If You Aren’t Being Greedy, You Aren’t Really Trying
I was listening to NPR on the way home from work today. A particular piece caught my attention and got me thinking.
The story revolved around the plight of shrimpers in Louisiana. It seems that importers from China and elsewhere are able to undercut the locals. Not tarrifs, nor safety concerns, nor simple patriotism seems to work to turn things around. Enterprising shrimp boat crews are finding ways to increase profits by cutting out the resellers and distributors by selling direct to consumers via farmers markets and dock to door deliveries.
A reseller will pay $1.75 or so per pound at the dock while to consumer will shell out around $4.00 a pound for the same product at a farmers market.
The part of the report that intrigued me was an ending comment by one of those local shrimpers. I’m paraphrasing here but the gist was this,
We are not trying to reap huge profits here we are just trying to survive.
Isn’t that curious? I have to believe that they are dooming themselves. If you have it in your head to just get by and are not going to make the extra effort to succeed then you are fulfilling your own prophecy.
Life is not about survival, you have to want to thrive! Bottom line you have to earn more to get ahead.
I’ve heard the line, “If you’re not cheating you’re not trying” applied to sports countless times. I think it’s time to apply a similar motto to personal finance. You have to want to get ahead. You have to want money. Greed is a good thing if you can use it to motivate yourself to do more.
So get motivated, get greedy, make your financial future your own.