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”
Recording and storing purposes include reloading, confirming, and recalling memories and data when needed later. There is nothing more foolish than when recording and storage become ends in themselves. The same applies to money. When frugality and saving become ends in themselves, the function of generating profit through investing money and creating surplus by spending turns into foolish storage that fails to achieve a positive function. Such a person will engage in activities that neither they nor others can benefit from. We should always examine whether the ends and means have been interchanged. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”