cream cat

How can poor people become rich? By working hard? That's a joke. Many poor people work hard day after day, but do they become rich by the time they die? Of course not. Poor people can have nothing, but they cannot accumulate more debt. Poor people can go all in, but they must limit themselves to what they currently possess, without borrowing money or having negative net worth. Because once they have negative net worth, the debt will accumulate at a negative compound interest rate, making it even harder for them to turn their lives around. So the first priority is to work hard and pay off debts, and only then will they have the opportunity to take risks. Otherwise, they won't even have the chance to take risks. Do poor people have to gamble?

Because if you look at all the rich people, none of them became rich by "slowly getting rich". Slowly getting rich is correct, but if you also want to rely on slowly getting rich to obtain your first pot of gold, you will definitely not achieve it even by the time you die. So since you are very poor, what you should look for is something that may result in a 100% loss of capital, but with returns exceeding 100% and no limit. What if you lose all your capital? Just start over, anyway you don't have much money, and it's easy to earn it back through work, and then you will have another chance. When your asset-to-income ratio is high, you should do safe things, because once you lose, you won't be able to maintain your current status. But if your asset-to-income ratio is low, you should do extremely risky things, because you can quickly replenish what you lose.

Once, Liu Dehua had an opportunity to play the male lead in a movie. He heard that Chow Yun-fat had turned it down, so he went to find Chow Yun-fat and asked him why. Chow Yun-fat said, "I am here now" (making a high gesture), so I have to be very careful with every step. But you are here now" (making a low gesture), what do you have to lose? At most, you will start over from scratch. Liu Dehua suddenly realized this and became famous overnight. For poor people, the importance of participating in opportunities is much greater than the traditional meaning of working hard.

So why is this gambling not gambling? Because gambling is always a zero-sum or negative-sum game. In other words, in gambling, you cannot increase your chances of winning through skills. If you can, then it's not gambling, it's investment or something else. For example, lottery tickets, no matter how many you buy, you cannot increase your chances of winning. This is pure gambling and the house has a high edge. Any sensible person should not touch it. In addition, gambling is a game with equal probabilities. What does that mean? It means that you cannot increase your ability and chances of winning through multiple games. In contrast, investment and entrepreneurship, I used to joke that these are the first choices for squandering because their success rates are very low. But compared to gambling, where the long-term success rate is always zero, they are still better. For example, someone who has started multiple businesses is completely different from someone who is starting their first business. Just a few words of conversation will show the difference in comprehensive thinking and depth.

So what should poor people do to turn their lives around? They must gamble, but not on low probability events and not by following the crowd or working hard in the traditional sense. Instead, they should gamble on things with increasing probabilities of success, rather than things with a fixed success rate after repeated games. Today, I can fill my stomach with one steamed bun, tomorrow I should be able to fill it with half a bun, that's called optimizing efficiency. If today I can only fill my stomach with one steamed bun and tomorrow I still need one to fill it, then what I'm doing today is not optimizing efficiency, but merely coping with life, just maintaining survival. The benefits gained from doing things are not just tangible gains, but also the shaping of one's own abilities. Through doing things, a person becomes smarter, wiser, and broadens their horizons. Poor people already have a low starting point, if they don't optimize efficiency by doing the right things, they will be poor for their whole lives.

Finally, the definition of success is not just about becoming wealthy, but in this world, 99% of problems can be solved with money. That's why I don't think people playing memes is a mistake. The losses are limited, but the gains are unlimited. That's when gambling becomes meaningful, don't you agree?