Not giving value but making money

[JE Gonzalez]

What do you think of people that do not always provide real value but make a good living from it? I'm talking about people like Day Traders and Real Estate Flippers? Steve says, and I wholeheartedly agree, that the best way to make money is to create and deliver value. A while back my mm made $10,000-$20,000 a week trading electronically. One of our friends is a carpenter who got into buying and flipping real estate by renovating a couple houses a year. Is there anything negative about this in your minds?

My mom eventually got tired of such work and quit completely. plus, her broker conned her for thousands of dollars. My parents are in construction and development, the business that they love and they are happier than ever, all because they provide real value, but my family could have lived just as well just by day trading and investments.

[Annabelle]

I don´t think there is anything wrong with renovating houses. On the contrary. The other stuff is more questionable. Maybe it is not wrong but, in the long run, I don´t think it is satisfactory. Saludos!

[livewire516]

A agree, flipping houses can improve a community---more efficiently than most homeowners can. There's nothing wrong with that. I believe investing can provide value---but you won't see me holding stock in Philip Morris anytime soon. Day trading on it's own doesn't seem to provide value IMO--but i'm not an economist, so I really should say.

[erego]

It is what you find gives value and whether that value is for you or for others. What Steve meant was value should be given to others. Scamming people would be, for example, a value for yourself; you gain the money. Most jobs fall into either primarily for yourself or for others. There's no right or wrong. Judgment is subjective, much like Steve's should. Ultimately, it's whether you die fulfilled living the life you did.

To answer your question, no, nothing negative as long as he's honest and conscious about what he's doing. I hold admiration for the dude Steve mentioned who's a conscious darkworker, who admitted loud and proud he wrote all those books purely for the money. Admiration for his honesty and consciousness, not that his priority is money. And no, I'm not one; I think I'm a lightworker.

[sk8joyful]

Originally Posted by JE Gonzalez

the best way to make money is to create and deliver value.

like in helping people heal, and empower further human developments

[Parthon]

Originally Posted by JE Gonzalez

What do you think of people that do not always provide real value but make a good living from it? I'm talking about people like Day Traders and Real Estate Flippers? Steve says, and I wholeheartedly agree, that the best way to make money is to create and deliver value. A while back my mm made $10,000-$20,000 a week trading electronically. One of our friends is a carpenter who got into buying and flipping real estate by renovating a couple houses a year. Is there anything negative about this in your minds?

My mom eventually got tired of such work and quit completely. plus, her broker conned her for thousands of dollars. My parents are in construction and development, the business that they love and they are happier than ever, all because they provide real value, but my family could have lived just as well just by day trading and investments.

Day trading adds no value whatsoever. It's a case of using market fluctuations to shift money and assets around and to profit from it. Like you said though, your mom got sick of the work and quit, it was draining her spiritually. That's a pretty obvious sign it's wrong.

Construction and renovation on the other hand is adding value. Taking a house and modifying it to be better is adding value. Reselling it for a profit is fine. Buying and selling houses without changes, or being a slum lord and just buying houses for the rent, that's not very positive at all, you are just using money to profit. If you play on investing in a house to provide a renter with someone stable to live where they can feel at ease, that's providing value. If you don't care who lives there and are just in it for the rent money or capital gains, that's not value adding.

Lastly: "Living just as well." is a misnomer when you consider the whole extent of what living means. If it's experience and contribution, then no, day trading won't give you those. Construction and development though does. It would be challenging, fun and adding value, giving both experience and contribution. It's a better way to live when compared to experience and contribution. Money is just one small facet of life, there's so much more.

[rjani]

I don't think there's anything wrong particularly with making money and not giving any value, it's just for most people it's a hearthless path, and that's because it's can be a mistake.
On the other hand, it can be a good way to make a living for a darkworker for example...

[SimonaRich]

What makes you think that real estate flippers don't provide any value? Of course they do. They renovate the houses before the selling and that's the value provided to the future buyers.

[jetpack]

It all depends on your intentions. With real estate flipping, you can do improvements just for the profit, or you can do so with the goal of improving the house and neighborhood. I live next door to a house being flipped by someone who is clearly doing so just for profit. They had the exterior of the house redone at some expense, however, refused to add simple insulation to the house in the process (would have added very little to the price, but a lot of value in this cold climate). I find that type of flipper pretty disgusting.