Joseph's "Just My Thoughts"

Even if you gamble, you can’t do it alone. A partner must exist to exchange well-produced products and services, as added value is created only through such exchanges. Without a connection, realizing added value becomes difficult. Wealth is generated solely through transactions, which must precede consolidation. Networking has always been and remains crucial for creating wealth. Metcalfe’s Law states that when connected to a network, the effect is proportional to the square of the number of connections. This results in an exponential effect rather than an arithmetic series. While the number of connections is significant, the level of trust built, even with a few personal connections, is even more critical. To effectively utilize social media, strive to connect with as many networks as possible and build trust in those relationships once connected. Only then can you experience the exponential effect. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Debt inevitably incurs costs: the interest and the usage fee. Borrowing means using someone else’s property as if it were my own. When the purpose of borrowing is achieved, or when the agreed time to return it arrives, it is returned to another person’s possession, and the borrowing cost is no longer incurred. Costs also serve as the basis for production and are the consideration for almost all debts, regardless of the borrowing purpose. The frightening aspect of debt is that it incurs costs and requires repayment of the principal. Originally, the principal was not mine. Thus, spending with other people’s money exposes you to significant risks, especially when you spend on perishable consumption that disappears after use. If you spend someone else’s money without differentiating between production costs and costs for extinction, you are on the fastest path to destruction. Therefore, luxury can ruin even the rich. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

As a result, it is easy to justify a motive or process. Consequently, individuals who distort motives or processes excel at rationalizing their own mistakes and often misrepresent and belittle the original intentions of others. Such a person is adept at criticizing others, lamenting poor outcomes, and frequently exposing an underlying greed for regret. This individual effectively repels assistance from those around them, yet wonders why many betray him or her and depart. They also attempt to overlook the presence of greed at the core of their actions. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

When a cow dies, it becomes beef, and when a human being dies, it becomes a corpse. If you can’t live with honor, your life isn’t even as valuable as beef. Beef is food, but a corpse is merely a cost. Cows help humans until they die, but humans are worthless once they pass away. The sooner you understand this futility, the better your life will be. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

It is said that greed leads to ruin, but before that, it also leads to regret. In other words, the result of regret is ruin. If there is no greed, there is no regret. Greed also triggers sensitive and excessive reactions to wounds. The sensitive response of a human being is linked to wounds, and those wounds reinforce greed once again. Greed provides the strength to face hardship, but success often becomes the seed of a curse because of its aftereffects. We cannot completely eliminate greed, but our lives can be happy only if we manage it wisely. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

To concentrate, you must first give up. The choice lies in setting priorities, and to overcome the limits of concentration, you must boldly let go of things of low importance according to those priorities. Greed hinders the act of giving up. Not giving up is not merely about intelligence; it involves morality, values, and a person’s character. This is also why human beings do not succeed based on knowledge alone. Even if you decide to give up, concentration exists in another dimension. Choosing something means also giving up or rejecting something else. At this juncture, a value exchange occurs between what is chosen and what is discarded. Thus, our greed is linked to comparative values. The next choice and abandonment depend on the values I already possess. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

A consequentialist is someone who seeks to connect every conclusion to both motives and intentions. They have different attitudes towards giving up. The judgment of value by linking the beginning and the end also varies. For example, if it is said that a person is born and must die, it is argued that something that is not born is better anyway, or that death is the culmination of life, so it is not negative to die as soon as one is born. They make pessimistic judgments and draw radical conclusions by viewing a microscopic situation macroscopically or, conversely, by examining a macroscopic situation microscopically. Consequentialists see the assistance of those around them as mere tools. Their pleasure comes from winning over others for a plausible cause, and victory is seen as success and achievement. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

To be in debt is to draw the future into the present and consume it. Thus, living in debt leads to an empty future. The future becomes bright only by filling that void. However, some individuals sell time to people by pulling the future into the present. Starbucks Korea does this. The company requires customers to pay in advance for coffee they have not yet purchased through the membership program. Korean customers pay for coffee today, trusting that Starbucks will serve it in the future. Without this trust, no customer would pay in advance. Therefore, credit holds significant importance in economic principles and serves as the foundation on which the economy operates. After understanding the attribution and essence of the counter-presentations (the object of transaction and consideration) linked to debt, the wealthy utilize debt to their advantage. Starbucks Korea becomes a debtor to customers who pay for coffee in advance; however, even though it must provide coffee in the future, th...

To be in debt means using future time in advance. If you go into debt to avoid a difficult situation right now without awareness because you think, “I can pay it back later,” you will experience the cruelty of life against the fairness of time. Assuming that income does not change and the present is maintained, the future spent in advance will again be insufficient when the future that has been drawn up in the coming time becomes the present. In the end, this means you have to continue incurring debt. Not only do you have to repay a debt, but you also have to pay interest as compounded interest. Therefore, the present that has spent the future ahead of the past is poorer. Moreover, prices are higher than in the past. Most people in this world do not understand why debt is a burden due to compound interest. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

In this era, the credibility of the messenger is more important than the content of the marketing message. This means that who said what and who delivered the message are more influential and important. Therefore, rather than merely trying to convey something, it is necessary to establish who the messenger is and to build trust with the public. Thus, defining identity comes first, followed by the sincerity to constantly inform others. Then, people may believe anything, even if it’s a lie, but you must not tell lies. Who we are, what we do, and why we do this, no matter how small, must be communicated with faithfulness and persistence. Don’t try to convince the public; you have to build relationships in order to establish trust with people. The most important factor in forming a relationship is my identity. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations, believed that “empathy is an intellectual activity that takes into account circumstances, motives, luck, social status, and human character of the person.” The moment we blame another person’s actions, we examine the appropriateness of those actions. Adequacy is a state of neither excess nor understatement. If everyone else thinks a person is bad but I advocate for that person by saying, “I can understand,” then I approve of their actions. This situation is called “mutual sympathy.” In our lives, we can be egocentric in some cases and relation-centric in others. The more mutual sympathy exists, the more relationship-oriented our thinking becomes. Both too much and too little can lead to tiredness or dissatisfaction. Pursuing happiness means finding this adequacy. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

To receive investment or borrow money is to use the “future” in advance. We should be cautious about using the “future” ahead of the present. The way to determine whether a transaction is favorable or unfavorable is to assess whether the time associated with it is beneficial or hostile to you. Time affects both the weak and the strong equally. This fairness is daunting. It embodies the fear that there are no exceptions to this principle. If the amount of sand (time) in both hourglasses is the same and the gravitational pull is equal, but the amount of sand falling is different, the outcome is significantly different. The fairness of time causes those who live in the future rather than the present to consume irretrievable value. The poor either do not recognize or overlook the fact that increases or decreases in wealth inevitably discriminate against those who live simultaneously. There is nothing more foolish than moving forward in time knowingly. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

If you think that ‘expressing love is all about love,’ your eyes will not be able to see the other person properly. If you haven’t truly contemplated love, you won’t have the ability to judge whether someone genuinely considers me. In this scenario, there is a high possibility that it will become one of those relationships where the other person is used to beg for affection or is deceived by coaxing. Thinking about love begins with clearly defining what it means to be human in one’s mind. If this premise is flawed, then the feeling of love can destroy the relationship between the two; people may end up blaming the lover. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

If you eat food solely for nutrition, there’s no need to cook it elaborately; just choose a nutritional supplement. However, food intake not only provides nutrients to our bodies but also offers the pleasure of experiencing various tastes, especially flavors known as aromas through the sense of taste. Incense reflects civilization and culture. Therefore, the food business must be cultural, and for fragrance-related businesses such as coffee, wine, and perfume, both a cultural approach and an understanding of fragrance are crucial for success. Occasionally, there are businessmen who try to sell food by emphasizing nutrition while neglecting the pleasure derived from this rich civilization and culture. I recommend that these businessmen sell nutritional supplements only. It is unfortunate to engage in business without a grasp of civilization and culture. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Let’s say you have two options. If you press the blue button, you will receive 1 million USD, and if you press the red button, you will receive 10 million USD, but the probability of winning is 50%. Which button would you press? If pressing the blue button is business, pressing the red button is gambling. In other words, depending on your attitude toward the relationship between risk and reward, we can determine whether we are suitable as managers. But if you press the red button with a 50% chance of winning and you don’t win, and you have to pay a fine of 1 million USD, would you still press the red button? The relationship between risk and reward influences people’s behavior. Business is about creating a structure that is advantageous to me, and building a system in which the structure continues to benefit me is called management. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

If you can’t throw away what you have, you don’t own it properly. If you cannot leave the place you are staying, you are not entirely settled. Possession and non-possession share the same root, and wandering and settlement share the same root. There is no eternal state; we only enjoy a temporary state. It is often misunderstood that a state of possession for a moment is possession, and that a momentary absence is mistaken for wandering. The world changes, and you change too. Obsession and stubbornness will only hinder your change. If you know how to give up and leave at any time, the value of what you currently have and the state you are in will change significantly. Stability comes from sharing instability. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

It also means that if I have been fortunate in the way I have lived up to now, misfortune may come one day. Management involves looking at both sides of this coin. When business conditions are good, we need to prepare for tough times, and when business conditions are bad, we need to prepare for better times. If you have experienced misfortunes so far, you should hope that the opposite can also occur. Nothing lasts forever. The universe also changes from time to time, and we must abandon the notion that the society we live in will remain the same. Management is the act of converting uncertainty into certainty. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Being wealthy means your assets grow larger, and their value increases too. The purpose of all economic activity is to secure assets. The more assets you have, the more opportunities you create. Assets represent the total of what one owns and borrows from others. In other words, it is the complete amount of resources available for earning time. Resources serve as the foundation for acquiring additional resources. It’s like using small earthworms as bait to catch fish. Thus, it is said that money makes money. This is referred to as financial income. Income is primarily categorized into earned income and financial income. If you have a substantial earned income but lack financial income, you are more likely to face poverty in the future. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Although it is not possible to draw a conclusion due to insufficient study, scholars are examining “Is it really fair that humans are rewarded according to their abilities?” and the results suggest that luck and community support are decisive for success. Of course, one cannot ignore or disparage an individual’s abilities. However, it is more accurate to say that they have a limited impact on success. In humans, parental influence—namely, genetic and environmental factors—emerges as the most important aspect according to the study results. The issue is that no one can choose their parents. This is the fundamental reason we must remain humble. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Management is the activity of transforming uncertainty into certainty to create predictability. For example, investing in stocks when you don’t know when or how much you’ll make is a gamble, but finding a way to achieve an average return of 15% per month is management. Bank loans have a fixed schedule for when and how much principal and interest must be repaid. It is not the banking business where you can repay or request repayment at any time when you have funds. Nevertheless, we gamble or engage in a ritual for rain, mistakenly believing that it is management. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”