3.4 The Ability to Continuously Earn Money Outside of the Market
The core of regular investing is the ability of practitioners to make money outside of the market. Regular investors must be able to continuously invest over the long term, which means they need to have the ability to consistently earn money outside of the market over the long term. The money that they earn outside of the market must be able to cover all of their daily expenses and also expenses from any unexpected events. Above and beyond this, the more they can consistently earn over the long term the better. This is the part that is truly difficult. Regular investing itself is so easy that it can be summarized in just one word: buy.
Selling the same bit of time repeatedly is the most important upgrade of a person's personal business model, because it's the most basic way to effectively make money while you sleep. In an average lifespan of 78 years, a person only has 10.5 years of work time that they can sell. But if they can make money while they sleep (28.3 years), make use of their nine years of free time, and also use their time in such a way that they are selling it repeatedly, then they actually have income every second of every day. No matter whether they are riding in a car, getting dressed, or spending time with their children, they are always making money. Not only are they making money with at least three times the amount of time as a normal person, they are selling their time repeatedly, so the difference can be huge!
Actually, if you can't be the best, it's fine to try to come in second. So, is there an easier way?
The answer is: sales. Because, at its core...
Sales is buying other people's time and then selling it repeatedly.
This is the ultimate reason why people who work in sales often seem to have a higher income than those who work in other sectors.
A key similarity between sales and regular investing is that the choices of what to sell and what to invest in are both very important.
What is the best thing to sell?
It must be something that people need, and something that requires continuous communication to complete the sale.
In fact, everyone should focus on their ability to sell, because at the core of successful selling is one of life's most important skills: effective communication. The ability to sell is the ultimate skill.
What is the core of selling?
Trust.
Warren Buffett understands it this way:
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
At its core, trust is much more important than the product being sold. Without trust, no sale will take place.
Train your ability to sell. It's so important, and can be extremely useful in every aspect of your life. Furthermore, everyone has the chance to train themself to be a good salesperson. The most important thing is that it's an upgrade of your personal business model.
Is there anything else to do?
Of course there is. You can improve your ability to cooperate.Since people rarely take this concept seriously, let's make up a new word to describe it: cooperability. Being good at cooperating with others is actually also a small upgrade to your personal business model. It's not an easy thing to do, because increasing your "cooperability" also requires strong communication skills, trust, and being really good at something.
You must have a special skill that makes others want to cooperate with you. If you try to cooperate with someone but they are unwilling, the most probable reason isn't that they don't understand your value, it's that you don't have enough special skills to make them want to cooperate with you.
What's most important at this stage? The correct answer seems too obvious: honesty. People with no skills are all dishonest in many ways.All of this leads to the most serious defect, which is that, because they can't help but put all of their attention on the gains and losses and opportunities of the moment, it's impossible for them to have the ability to make macro observations from a long-term perspective.
Another way to improve cooperability is by not complaining.
If someone is able to truly reject all complaining, then it will definitely cause them to put all of their energy into doing their part, which naturally improves their cooperability.
When you become a regular investor, and all of your success in the market has been due to one secret: I' been constantly working hard and honestly to make money outside of the market.