Joseph's "Just My Thoughts"

Just as there is a distinction between rich and poor, there are also wealthy and impoverished thoughts. If you think poorly, you become poor. The mark of impoverished thinking is dwelling on the past instead of embracing the present. It’s said that the past was better, unable to accept the progress of the current system. When comparing the two, people often value what is familiar more than what is better. As a result, they make a less favorable choice and justify it. There is a pitfall in familiarity. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Investment techniques involve converting labor income into financial income. In other words, it means purchasing an asset with money earned through labor so that the asset generates profit. But since assets are inanimate, how can they produce income? The answer is that you can profit from an asset’s changing value. You cannot profit if the value remains constant. If there were no volatility in assets, people would have to rely solely on labor to earn money. The issue is that you don’t buy assets that increase in value; you buy assets that decrease in value. Therefore, if you lack the perspective to judge the world, you should abandon the dream of building wealth through assets. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

There comes a point when humans can’t earn money from their labor. Whether it’s because we’re old enough to retire or we’re unable to work due to a disability, it’s simply a matter of timing, and the moment we must stop earning from our work has already been determined. That’s why we need to choose to become either investors or unemployed someday. Then, it’s beneficial to understand and actually practice investing while we are able to work. Working hard is good, but how we live our lives is more important. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

A driver unfamiliar with the destination slows down as they approach because they need to look around. Even when navigation is inaccurate, drivers tend to decelerate upon reaching their destination. If life is moving slowly and you feel stagnant, you should check whether you truly know your goal or if you’ve set it correctly. Speed is a physical factor, but it also heavily depends on perception clarity. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

It is said that to succeed in life or business, you need to judge people well. So, how can we accurately assess others? Instead of focusing solely on the individual, consider their environment. Isn’t it often said that you can gauge a person by their friends? Another useful indicator is their financial disposition—the tendency to spend rather than earn. Attitude toward spending money reveals a significant, if not the most important, part of their character. By examining the environment around the person, it becomes easier to understand their true nature. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

An asset is the foundation of all economic activity. If you have assets, you can run a business and settle your debts. The ways to create assets are ‘how one works,’ ‘how to receive gifts from others,’ and ‘how to purchase assets made by others.’ There is a way to steal, but it is a crime. If you don’t initially own an asset, the simplest and almost the only way to create one is to produce something with your own labor. Whether the product is a service or a good, it must be produced unconditionally. Trading products creates added value. Thinking about trading later and making products first is the fastest and most basic way to escape poverty. Therefore, produce even the smallest things every day. Knowledge, records, art—whatever! - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Everything that is expressed and recorded externally, such as cell phones, computers, memos, books, and drawings, is an extension of the brain. Our brains aren’t just inside our bodies. This concept is important because extending the ego greatly influences how we see the world. We pay close attention to topics that involve us personally. Self-relevance is a key factor that drives our lives. Personal relationships and possessions get a lot of focus, while other areas seem less important. This is due to a feature of the human brain called ‘selective cognition.’ As civilization advanced, humans delegated parts of the brain’s functions to machines. It was inevitable to make good use of these tools. We should take an interest in the Homo Faber. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Emotions are a vital asset. They form the raw material of the energy and vitality that drive human action and push life forward. Emotions act both as a tool for expressing one’s personality and as a basis for making important decisions. Therefore, how effectively you typically manage your emotions influences the direction and quality of your life. This is also why positive people tend to be successful. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Joy and resentment are emotions, but they carry energy. That energy greatly influences my life. The lesson adults teach about not making enemies is based on their own experience of that influence. When we go to court, we often see many people there because they harbor resentment, whether in civil or criminal cases. That demonstrates the power and impact of resentment. Ignoring emotions will eventually have consequences. Don’t make enemies; instead, always choose to share joy. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Virtualization is practically an extension of reality and, financially, a different way of representing ownership. Ultimately, reality exists in our perception, which we experience and verify. Our senses serve as tools that transfer information from the external world into our brains, where this data is then reconstructed in our perception. The reason we dismiss digital currencies is that we see virtual things as “non-existent.” However, if you think about it, the state of existence varies depending on whether it is virtual or physical, and all information processing takes place within our perception, only providing feedback to reality. In perception, the difference between virtual and real is meaningless. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Some people hear that their business success rate is only 10%, so they try to avoid being part of the 90% who fail and put a lot of effort into becoming part of the 10% who succeed. In contrast, others allocate just 10% of their total effort to each of their 10 businesses, hoping that one will succeed. Since only one in ten founders succeeds, the latter approach is better because success in this world is a matter of probability. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Employees at securities firms have access to stock information that is more abundant and faster than what the general public receives. However, only a few among them are truly wealthy. Many believe that having a good environment, a prime location, and access to exclusive, valuable information will lead to wealth, but the reality is different. In truth, a person’s perspective and practical ability to understand the world hold greater power. A life dedicated to understanding the essence of phenomena and things ultimately enriches one’s existence. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

When investing in a market where asset trading is ongoing, persistent, and prices are constantly fluctuating, the most important factor is the perception and attitude toward “time.” Here, time refers to a defined “period,” a concept that encompasses the “past,” “present,” and “future.” Knowing the future can make us wealthy. All we know is the “past,” but in reality, even the past is often not fully understood. That is, we must admit we lack complete knowledge about the past, present, or future. In this state, we must conduct business and invest. The attitude toward business and investing is to focus on judging the “trend” by applying the concepts of differential and integral calculus simultaneously. Differential weather (e.g., morning and afternoon of a day) is easy to predict, but long-term future weather cannot be forecasted even by supercomputers. However, by accumulating knowledge of the past and analyzing it integrally, it is possible to predict the trend of the distant future to...

Only when there is a surplus can new things be created. Surplus means having more than what is necessary. Creating something new requires an initial investment in advance. Whether it’s labor or capital—that is, whether labor is purchased with capital—energy can only be used for new work if there is a surplus. Only with prior investment can something entirely new, never seen before, be made. The existence of something that did not exist before in this world results from someone putting in their surplus first. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Money is the most widely used medium of exchange worldwide, serving as a way to buy essential goods needed for life or to store wealth. Since the country guarantees the stability of fiat currency, it becomes possible to exchange ‘things for money’ instead of ‘things for goods,’ unless the country goes bankrupt. However, this amount of money cannot be increased indefinitely. When there is too much money in circulation, its value drops below the price of goods, causing those who hold wealth in money to lose that wealth. The key point is that money is limited in the market. Due to this limitation, money gains value. The government regulates this money supply through the ‘interest rate.’ Raising the interest rate reduces the money supply, while lowering it increases the supply. This helps control prices. Therefore, understanding the interest rate is crucial for managing and valuing wealth, making it essential to know the interest rate above all else in life. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) is gaining attention. It refers to a type of media service where viewers watch ads and access content for free instead of paying a fixed subscription fee to watch movies or shows online. However, strictly speaking, FAST isn’t truly free because viewers must watch ads. In terms of opportunity cost, the viewer pays for the service by watching ads instead of paying a subscription fee. All free offerings are created through a value exchange. Let’s not be mistaken—nothing is truly free. Freebies are simply a form of payment. My expenses become someone else’s income. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Humans can explain why they consciously act, but it’s hard to clarify their unconscious actions. When we can’t explain our unconscious behaviors, we often feel a sense of fear. We perform many actions unconsciously without realizing it, but if we can’t explain why, our brains invent their own stories. Humans are naturally drawn to and affected by stories. Fear arises when we’re in a situation that can’t be explained by our stories. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

It took 3,000 years from the appearance of smallpox in the world to the development of a vaccine. It took 13 years for AIDS, 5 years for Ebola, and just 4 months for COVID-19. Seven days after the COVID-19 outbreak was reported to the WHO, all of the viral DNA sequences were identified. The rapid development of an mRNA vaccine in such a short timeframe has never been achieved in human history. This demonstrates how remarkable progress in biology and biotechnology has become. Similarly, the pace of wealth creation and economic growth has also sped up. It is a recent phenomenon in the long history of human life that we now measure time in seconds. We need to understand what kind of world we are living in right now. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Negativity Bias: the tendency to focus more on bad things than good ones, influenced by its survival benefits. Our language contains about 30% words expressing positive emotions, 50% expressing negative emotions, and the rest neutral. It’s probably normal to say negative things. However, even in this environment, a small number of successful people use “positive language” that they are less likely to speak. Habits are important. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Globalization is not a recent phenomenon; it began in the 1870s when international trade and investment expanded to sell mass-produced products worldwide, driven by technologies such as steam engines and electricity. The peak of globalization occurred in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The economy advances primarily through improvements in productivity. The technological advancements mentioned have significantly influenced this productivity growth. For example, a smartphone, which combines the functionality of a computer with that of a mobile device, exemplifies technological progress that has brought convenience to mankind. However, smartphone technology and network effects haven’t contributed to the expected boost in human productivity. Technology can be categorized into those that enhance productivity and those that do not. Although today’s technology development exceeds that of the past, it doesn’t automatically lead to greater productivity. To build wealth, incre...