Japanese Peanuts

What do peanuts have to do with money? Well, more than you think! The price you pay for peanuts includes the three factors which we've talked about before; profit, rent and labor. In the case of peanuts - you've got to pay the labor of the farmer (or farm-hands) that grow and harvest them, you've got to pay the rent of the farm itself, and you've got to pay a little profit to the enterprising farmer who takes the risk of selling his peanuts to you. And, all I just mentioned only counts if you're buying directly from the farm! If you're buying from a store, then you've got a multitude of other people that have to be paid.

Japanese peanuts - peanuts grown in Japan - cost up to five times more than peanuts from China or other poor peanut-growing countries. Why is that? Is it because Japanese peanuts have a hint of Wasabi and are as fierce as the earthquakes there? If that were true, I'm sure they could charge more than five times more; the real reason is that because our little friends were grown in Japan, Japanese people had to be paid. Japanese laborers, who are expensive by international standards, had to be paid to get those peanuts out of the ground. Expensive Japanese land had to also be used to grow those peanuts on. Basically, the Japanese peanut is more expensive than the Chinese peanut mostly due to differences in cost of production.

This is almost exactly the same for those brand name goods you purchase. I say almost, because a peanut is a peanut, but there really are quality differences between brand-name and non-brand-name when it comes to certain things (electronics, clothing, etc.). However, the huge markup that a brand name enjoys is sometimes (and in the case of clothes, always) way too much for the slightly higher quality. If you buy a bag from some vendor on the street for a couple bucks, it might break in a week or two... but then again, it may last you a couple years. If you buy something brand-name from a posh department store, you'll be paying a lot more, but that bag will probably last you for years to come.

The point is that with a brand name product, you're paying a premium mostly for the name (i.e. the profit of the entrepreneur) and only a little extra for the added quality. With Japanese peanuts, you're paying extra mostly for the rent and labor, and not much for peanut-quality. So what you've got to do in the future is to look at which of the three components (profit, rent, labor) you're paying for when you trade your money for product.

Money Can Buy Happiness

I know, it's a bold statement to say that money can buy happiness, even after everyone keeps telling you that it can't. However, I'll explain it all to you! Firstly, however, I must explain that money can buy you anything you please; even other people! Yes, money can buy you your own personal attendants. Kinda like slaves, except that in order to keep them, you've got to pay them - slaves were your actual property and didn't require payment (only upkeep, like a fruit-bearing tree). The basic fact is that the world is about money (actually, about the material things that it can get one), and everyone needs it in order to survive, and needs more of it in order to survive comfortably.

Even though money can buy you anything you want - it'll cost a lot more money than if you acquired it in other ways. Let's say you wanted to move house and hired some movers; that might cost you a few hundred dollars. However, if you used your social capital and asked a few good friends to help you - you wouldn't have to repay them at all! Of course, you'd probably appreciate their help very much and would treat them to dinner, else help them when they need help. So, you're able to get their assistance without the involvement of money because of your social capital with them. They're your friends and both sides have done good for each other throughout life. A true win-win situation. If you asked someone you just met to help you move, however, you can forget about ever cultivating their friendship. That's how it is... it takes a load of social capital to get such favors, but if money was used, it would require a relatively small amount.

That's the point here: money can get you what you want, but it'll cost a lot more than if you had gotten those things using social capital. Money can even buy you happiness! Now, let's not get all confused and say that money can buy you out of lonesomeness and that you can spend your way out of sadness. That's totally not the case. If you're lonely because you're a big jerk, you'll still truly be lonely no matter how much money you have (you may not feel lonely, however, because there are lots of moochers out there). If you're sad for a reason worthy of being sad about, money can hardly help you - only other people can. Back to the main point - money can buy you happiness! That's because happiness is the opposite of boredom, and that means you can use money to get rid of the boredom blues.

If you're bored, why not spend some money on a trip somewhere and relieve yourself of the boredom? If you're bored, why not buy a car and take it up and down mountain roads? If you're bored, you can take classes and learn a new hobby. The options are limitless and they're all things that require sums of money (large and small), but it's money that's buying you happiness. You're probably going to share that happiness with loved ones, too, I surmise. The lesson is that you can definitely spend your way out of boredom, but that's pretty much the only thing you can spend your way out of in this world. Being a crappy person who has no friends cannot be fixed with money.

A few hundred years ago, before the advent of trinkets and baubles, rich landlords had no use for the extra produce harvested from their lands. Therefore, they would use (i.e. spend) their wealth (all that one has that other people might also want) to entertain and treat guests to magnificent feasts. They would use their wealth to feed a multitude of retainers and the poor workers who worked their fields. Thus, the rich landlord would have many friends who were grateful to him for constantly providing for their basic needs; he would also have many other friends who didn't work for him, but felt nice just to be invited to his feasts. I'm sure such a person would've been really content with life; helping out so many people and in turn having many friends.

After the advent of trinkets and baubles, however, landlords instead chose to spend their wealth on useless things...

Live Inside The Box

There are rules and laws everywhere we look. Specifically, there are three places from which rules come; nature, physics and man. You definitely can't break the rules of nature and physics. So why do people always think they can break the rules of man? Of course, the rules of man are not as fixed and unchangeable as the laws of nature and physics, but they're still mighty hard to change. It's to one's advantage, therefore, to work within the laws of man. I will explain more on this later, but first, let's examine some great examples of rules in nature and physics.

In nature, the small are hunted and the large get away unscathed. This is a basic rule in nature. Size matters and it matters greatly. Lions never attack elephants because elephants are huge! They sometimes attack water buffalo, however, although water buffalo sometimes win and sometimes lose. The law here is that size matters; it's something that can't be changed. Animals naturally evolved to deal with this law in their own way; animals who can't evolve to be large because of lack of food supply evolved other things. Maybe their skin became tougher or maybe they can run faster - but the basic fact remains that size matters. It is an unchangeable law.

In physics, too, the rules are unchangeable. You cannot deny the pull of gravity, can you? Birds can in a way, however. Birds are not really denying the pull of gravity; what they're doing is actually taking the law of gravity and the law of matter density and using those things to their advantage. (Okay, they are not doing it - they were born with it.) In effect, they're not playing with gravity at all, because gravity still affects them equally. What they're playing on is being lighter than air. When birds flap their wings, they're able to float on air like a duck floats on water. In effect, the birds are lighter than the air that fills the sky! Gravity always pulls the heavier things to the bottom, so by becoming lighter than air, birds are able to fly. And humans obviously learned from birds, since we can fly in airplanes.

The basic concept of this post is just that simple; you shouldn't try to break the rules as is oft said. What you need to do is to understand the rules and be able to use them to your advantage. (Well, not if you live in a dictatorship with crazy rules - then, it is your duty to break the rules!) In a free society such as ours, in order to get what you want (and I suspect that one of the things is money), you've got to really understand the rules and be able to use them to your advantage. It's just like how birds don't break the rule of gravity - they instead use those rules to their advantage and become lighter than air. It's the same in society; society rewards those who do certain things that are within the rules.

I'm not at all saying not to think creatively, but after all, we live in society with other people and all the things we think of as success have to do with other people. To give you an idea of our ideas of success having to do with people, answer for yourself these few questions: Would you rather have a magnificent house in the middle of the desert, or in a great city? Would you rather have a billion dollars, or a billion sea turtles? Would you rather have many friends, or many cats? After answering for yourself these questions and asking of yourself even more, I'm sure that you'll see that we live in society and it's a major part of who we are (no matter how much we deny it).

So... your mission is to go out there and understand the rules of society. Use those rules to your advantage; do what other people aren't doing and you'll see different results. But, you still want what society has to offer, so you must use society's rules. Live inside the box!

It Takes Practice

In life, if one wants to become good at anything at all; practice is always required. Sure, there may be the perception out there that some people were "born with it," or have "a natural talent." I can tell you, however, that it's all a load of horse doo-doo. Whatever you, or that little girl practicing the piano in the picture, has become good at is purely due to practice. Anything that anyone is good at in the whole world is precisely because of practice - and that includes money.

Take a look again at all those people you consider "talented" in anything; music, carpentry, art, rugby, computer programming, money. If you look deeply enough, you'll find that they all have some sort of history within their field of expertise. Many people developed this expertise (what some erroneously call "talent") from a really young age and in ways that were obscure; it is therefore that they're said to be "naturals", or be "born with it". Other people, however, developed their "talents" at an older age and they can thus identify exactly where they picked up all their skills. In the end, however, these two forms of practice amount to the same thing: expertise or great ability.

Look back at your life as a child for a second - it just seems like a blur and it seems like it went by in the blink of an eye, didn't it? It was during this time that you probably developed a lot of what you're good at now. And because you started developing expertise as a child, you thought it was merely a "talent", so you thus pursued it into adulthood and have become really good! If you ask your parents, however, they'll probably tell you that raising you was a long time and they'll also be able to point out to you how some of your "talents" developed.

Normally, people think of talent having to do with things like; music, sports, etc. The fact of the matter, however, is that the ability to handle and grow money is also something that took practice. Did your parents introduce you to the concept of money at an early age? Did they allow you to touch money and to take responsibility for it? Did they teach you new concepts as you advanced in age? Even if it wasn't your parents - maybe they were bad with money - did a kind uncle or your friend's "rich dad" tutor you? Maybe you were an inquisitive little kid and turned your inquisitiveness towards money instead of cars like the other little boys. Maybe you watched business reports on TV instead of "Barbie Goes to Ken's"?

Even if you didn't develop any expertise or budding expertise as a child, it doesn't preclude you from having done so at an older age. It also doesn't preclude you from developing expertise now! Sure, if you have a late start at things, you may not become one of the top experts - but I can guarantee you that you'll be much better off than where you are now. Whether you're 35 or 55, it's not too late to start learning as much as you can about money. It's never too late to start practicing good money habits and good management of money. Money is, after all, a part of all our lives.

How does one "practice" money? You probably have a clue already (one of the ways is by reading about it), and we'll discuss more of that in the next post. See you then.

It's Extremely Hard to Make Money (Part 2)

As I said in my last post, I'm going to tell you how to spot your secret to amassing a fortune now! Get ready, this is it: you must invent the idea on your own, or you must be told it in confidence by the person who invented it. It must be a unique idea that has never been done (it's okay if it's been attempted, but that attempt failed). As long as no one out there is doing anything half-similar to what you've discovered; there's a good chance your idea will succeed. But, just because your idea will succeed, it doesn't mean that you will. The reason is simply that an idea can be good, but without good implementation and without the perseverance to see it through... it can die just before it flourishes.

Don't bother jumping upon the bandwagon of any of the "money-making ideas" out there, because you didn't invent them and neither did your best friend who is sharing her secret with you. "F'get about it," as Donny Brasco would say. If you heard through an indirect source about a way to amass wealth that seems like a great idea; I assure you that the boat is already over-loaded. The pie will be split between too many hungry mouths. And don't think you're going to jump in, be the best and slay the competition. Sure, there are people who do that - but are you one of those people? Do you have ultra-dedication? Are you going to put away your social and family life just to get it done? I think not. Don't fool yourself. It's only the extraordinary that can achieve certain feats.

I'm definitely not saying to pursue ideas that you hear about that you are totally interested in and would dedicate your existence to. If you found such a thing; hurry up and jump in head-first! When you do something you love in moderation, it's not really work and it can be exhilarating a majority of the time. Just make sure that you've got someone to handle all the make-your-eyes-bleed details; such as accounting, marketing, etc. (It's those details that turn a dream job into a nightmare.)

Otherwise, if you're one of those people who have no passion or who have a fleeting passion for everything; it's time you came up with your own idea. It's the only way you're going to succeed in a world of fierce competition. If you were a lioness competing against ten other lionesses for that one water buffalo, would you just run after it like everybody else? Why not copy the Cheetah and tag-team the poor beast? Or how about using your human-level intelligence to set a trap for the water buffalo... or even, do evil things to eliminate the competition! The best bet, however, would be to go after prey that the other lionesses don't know about. In any case, the point is, why make it ultra-hard for yourself by pursuing the same thing as everyone else? Invent your own "secret" and do it!

How do you invent your own secret? Well, you first need to be well-read and know enough about the world so that you understand what things have already been done. You'll also need this base of knowledge in order to build upon it and create your ultimate secret. But, the worst thing to do is not to give yourself some free time to think everyday. It's best to give yourself a 15-minute time block every day, where you just sit there and think about nothing, just to clear your mind. After that, as you go about your daily routine, your mind will be able to grasp at ideas that appear. Your mind will also be able to articulate what you've discovered. But, you definitely need to give yourself "blank time" to just bask in your existence.

This is called giving yourself opportunity to have a "Eureka" moment. Basically, this Greek scholar called Archimedes was trying to figure out how to measure the volume of the king's gold crown. Sure, he could melt it down and then measure the lump of gold - but that would destroy the crown! He thought and thought about it for days to no avail. So, he just decided to leave the question aside for now and go about his regular routine. The problem was still in the back of his mind, however. One day, however, as he slipped into his almost-full bathtub to soak... a certain amount of water spilled out and all-of-a-sudden he had a revelation. The volume of the water that overflowed from the tub must equal exactly the volume of the parts of his body that he submerged. "Eureka!" he proclaimed, and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked due to excitement.

So basically... if there's a problem or a solution you want to get the answer for, you should think about it for a while and then put the problem down. Go about your daily routines (not thinking too much or concentrating heavily on anything) and then before you know it - Eureka! You'll have figured out the perfect plan or solution. It's also a great idea to write down everything you think of. You sometimes may not think it's a good idea at the time, but you could later come back to it and find out that it's the perfect solution.

So, the bottom line to make your money-dreams come true is to think of the idea that no one else has thought of; and once you've got it, to work on it with passion and fervor!