Day11 - Materialism

I took a server quote profit from a flat $200 to over $800 today. Not a bad increase, especially from a $3.5K sale: pretty typical of my way of performing sales - while still providing the client a discount & undercutting the main competition. I really think sales are my strong point - I'd like to focus more on this area. I understand the mindset of clients & their available options, I also do the research required to give me the intelligence/edge.

Strange then that I'm not very materialistic. I admire beauty but abhor status symbols. Sometimes they're mutually inclusive, I focus on the beauty, or look elsewhere for that without the taint. I live simply, well, & want for very little. I love the saying "you can't take it with you". The accumulation of wealth has never seemed difficult to me: just a matter of investing the time & timing your investments. If one thing does make me wake in the early hours, it's the thought of finances, but that has not occurred for a long time (I'm too busy dreaming about performing astral projection experiments!). Maybe that's why I treat sales like a game.

Interesting then to think that I initially proved my market skills in another game: EQ (and other subsequent mmo's where I've bothered to invest the time). I still have the spreadsheets I used as ledgers, that I later used in WoW & Warhammer. I had a ball with trading in EQ - almost as much fun as the game itself, however both are insane timesinks. Even though loads of fun & some awesome memories, these days I feel like I'm wasting my life playing & not necessarily learning as much as I could be, or even better: creating. I've proven my skills in virtual currencies, I have no desire to do so again. I need to find a real-life equivalent to put my skills to use. I don't get bad returns on my current investments, but I know there's more out there for me. More RL gaming to be had =) I played EQ for 3.5 years, but in the end I wasn't playing the game, I was exclusively trading. Buy low, sell high, know the market, time your purchases. Pretty simple formula. Once I reached my goal of an impressive 1,000,000 platinum profit (2.5K cash in the bank) I quit.

It seemed to be the most logical solution.

PS resumed my bathing ritual tonight. Bath oils, half a bottle of a slightly sour moscato (Wolf Blass), and some sobering (and ironic) viewing: watching Celebrity Rehab. That show invariably makes me cry - it really gives me much encouragement, inspiration & renewed vigor.