You Don't Have to Be A Slave To Money, But Respect Its Value

Two guys walk down the same road. They both see a penny lying on the ground. The first guy just takes a glance at it and keeps on walking without even paying any attention to the penny. It's not the first time this has happened, but "what value does a penny have?"...he would ask. You can hardly call it money...what are you going to do with a penny?

The second guy responds differently though. He stops, casually picks up the penny, and then continues walking down the road. It's not the first time this happens to him either. Back at his house, he has a jar full of pennies and other coins he occasionally picks up. Over time, he has made several deposits into his bank account with all these coins and it is always a welcome contribution to his savings. It just helps him moving towards his goal a little faster without any additional effort.

Never Become A Slave to Money But Respect Its Value.

The story above is a just result of my imagination, but it originates from a principle my father always taught me when I was still a small boy back in the early '60s.

He said, "never become a slave to money, but always respect its value".

In those years, South Africa has just changed over from using the British Pound to using the South African Rand as currency and the South African Rand had about the same value as the British Pound.

As I grew up, I noticed how people would sometimes see a 1 cent coin lying on the road but ignore it, saying "what are you going to buy with 1 cent?"

But my father said to me, "let's say you are saving to buy something you really want. Then, one day, you walk into a shop and you find what you want at the price of R1.00. But when you count your money, you only have R0.99. You cannot make the purchase. You short that one cent to have R1.00".

Times Have Changed But The Principle Remains The Same.

The South African rand has lost a lot of its value since then, but the same has happened to just about all the fiat currencies all over the world. Some just more than others.

Currently, even though the world is still trading in fiat currencies, everything is going digital. Just about all transactions are now done by card or online payments.

Today, we face the dawn of a new era...cryptocurrencies.

Yet, through all this growth and technological development, the principle remains the same...

• Do not become a slave to money, but respect its value.

If you have $0.99, you do not have $1.00.

If you have 0.999 CTP, you do not have 1 CTP token - and you might still just short that 1 CTP token to hit your 10K target (a popular goal/target here in the CTP swarm - although "wow!", that would be close...lol).

Whether you still believe in the value of the dollar, whether you believe bitcoin is the future or whether you believe hive tokens are the best thing out, they all have value. Yet, the value is changing consistently.

I've experienced this first-hand with my recent little experiment with the Start Earning Today program by @jongolson. While the value of one token would be down this week, another would increase in value and next week it is the other way around. Yet, the total value of my experimental portfolio showed a consistent increase. The value of each token contributed to the overall value.

Respect Goes Beyond the Value of Money.

There are no two people in the world who are exactly alike. Every individual is unique in his/her own right and we need to respect that.

Each and every individual has his/her own idea about success, growth, and how to invest.

If we can learn not to become slaves of money, but respect its value and use it as a tool, I believe we will be able to extend that respect to other individuals too. We will either start learning from them or support them in what they do.

This is exactly what I appreciate of the #ctpswarm. It is one of the most supportive (if not the most supportive) communities I have ever seen.

This became so evident to me when I watched a great vlog post by Zoltan (@ph1102). In his post, he explains how he enjoys the benefit of getting more value from his activities from building personal relationships on the hive blockchain than just monetary value alone.

That does not take away any value from gains in monetary value. But, what I greatly respect is that he does not allow monetary gains to rob him from appreciating the value of human interaction and respect for his fellow community members.

So, are you going to ignore that penny lying in the road? Or are you going fit it as the last missing peace to your puzzle (to complete your goal)?

With the strong leadership of this community, the loyalty and support, I believe all that still needs to be done is to show up every day and do what needs to be done.