Most ordinary people's "struggles" are meaningless; the only possible significance is to add fuel to social development, allowing smart people and the elite to extract a bit more profit.

If you want to start a restaurant or café, it might be better to use the same money to buy stocks in leading companies like Domino's, McDonald's, or Starbucks;

If you want to open a tobacco shop, it might be better to use the same money to buy stocks in Moutai, LV (which owns several good wine brands), or British American Tobacco;

If you want to open an internet café or lease space in a mall for children's entertainment facilities, it might be better to use the same money to buy Tencent's stocks;

If you return home after working in a club, find an honest person, and casually open a clothing store, it might be better to use the same money to buy stocks in Anta, Nike, or Uniqlo;

Even if you think opening a pet store is a promising new business, it's still better to buy stocks in Chewy, IDEXX, or Trupanion;

After studying for an afternoon and looking at numerous industries, if you have any small entrepreneurial ideas, from the perspective of probability and odds, at most time points, it is indeed better to directly buy equity in leading companies in that industry. The probability of buying into a Luckin Coffee delisting is much smaller than the probability of going bankrupt with your own struggles.

And you can save a lot of time and energy; the time and energy saved from working can still earn quite a bit. Most people floundering around end up just fattening the vampires like the tax authorities, Meituan, and Douyin that feed off you.

The ways to make money are just a few:

1. Become an impressive person and create value;

2. Become a vampire and plunder value;

3. Row the same boat with impressive people and vampires, sharing a bit of the soup; this is also the most reliable path for ordinary people. Find the companies in the industry you want to struggle in that are the most exploitative and try to align your interests with them.

If the greatest invention of the 20th century for ordinary people is the internet, then the greatest invention of the 19th century for ordinary people is a guaranteed capital market. It gave ordinary people with little resources but some brains a chance to change their lives.

Recognize your own circle of competence, do fewer stupid things, and your chances of failure will be greatly reduced; if you are lucky enough to be on the same boat as excellent people, your chances of success will greatly increase.

Do the things that are likely to be right, and persist in doing the things that are likely to be right.