In the Christian Bible, there is a story called the The Parable of the Talents. In summary a rich man entrusted each of three servants the equivalent of 20 years labour in silver. There are variations in the story but the point is that one of the servants was able to multiple the initial investment many times; the second one was able to multiplied it, but less; while the third servant buried the money so he presented his master the same amount as had been given.
There is a thought exercise that I used to give to my students. "How much money would you have if I gave each of you $20,000?" Most would have substantially less. They would spend it on living expenses, or waste it on frivolous expenditures. The next group would put in into the bank and earn interest on it. A few of my students had ideas on ways to invest it and have several multiples of it in a year.
Cost of production in 2018 is predicted to be $645 per acre. The breakeven price for corn at a yield level of 200 bushels per acre is $3.23 per bushel.
Source
At the current asking price for corn of $7.66 per bushel a farmer would earn $1532 per acre. The net profit per acre would be $887. Twenty thousand dollars would allow a farmer to plant 31 acres. At the end of the year the farmer would have $27497 making a surplus of almost $7500. That is the box mentioned in the video that the majority of people get stuck in. Another person might take that money and invest in the futures market and buy or sell options on corn. When a person buys or sells options, the value is multiplied by 1000.
Between 17-May and 20-May on this chart, the price fell from $796 (per 100 bushels) to $766 (I am trying keep this illustration simple) a drop of $30. This means that in three days, someone made 30 * 20,000 = $600000. A farmer with knowledge on how the future market works can easily make multiples on his initial investment without putting one seed in the ground.
Yesterday, I looked at how NFTs would work on the Steem Platform in my article STEEM.NFT: Erehwonenoon # 0001. If I become famous, this NFT could be extremely valuable for the low price of 2.99 SBD. I have yet to see the final step of the process but more or less you have the right of ownership of a token of this image.
If I was Banksy, maybe that NFT might be worth millions!!!
I am spending the next while playing around with various aspects of Steem and seeing what I can do with my talents.