The value of deliberate practice applies everywhere. I wouldn't want to do this particular exercise because I did a little bit of this in 2005, and the shipping part of it was kind of tiresome and exhausting, but you can do the same thing with World of Warcraft -- practice the key skill of buying low and selling high over and over again.
I actually did that with WoW, but I skipped the whole buy low/sell high thing after discovering a cunning hack which made me ridiculously wealthy until I got to around level 50 and had to start buying low and selling high like everybody else. The big lesson I got from that: finding a smarter profit-making system than average will give you wildly above-average earnings. I suppose the little lesson is that hacks are context-sensitive.
Anyway, the point is not which WoW method makes the most gold, or whether eBay profit margins do or do not offer opportunities, the point is to use deliberate practice to sharpen your money-making skills the same way you would use it to learn scales on an instrument. I did this in 2010, with a goal to launch a new mini-business every month. Didn't hit the goal, but learned a lot, and some of the little businesses I did launch worked out quite well.
I definitely recommend following this advice. Making money is a skill like any other. There's substantial research on how to attain high levels of skill. Leverage that research to develop the skills you want. Could not be more sensible.
I actually did that with WoW, but I skipped the whole buy low/sell high thing after discovering a cunning hack which made me ridiculously wealthy until I got to around level 50 and had to start buying low and selling high like everybody else. The big lesson I got from that: finding a smarter profit-making system than average will give you wildly above-average earnings. I suppose the little lesson is that hacks are context-sensitive.
Anyway, the point is not which WoW method makes the most gold, or whether eBay profit margins do or do not offer opportunities, the point is to use deliberate practice to sharpen your money-making skills the same way you would use it to learn scales on an instrument. I did this in 2010, with a goal to launch a new mini-business every month. Didn't hit the goal, but learned a lot, and some of the little businesses I did launch worked out quite well.
I definitely recommend following this advice. Making money is a skill like any other. There's substantial research on how to attain high levels of skill. Leverage that research to develop the skills you want. Could not be more sensible.