In a fair world each investment should yield a return that fully reflects the value of the effort made and the risk taken. High risk and intensive efforts should be rewarded by a fat return. The logic seems obvious: those who stick their necks out, gain. In the real world these gains are less obvious: it seems that those who avoid making the effort are being implicitly rewarded for doing so.

Although the words ‘investments’ and ‘return’ appear to imply a monetary connotation, they are expressions of underlying motions and principles. Human beings, selfish at the heart, tend to collect relationships and material things that would be called savings from a monetary perspective. They tend to explore new possibilities, aiming to increase their collection. In monetary terms these would be considered investments and returns.

Putting effort into the exploration of new possibilities raises profitability. Profitability, though, is the average of all returns. On average, taking risk and making an effort should bring better returns than if you would not have done so. The question is: which investments yield the best returns and which ones leave you with a loss, regardless of the effort you have undertaken?

There is another component we should add: demand or desire. It is wise to invest in projects that will be in demand. These are the projects that bring in the returns. Demand for the product of your investment depends on many factors, but basically it boils down to the following: do people (society as a whole, specific groups or individuals) desire what you have on offer?

Even though your investment and struggle seem to have genuine intentions, one might find that nobody is interested in the product of your investment and you end up with a loss. In that case, it appears that investing was not worthwhile. To make things worse, those who avoided making an investment will be better off in the end. Although this seems to be a saddening conclusion, the investors have morally won in any way: they are not facing a coward in the mirror.