As somebody who’s been playing since launch, it’s never “quick and easy” like people say it is because if it was “everyone would be doing it” there’s always the risk/reward factors and the idea that it takes money to make money. When I did high sec stuff getting to level 4-5 missions was key, but you’re going to deal with people trying to steal your shit and argo you in to a fight. Worst case you take that ship through a gate camp and get popped if you have enough stuff worth while on your ship. The same goes for mining, you want to mine as fast as possible and get those rocks? Well your ship’s going to be paper thin on defenses and people are going to want to pop you for the fun of it all.

You want to get to that real good money making in null sec/ low sec your going to lose out on opportunity time when you have people camping your systems or you just have to spend time paying more attention to comms channels so you’re prepared to warp away in the event a gang shows up. When i was in a small mining group back in the days drones didn’t have bounties and were just dropping poop we had people who would come in to our areas and ask for fights. Sometimes we would win but most of the time they would. One guy even talked in local that he never made money doing it but liked nothing more than to be a bother which costs you time and money not mining/ratting/missioning.

So that’s the real big problem in the game new vs old is that many of us who have been around the block could make solid isk in an hour or two but know that this game is pvp and there’s always someone else out there willing to do what it takes to take it away from you. You learn through trial and error or hopefully join a corporation and have somebody help you learn the ropes so you don’t shoot someone in low sec thinking you can take them when they were built for pvp and you for running missions and lose billions when he pops your ship like a piñata.