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”
It's a simple calculation. No matter how unstable the economy, residential real estate prices are unlikely to increase tenfold in a decade. But it's quite possible for the stock of Apple, Amazon, or Google to increase tenfold in that time. That's because they're organizations that continue to create value-added. It's very easy to make better investment judgments and decisions, but our instinct to seek stability can lead us astray. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”