Makings Lots of Money

[Article Recovered from Hacked Autonomist]

There is one thing about individualists that makes them particularly vulnerable to certain kinds of mistakes. It is their certainty of their own competence and independence that makes them subject to these faults. Most individualists are both intelligent and creative and have discovered they can do most anything they choose to do, often more easily than others.

The first mistake this leads to is procrastination. It’s not work they are avoiding, however, but a tendency to put off what must be done to the last moment, because there are always more interesting things to be done, and they are sure they can always do the necessary things, even at the last moment?and they usually can.

Most of us have learned this is a mistake. It is much better to get the necessary things out of the way for two important reasons. First, those put-off-til-later jobs have a tendency to grow. The tools you could easily put away in ten minutes, but don’t, because something more interesting just screams for your attention at the moment, will take you half a day, when you finally get around to cleaning up all those tools you’ve left about.

The more important part of the mistake is that those put-off jobs are always there, “in the back of your mind” nagging you, and actually interfere with those more important and interesting things you want to do.

This tendency to procrastinate is not the most serious of individualist’s mistakes, however, and is easily corrected by a little practiced self-discipline. It is about money that may individualists are likely to make bigger mistakes.

About Money

It is not about money itself the independent individualist is likely to be mistaken, but what he does about it. The mistake is partly due to the tendency to procrastinate, but also because of that self-confidence he can always make money, and always find a way to “get along,” and the fact that, except for those independent individualist who have chosen wealth as the means to their freedom and independence, for most, money is just not the most important or interesting thing in life.

What is important is living the way they choose. A very large part of that, however, is how to provide those things necessary to live one’s chosen life. Except for those who choose to provide what they need themselves, most will need money to acquire them.

Finance, even personal finance, is a large subject, and producing an income is only part of it. For example, investing is one way of increasing one’s wealth, but you first need some wealth to increase. The rest of this article is about some aspects of acquiring wealth or “making money.”

Making Money

For the independent individualist, “making money” is the only way of acquiring wealth. There are endless ways of acquiring wealth without producing anything of value, but wealth acquired in any of those ways makes one dependent on the victims whose wealth has been appropriated without providing them anything of value. To “make money” means to produce a product or provide a service for which others are willing to pay you because it is of more value to them then the money they exchange for it. Every other form wealth acquisition is some form of theft.

There are endless ways to make honest money—all of them require effort, time, and knowledge, and the more money that is to be made, the more effort, time, and knowledge it will take. Anything that promises you wealth without these, as “easy,” or “quick” or “no experience or technical knowledge required,” it is either a scam or unethical. This fact can save you huge amounts of time, possibly even money. Why individualists seem to be attracted to schemes that promise fast easy unbelievable wealth, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s their innate desire to believe in the integrity of others, because their own integrity would make it impossible to make the false claims all such schemes make; or, perhaps its the fact they know what they are worth as individuals and that they ought to be able to make the kind of wealth promised. Whatever the reason, it is a terrible mistake and waste of time. Let me give just one example.

Truth as Bait

In a sample article from the Expat World newsletter, is some old news about the fact banking secrecy in Swiss banks no longer exists. If you want to know more about that, and how the American government works (a bit scary actually) I suggest you read the article. It’s quite short.

The article mentions a character named Wayne Phillips. It happened to be his money the government was after (just as if it were theirs). I have never heard of Wayne Phillips so I did a little research.

It turns out he is not the most reputable guy in the world, somewhat of a con artist who ran afoul of the government because he was horning in on their own racket. That would have been the end of my interest in the story, except that one of the sources “exposing” the shadier side of Mr. Phillips happens to be a scam itself.

That scam is a WEB page called “Program Critigue.” The site purports to expose crooked Internet business opportunities. It says, “The vast majority of ‘Money Making Opportunities’, whether they be “Get Rich Quick Schemes”, “Multi-Level Marketing Schemes”, “Start-Up Business Opportunities”, (either at home or otherwise) “Franchise Opportunities”, “Internet Opportunities”, “Real Estate Schemes”, “Investment Schemes”, “Business Acquisition Opportunities”, “Asset Protection Structures”, and now the latest out of control CRAZE, “Ecurrency Exchange Programs and Opportunities” are either not profitable, ethical or just pushing the envelope too far and are either illegal or very close to being illegal.”

That is certainly all true, and there is nothing like truth to suck people in. At the bottom of the page where this statement appears there is this link, “We Have Tested And Or Critiqued Hundreds Of Opportunities And This One Created A Mid Six-figure Income. Click Here Now To Learn How I Do It And How You Can Do It Too!”

If you click the link (or the little button that flashes “click here”) you’ll be taken to a page with this “really works” money making scheme. It’s called “The Reverse Funnel System” and is nothing but an MLM scheme and it’s only product is, “The Reverse Funnel System.”

Actually, there is a “product” of sorts, called, “Global Resorts Network,” which is another MLM scheme.

How To Make Money

Jon M. Taylor, of the Consumer Awareness Institute offer this page with “1,357 Ways You Can Make a Lot,” of money. It actually has some very good ideas, but is mostly a demonstration that there are many ways to make a good honest income as opposed to any of the MLM schemes that take so many people in.

Not all of the ways on that page will fit the goals of the independent individualist. In fact, it is not possible to know what the right method is for any particular individualist, because everyone is different, and what would be perfect for one, would be totally inappropriate for another.

Here are a few guideline and suggestions that should be useful to all independent individualists.

The Ideal and Other Income Producing Methods

The ideal, of course, is to do the thing you would most like to do in the world and be paid for it. A few people are able to do that, but for most of us, what we most want to do in the world, we’re going to have to pay for ourselves, and will have to find some other way to finance it.

If you cannot be paid for doing what you most like to do, at least be certain you like what you must do, or at the very least, not dislike it, and be self-employed. You are an independent individualist, after all; surely you can find something to make, or create, or produce, or a service to perform that you like and for which others will be willing to pay you. If you must do a job in which another (the boss) considers you an “employee,” your attitude should always be, that you are self-employed and are only selling your services to the company. Never work for a company, work only for yourself, no matter what the company thinks. If you must sell your services to a company, seek to do it as a private contractor or consultant.

Keep in mind always, that whatever you do, it is going to require those three essentials: time, effort, and knowledge. There is a trade-off for most things between these three things, but none can be eliminated. More knowledge usually makes it possible to produce a more valuable product with less effort or service in less time, but part of that time and effort is going to be gaining knowledge.

No matter what you do, it will require continued learning. In most fields, from computers to art, because new technologies, and techniques are continually being developed and markets are always changing, not continuing to learn means falling behind and reducing your money making potential.

Money on the Internet

Can one really make money on the Internet? Of course, and a lot of people are doing it, but for most people, making money on the Internet is one of the hardest ways to make money and you either have to be very bright to come up with something no one else has yet come up with, or willing to work lots of hours and very hard. It is honest work, and if you make it big on the Internet, you will certainly have earned it.

Whatever you do, however, you will probably have to use the Internet as part of your income producing effort. You will use the Internet for at least some of these things: advertising, research, contacts, (e.g. email, Internet phone), and that learning you’ll have to keep doing. Whatever your business, the internet can be used to automate much of it with things like newsletters, auto-responders, forms (for selling or “signing up”), and much more.

How to Make Lots of Money

“Startupnation” has a wonderful idea generating list of the top 100 best financial performing home businesses of 2007. Some of them make “lots of money.” Though these businesses are all very different, the ones that made lots of money, all used the same formula.

Since to make money takes time, effort, and knowledge—to make lots of money takes lots of time, lots of effort and lots of knowledge. There are no short-cuts to honest wealth. The independent individualist does not want what he has not earned and must always know that he is worthy of all he has and enjoys. The independent individualist cannot be happy any other way, as a parasite or second-hander, for example, dependent on those who supply him wealth he could never earn by his own honest effort.

Ultimately, it’s not what you have, not your wealth that determines your worth, but who and what you are.