. Goethe makes Mephistophiles say: “Never write a letter nor destroy one.” Business men must write letters, but they should be careful what they put in them. If you are losing money, be specially cautious and not tell of it, or you will lose your reputation.
In 2019, it seems openness and transparency (eg Buffer) can form the foundations of a profitable strategy
Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only people living in big cities think this isn’t still true. If you so desire, huge portions of land in the country “flyover” USA are yours to be had for very cheap. Of course it’s difficult to get internet there, so how will the millennials make it?
For scale, you could just about give everyone in the US an Acre in Alaska and not even touch the lower 48.
Or an inch, and throw it in a cereal box:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Big_Inch_Land_Promoti...
Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
#59Funny how some of it seems like good common sense and then you get > Some men have a foolish habit of telling their business secrets. If they make money they like to tell their neighbors how it was done. Nothing is gained by this, and ofttimes much is lost. Say nothing about your profits, your hopes, your expectations, your intentions. And this should apply to letters as well as to conversation. Goethe makes Mephisto…
In this case Buffer is also a result of selection bias, since you do not have data on more private companies. I'm also skeptical of the attribution of Buffer's success to their openness; Buffer is successful first and foremost because it's a good product that works and was released at an opportune time. The fact that they are an "open company" is likely, at best, a small marketing advantage.
Re: Golden Rules for Making Money (1880)
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is weird to see this mindset on a site that is basically founded on the idea that taking on debt can be valuable. What would the startup scene be like if everyone avoided debt at all costs?
Selling equity in a startup is very different from taking on debt, with debt your committing the business to a strategy, if it doesn't work the business will probably fold. While this makes sense for capex intensive businesses. It's an irrational choice for a tech startup that may need to pivot, partner or be acquired. For those choices you need a source of capital with similar incentives as the founders.
If the equity sold has preferred returns or liquidity preferences, then the impact of the compounding cost to common shareholders is not too dissimilar from the impact of debt.