It's Hard To Make a Dollar

Money is a measure of value, right? That's what it says in the dictionary and that's what I've always believed. It represents value.

So, when we pay for something, we are exchanging something valuable (money) for another thing of equal value (the product). This is the marketplace.

So, people who make lots of money are more valuable than people who make a small amount of money, at least according to the marketplace.

A valuable person will be made rich, a worthless person will be made poor.

What is it that gives people value?

It's their skills! Skilled people rise up the hierarchy, unskilled people plunge into hell.

A skill is, to quote the dictionary, "a learned power of doing something competently".

Basically, think of a highly skilled electrician, telesales agent, admin worker, web designer, or whatever.

They have knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge effectively. That is how they create value.

If I think about my city, Montreal, I realize how many highly skilled people live here. This is why they have more money than I do.

If I want to have money too, then I must absolutely pour my heart and soul into a skill set. There doesn't seem to be any other choice.

But once you reach adulthood, it is difficult to learn new things. The plasticity of youth is gone, and rigid middle age sets in. It gets harder to build a new skill set as you get older if you haven't created a good foundation during youth.

So, I think that many broke adults are people who did not build up a valuable skill set during youth, and who now have little to offer the marketplace, and who are struggling, due to decades of bad habits, to build a new skill set. This is why we tell kids to stay in school.

In addition, some of us have never had a natural talent, whereas others do have a natural talent. I've always been bad or mediocre at everything I've done.

This makes it even harder to make money, because even if I learn a skill set, I won't be able to compete with those who are naturally talented in the field.

There is a 20 year old who I follow on Twitter, Efe is his name. He has made lots of money with Clickfunnels. He cannot believe that there are people out there who cannot make a living online after six months of effort. He doesn't understand that he is naturally skilled. It is very hard to compete against guys like this.

What's the solution? I'm not sure. But I know for certain that you don't roll over and die just because there is a problem. You keep pushing for a solution.

Skills play a huge role.. 1$ is not hard to make and it should never be hard to make lol.. this is bad

The hard part is finding and tweaking the Right Traffic and hoping the offer doesn't get discontinued after you tweak it.

luck plays a role too.

YBmurda said:

Skills play a huge role.. 1$ is not hard to make and it should never be hard to make lol.. this is bad

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"1 dollar" is a figure of speech. I meant it's hard to make money, in general.

in the era we live in skill almost compete with opportunity, you can be the most skillful person on earth yet still be poor if you don't have an opportunity to earn from your skill i once saw a beggar in cairo with a POS machine he asked for money which we ignored and proceed with our activity he kept asking to the extend we responded telling him we don't have cash with us, he responded with a semi smile on his face saying loudly in Arabic certain words which we couldn't understand, but his point was made clear by what he was holding.he was telling us he accepts credit card donations,you see it took us by surprise but this begger probably have seen it all and to earn money he use a tactic to influence people into donating money to him which can be categorized as a skill. my point is look at your fingers they are definitely not of the same size. this is how every community is there will always be people with more opportunity than others its almost as if that's the fuel that ignites different community the rich have easier access to opportunities. the poor on the other hand have less chance of seeing such opportunity, but aside from this the one thing that produces results be it of different scale is hard work.

Make yen, euro instead
Sorry joke

Maticzilla said:

in the era we live in skill almost compete with opportunity, you can be the most skillful person on earth yet still be poor if you don't have an opportunity to earn from your skill i once saw a beggar in cairo with a POS machine he asked for money which we ignored and proceed with our activity he kept asking to the extend we responded telling him we don't have cash with us, he responded with a semi smile on his face saying loudly in Arabic certain words which we couldn't understand, but his point was made clear by what he was holding.he was telling us he accepts credit card donations,you see it took us by surprise but this begger probably have seen it all and to earn money he use a tactic to influence people into donating money to him which can be categorized as a skill. my point is look at your fingers they are definitely not of the same size. this is how every community is there will always be people with more opportunity than others its almost as if that's the fuel that ignites different community the rich have easier access to opportunities. the poor on the other hand have less chance of seeing such opportunity, but aside from this the one thing that produces results be it of different scale is hard work.

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This!

@Maticzilla You make a good point. You're right that there is an important distinction between skill and opportunity, and that both play a role in making money. Certain segments of society have access to opportunity due to their family name and genetics. The people who come from bad families or who have bad genetics will naturally have less access to these opportunities.

But, when applied to the world of online money, there seems to be less of a barrier to opportunity. It's not like in the old days where local communities could include and exclude whoever they wanted. Anybody can start a blog and attempt to monetize it, for example. And yet, only very few will ever be able to make much money doing so. It seems to me that skill is the determining factor, and the only way to succeed is to become as skilled as humanly possible.

I know this is probably obvious but I'm an idiot who needs obvious things pointed out.

Being skilled doesn't mean anything if you don't put in the effort. You don't have to be extremely skilled if you are persistent, trust me. This whole period of humanity is marked with low quality good, services, and people. That's because the dumb ones lost their shame and started acting like they know what they're doing and talking about. It's everywhere, in both business and culture, media, etc.

Though I agree that opportunities are highly unequal. Most of all, if you aren't given a fair start in life, everyone around you will just treat you with contempt and condescendence when you point out the inequality.
It's pretty easy to make money to survive if you'd ask me. But, making money to fix the inequality you were handed, that's astonishingly difficult. And we even feel bad when we think how unfairly life has treated us, since if we come from a poor household, at least we had internet, if we were homeless, at least we had food, if we were hungry at least we had water etc etc.
It's really sad but it is what it is guys. Gotta live with it, carry the cross y'know... Try not to dwell on it too much, you will go insane. Focus on just working and learning and believe all of that will go somewhere.

I know many dummies from college that don't know anything and didn't try hard at all but because they were in frats and networked well they ended up with very respectable jobs.

What I failed to realize is that they actually were working hard, working hard at networking. I never looked at socializing and networking as a valuable skill until coming to this realization. Their opportunities in life came from them putting themselves out there and now I respect them a ton for that.

Not sure if this really has to do with your original post I just wanted to rant.

@PaintedBlack

This is what I'm putting my hope in. I'm hoping that steady, unwavering, bovine determination can eventually make me some money online. Like a cattle animal pulling the cart, I will keep moving forward.

On BHW you will always have opportunity, even if you will not have skills. But, opportunity knocks twice or thrice rest is your efforts. I have seen 90% people who don't make money are super intelligent and skilled but greedy and lazy too.

Maticzilla said:

in the era we live in skill almost compete with opportunity, you can be the most skillful person on earth yet still be poor if you don't have an opportunity to earn from your skill i once saw a beggar in cairo with a POS machine he asked for money which we ignored and proceed with our activity he kept asking to the extend we responded telling him we don't have cash with us, he responded with a semi smile on his face saying loudly in Arabic certain words which we couldn't understand, but his point was made clear by what he was holding.he was telling us he accepts credit card donations,you see it took us by surprise but this begger probably have seen it all and to earn money he use a tactic to influence people into donating money to him which can be categorized as a skill. my point is look at your fingers they are definitely not of the same size. this is how every community is there will always be people with more opportunity than others its almost as if that's the fuel that ignites different community the rich have easier access to opportunities. the poor on the other hand have less chance of seeing such opportunity, but aside from this the one thing that produces results be it of different scale is hard work.

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The hard work mantra doesn't works for billions of people staying miselable no matter how hard they work.
Still a lot of slavery all over the world and too many fools who follow along the stablished system.

@haterade11
Yeah I've also known some guys like this. Sweet, sweet, personal connections can make all the difference.

Actually, one of my best friends from High School was like this. He screwed around at uni and still got a good programming job. However, he is now fucked. Dude hasn't worked in years because he has a drinking problem.

@Lilith55
This is also a good response. It is true that "work hard" is very common advice. And yet, so many people have busted their asses throughout human history, and have barely made enough to survive, and this continues to this day.

But on the other hand, it cannot be denied that hard work does pay off. I wonder what I'm missing here.

Perhaps it is the country in question? In a Western country, it seems that hard work will pay off, more often than not. But in developing countries where conditions are much more difficult, extremely hard work is required just to survive? I'm not sure I'm just thinking out loud.

You are right , I agree with this post but in my opinion the best skills that can help is networking. Networking can take you far places.

Lilith55 said:

The hard work mantra doesn't works for billions of people staying miselable no matter how hard they work.
Still a lot of slavery all over the world and too many fools who follow along the stablished system.

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hard work is more valuable to the poor because it segregates the poor from the poorest don't confuse hard work with success. joe the painter is a hard-working man, it doesn't mean joe is rich or will be rich because he is a hardworking man it only means joe works hard as a painter to make a living and at some point will earn from painting be it a cent or a dollar he will earn for his sweat, joe is better than john who accepts an imprinted reality that he comes from a poor background so he won't try to make a dollar through hard work .take a look around you, may notice that some of the hardest work I'm talking physical back pain labor are some of the worst compensated jobs. this are job that requires more effort,strength and stamina. dont forget we live in a world where the value of work is not equivalent to how hard the work is, but most of the time valuable work relies on knowledge/skill and people that usually get this are people with opportunities.

i agree with the talk about opportunity. It doesn't matter how skilled you are, having access to opportunity is what really brings your dreams to fruition

haterade11 said:

I know many dummies from college that don't know anything and didn't try hard at all but because they were in frats and networked well they ended up with very respectable jobs.

What I failed to realize is that they actually were working hard, working hard at networking. I never looked at socializing and networking as a valuable skill until coming to this realization. Their opportunities in life came from them putting themselves out there and now I respect them a ton for that.

Not sure if this really has to do with your original post I just wanted to rant.

Click to expand...

Very true. Ironically it seems like being smart alone can only get you so far. "People matter. People are the solutions to your problems"- Grant Cardone