Speed

This is an entry that I had written a while ago, but never posted. I didn't feel it quite belonged and didn't feel like I had gotten the point across properly. But now that I'm going over theory more than markets these days, it seems fitting. I must have re-written it a dozen times so if it seems a tad off or unfinished that's why.

Anybody can write a best selling novel. It's true, give any person a lifetime to dedicate to writing and they'll hit number one. But that isn't that interesting now is it? Sure having a best seller is great and all, but if it took you a life time to do that when a good writer can do the same each year the value would diminish a little. Emphasis here on good writer. You can think of this as comparing farmers to AH players. Sure you can both hit the gold cap, but can you define one as good at making gold and the other not? You can (and probably already do) by how long it took them to get capped.

The same thing can be said about making real money. Would you continue working your same job if your making so little you worried about paying bills? Doubtfully. Granted the dude working at a quick stop can be a millionaire at SOME point doing just that, but the guy setting up a full business enterprise will get there in a few years, not a lifetime. Who of those two would you consider "successful" at what they do?

Speed is a minor but important measurement tool that we use to judge the successes of ourselves and those of others but rarely even mention it. We always talk about time. Time spent crafting, time spent posting, our G/hour, our weekly/daily income. We speak of all this but nothing about the speed of things, just the total time. In the AH game, anybody can make 5k gold, but how long did it take you? Did it take you a day or two or did it takes weeks of boring grinding? We all have different reasons for wanting to amass a virtual fortune, but they are all YOUR reasons.

You want to get gold capped for X reason, but I might not care at all about X, only Y. Regardless of reasons, we all use two basic concepts to judge how successful we were at what we aimed for: amount of gold gained and the time frame we did it in. You have to feel some form of success to continually do something by choice, and the speed of which it's done is a great way to feel that you've actually succeeded and not just reached the end.

The amount gained is a personal milestone, one that each person sets that is significant to them. The speed of which you reach that milestone is how successful you consider yourself. If it takes me 6 months to make 100k and you did the same in a week, I won't think I'm that successful. Not because I base all my self worth on what others have done, but because you need some kind of reference for time spent/goal achieved. After all, time has no meaning unless you can base it off something. Set your own goal, your own mile stones and how quickly you want to get there, then race yourself. Make your reference about the facts, it's well known that getting to the gold cap with proper effort can be done in two months give or take. So don't say that Joe can do this in 2 months, say just that it CAN be done in that time.

Set your own milestones, goals, and get there as fast as you can. But make sure to enjoy the trip there as that's half the fun after all. And lastly with the title of this post, judge your own success on how fast you did what you did in addition to WHAT you did. Set your own standards. It doesn't matter if you're gold capped by a thousand or a copper. Doesn't matter if you killed Arthas with the whole raid alive or just the tank. Success = success. Next week, try and get the same thing done even faster because how soon you got there is just as important as the time spent getting there.

Thanks for stopping by!