In 2022, Musk, the world's richest man, topped the list with a net worth of US$290.3 billion. The 51-year-old is unmatched in his money-making efficiency, which comes from his special view of money. He said, "The so-called money is nothing more than an information system for labor distribution. What really matters is making goods and providing services. We should look at currency from the perspective of information theory. The party with the smallest error and delay will win."
To put it bluntly, whoever can create more, better, and faster value will have more money.
Take Tesla as an example. His ultimate goal is not to make electric cars. He wants to build a machine that can make electric cars. "The materials go in and the cars come out." This is a money printing machine. Producing a car generates tens of thousands of dollars in profit that goes into a bank account.
The essence of business is exchange. People who make cars and make pancakes and fruit are in the same form. But everyone knows that this way of making money is more difficult. Even Musk cannot urinate for more than 3 minutes. , the rocket exploded as soon as I took a vacation.
Both Britain and the United States made their fortunes through industry, but because it was too hard, once wealth accumulated to a certain level, their descendants would choose other industries. As the Founding Fathers of the United States said: “I must learn politics and war, that my children may learn mathematics and philosophy, and geography, natural history, and so on, and then my grandchildren may learn painting, poetry, music, architecture , weaving red needlework and porcelain art”.
James Dyson, who makes Dyson vacuum cleaners, said that Britain now despises those who work in industry, thinking that industry is just "greasy rags" and "knocking", while the United States is also in the last wave of globalization. China has moved its industries out of the country and relied on more respectable finance and technology to make money. Both Trump and Biden want to move factories back to the United States. However, since ancient times, "it is easy to move from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to move from luxury to frugality." Who can Do you still want to work as a screw in a factory? Who wants to pick up a "greasy rag" anymore? But what other more comfortable and decent ways to make money are there?
1. Make money through investment
Nowadays, Americans make money through investment. 40% of people’s assets are in financial products. The stock market is equivalent to China’s property market. Buffett relies on investment to stay on the rich list all year round.
Let’s take a look at his financial system: find a long snow slope, and then push the snowball down. This slope is the golden development period of the United States for more than 40 years and is the national destiny of the United States. .
The secret to his ability to make money is that assets are linked to prices, while liabilities are decoupled from prices.
The so-called assets are linked to prices, which means that assets can rise with inflation. For example, the price of Coca-Cola continues to rise with the development of the economy, and can even outperform inflation, thus ensuring that assets do not shrink.
The decoupling of liabilities and prices means that liabilities cannot rise with inflation. This is difficult to achieve. Prices are rising, and the interest on money lent to you by others will naturally rise as well. But Buffett has found a way His own path is his insurance company. The premium paid by the policy holder today is equivalent to the money lent to Buffett, but this money has almost no interest and will not change with inflation. Even if this money is deposited, You can also get net income by joining a bank.
This is Buffett's "increase revenue and reduce expenditure" model - assets soar with inflation, liabilities will never change, and profits will be as rich as the enemy with the blessing of time and national luck.
2. Make money through culture
Soros is known as a financial giant, big enough to influence the destiny of a country. In September 1992, he judged that the German mark would definitely not cut interest rates. He made a profit of 1 billion U.S. dollars in just ten days, while the United Kingdom lost 3.8 billion U.S. dollars.
The basis for the judgment is the insight into history and culture: The German people would never allow inflation in Germany at that time, because the rise of Hitler received so much support because of inflation and to avoid inflation. Inflation was the German ideology at the time.
Soros said that reading is to cultivate the ability to analyze what happens in one place and its impact on distant places. He preferred to be a philosopher.
Mondario is also this type of investor and became famous for successfully predicting the 2008 financial crisis.
He has invested in many countries and established his own judgment system, which is a model of human-machine integration in decision-making. He has sent his children to study in China and has close contacts with Chinese senior officials. He is optimistic about a China that is in an upward cycle.
3. Make money from secret knowledge
In the 1830s, Henry Bessemer, who lived in London, accidentally learned that the gold powder used to decorate paintings was sold at a high price. Pounds (approximately 453 grams) sell for more than 5 pounds. He bought a jar and took it home for testing. He found that the gold powder did not contain a trace of gold, but was entirely copper. Using copper as a material, after a specific process, it is made into extremely fine particles, which can form a visual look and feel similar to gold powder. These "gold powders" are widely used in European oil paintings, murals, and architectural decorations, and sales are very good. After all, few people are rich enough to use real gold for decoration.
So why is the "gold powder" made of copper so expensive? The reason is that this thing is difficult to make. There are very few businesses that can produce this product, and they all come from one place in Nuremberg, Germany. People in other places don’t know the production method at all.
He found the production method through "The Complete Book of Craftsmanship", but the steps were quite cumbersome, so he used a steam engine to transform an assembly line equipment, and kept it secret for 40 years. The price was only 1/40 of the original product, and he still made a profit. The pots are full.
There are many such hidden champions in Germany. They do not apply for patents, they just make a fortune in silence.
4. Make money with creativity
In 1974, the U.S. government renovated the Statue of Liberty. After the renovation, a large amount of construction waste was left behind. The government invited bids to solve the problem, but no one left it for a long time. Take it over, because this is a thankless job, and if you accidentally get into trouble with environmental groups, you will be in big trouble. A Frenchman heard the news and turned construction waste into souvenirs. He made $300 in just three months. He made money and solved a problem. It can be called a golden idea.
Alan Perry is a jewelry store owner in the small town of W, North Carolina, USA. On Black Friday in 2010 (equivalent to China’s Double Eleven), he launched a very creative activity: If you buy jewelry in our store within two weeks, on Christmas Day, you can buy jewelry in town A, which is 500 kilometers away from our store. If the snow exceeds 3 inches, you can keep the jewelry and I will refund your money in full. The news spread all of a sudden, and even the residents of town A drove 500 kilometers to town W to buy jewelry. Alan's jewelry store is bustling with customers and sales have soared.
Later, on Christmas Day, this small town A, which rarely snowed, actually snowed heavily, with a thickness of 6 inches! In front of Alan's shop, there was a line of people wanting to refund money. He refunded more than 400,000 US dollars in one day. But what you may never expect is that Alan has already purchased "weather insurance" for his sales. If it snows in a place like this where it doesn't snow very often, and it snows more than 3 inches, the insurance company will pay for Alan's losses. This is textbook-level creative marketing.
In a movie starring Gong Li, a landlord shouted after being knocked down and exiled: I will come back, I know how to make money!
Making money is a kind of ability. This ability is related to the understanding of money, human nature, and the operation of social machines, plus some luck and time. In addition, there are resource-based and power-based. These two are often the same thing, transforming each other, and have existed since ancient times, but it is difficult to solve scarcity through innovation (for example, it is difficult to have two directors), and there are also situations where time is exchanged for resources, such as going to work.
All roads lead to Rome, but of course some winding paths lead to secluded places. Thoreau, the author of "Walden Pond", built a cabin in Walden Pond after his brother died unexpectedly. To live, one only needs to maintain the necessary calories. Calculating that he only needs to work one day a week, he just walks by the lake, chats with people and thinks. Unexpectedly, he wrote "Walden" 9 years later. , has sold 100 million copies worldwide, and perhaps future generations will no longer have to worry about survival.
Look, life is so interesting. Although it is not easy to make money, after a few years, most people will find that they can basically get what they once wanted. If they work normally and create value, time will Give feedback.