Tuesday, May 18, 2010

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!

8 comments:

  1. Unless Stok edited it...

    Dboy is a Dbag cause there are no your/you're errors.

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  2. I know this is going off-topic, but I would consider someone who works at a quick stop and knows everything he needs to know and is polite to be more successful at his job than the business manager who doesn't give a shit about his workers and who takes a ridiculously high bonus when the company goes bad.

    I know, I know... it's beside the point, because we're strictly talking about how to earn as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time. But I still feel it's worth saying. :)

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  3. Rome wasn't built in a day.

    Take time to smell the roses.

    One mans success is another mans past time.

    Success, just like beauty...
    is in the eye of the beholder.

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  4. Speed goes in hand with efficiency. The experience every person experiences from server to server depends a great deal on resistance, which is the impedement to efficiency. Resistance is the competition, which can come from campers, other tycoons, monopolizers, spoilers, and availability. Your ability to react properly to these market factors will ultimately determine your speed.

    You have to WANT to be virtually rich to do this. If you lack the vision and goals, you won't do it. Track how fast you churn it, and then try to beat that record.

    I hit a record one-day revenue yesterday weighing in at 21,656g. I spent 2 hours total at the AH fighting it out (which is about all the time I have in the evenings). I book all revenue based on the day's postings and the gold collected before I go to work in the morning, which I affectionately call the "Overnights".

    The previous record had stood for over 2 months and the ROI on these sales was only ~45%, because I know exactly how profitable I am at any given time because of my purchase tolerance.

    Tracking helps a lot to determine how fast you are going. For my server, I think I'm going as fast as a person can go but I'm always on the hunt for more efficiency.

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  5. Do you have any thoughts on the release of the remote AH via iphone / armory?

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  6. @ Ralthrus
    Do not feed the trolls. Nom nom.

    @ Anon 1
    Of course you can be very good and efficient at your job at a quick stop. I'm sure we've all gone to a taco bell or something and the person who took our order had no clue what the difference between a tortilla and a taco is. Obviously not very good at their job. Anybody who can run a fast food restaurant cleanly and effectively has my respect as it's actually not an easy thing to do at all. Management is never easy.

    @ Zero
    Speed = efficiency is not necessarily true. If you just won the lottery or bet a few hundred grand on a horse race and managed to some how win that would definitely get you rich quick. Though I don't exactly 'count' that as being efficient though, but I do see your point. Running your business smoothly and effectively is naturally going to make things move along much faster.

    @ Anon 3
    I think it's just going to make things far easier for campers and botters. Now if they made it cross server AH'ing well, then I'd be VERY interested in cataclysm then heh.

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  7. I think it's all about working smarter, not harder. If you play WoW casually like I do then I think making 1k a day is really good. There are days where I can only log in for about 15 to 30 minutes just to post auctions and collect my profits.

    When comparing success I would have to say you would need to compare what kind of goals are realistic in your life. So you have to include time spent in game, amount of opportunities or professions you have available, and realm economic conditions. (Not saying you can't make money on certain realms because that is bull, just saying that gold per hour could be affected)

    I think as a casual player it is going to be a huge help with the remote auction house app. I think this will give me a big boost to my gold per hour but we will have to wait and see.

    Blinging WoW Gold & Economic Blog

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  8. Speed = efficiency - resistance.

    Ya cut my equation up!

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