There is no easy money

Here is where I end up, after googling "app development jobs postings", "candlestick signals" and searching for "steemit contests."

Everybody wants easy money, perhaps on the side, or perhaps as a main occupation. Money gives us things and services, and those things and services can improve our lives significantly.

We want that money and we're willing to pay for it

That’s the thing with money. Everybody wants it. People are willing to trade their lives for it. Some may call this their job, and others may claim that money is just a side-effect of being very good at doing what they love.

Many of us are on Steemit just for that, trying to find a balance or a way that allows us to earn money by doing something that we enjoy, whether it is posting content, creating communities or even spamming the heck out of the website (my guess is that spammers enjoy doing it because otherwise it seems so damnably boring!)

In my case, shared by many others, I simply enjoy writing and sharing. No matter if I get paid or not, if I get a good idea for an article or a song I’ll be writing it, no matter what. In the process I then may realize that the idea was good, but the form it took was not as interesting, so it would get dumped until something better came by.

Is earning money your goal or a side-effect? What about the time you spend on Steemit?

"There are no jobs. Steemit's content and design are rotten. I missed out!"

In this day and age, when cryptos seem to have created a world of their own, offers for free money surface. And why not? Don’t we have a shot to become the guy who sold a pizza for 10,000 BTC?

I hope that laszlo is doing well these days.

We could call that “easy money,” but like in physics, applied forces have an equal and counteractive force.

The early BTC holders put their faith in a concept that, at the time, promised much but meant little. I remember joking with my friends while in high school, telling them: “I’m going to set up my old PC to mine Bitcoin!” At the time, each BTC went for $30. I tried setting it up but the darned machine was too slow and I just let the idea go. Should I regret not putting more effort into it?

Image credit: After Skool

Opportunities come and go, but they do keep coming. Our job is to go through the doors as they appear.

Is money the real goal?

Do you want money just for the heck of it? I don’t think so. Perhaps you’d like to buy a new computer? Or what about inviting your special other to dinner? Would you like a nice house? Or are you struggling to pay the bills? I live in Venezuela, an hyper-inflationary country where a dozen of eggs costs about $100. I need money pronto to support my family and myself, not because I “like” money.

We are humans. Our body does not tell us “you need money,” no. Our body tells us “you’re hungry, you’re powerless, you are tired all the time.”

We then weigh the possibility of making money versus our lives. Is working 8 to 5 in an office really worth it? Am I willing to sacrifice that daily tall latte to save up cash on the side? We compare value to price, and most of us are not great at making the right calls.

Now, this is a calling. You may read this article in just a few minutes, but the preparation and education that led me to write it has taken years.

You may farm that ETH or DOGE faucet all you like, until you realize that getting drunk on ads is wasting away your beautiful mind, which has taken years to evolve and grow to bring you to this place and time.

I'm sure you are super excited to sit in front of a computer and farm those faucets!

Perhaps you may see that your Steemit posts are not very popular. Why not study popular authors and what makes them successful? (For this, I recommend Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury)

How about following crypto trading signals on a Telegram channel? You can always ride the wave, but where does the initial investment come from? Will you then bet that money in favour of some guy that you found on the internet? The pain of loss is always greater than that of forsaken gain.

We are not the first, nor will we be the last. Pyramid schemes, advertising, crypto airdrops. It all sounds too easy, right? It does, because it is not. There is always some sort of trade-off. Each second you’re investing your life into whatever you are doing, into whatever person you choose to be at that particular moment.

Are you studying? Are you working? Are you playing Hearthstone or online poker? Video-game enthusiasts chose to build a streaming platform for themselves and their audience, which in turn choose to see the content they are interested in, and the players that entertain them. They are trading energy. There is always people on the other end, not machines.

We fool ourselves into thinking that money can come from thin air, but no, there's always a person. The world is about people, about cooperation. We are our greatest asset, and only those who understand that may see beyond what lies in front of their faces.

I invite you to watch this video illustrating Jim Carrey’s speech at MUM Graduation in 2014.

Thank you for reading me.