Want to get rich quickly? Here’s the dirty secret – you can, if you sell your soul!
Seriously; one mistake that people make in EVE Online is when they hear someone bragging about how much money they’ve made in a single hour, they forget that raking in that kind of cash takes significant investment in both time and money. The kind of wealth that would buy capital ships (or PLEX at this rate) takes time, ISK, investment, knowhow, skill, and maybe a little luck, all combined into one. It especially takes consistency and diversity.
Likewise, the term ‘quickly’ is relative to the individual, depending on how desperate and driven they are for ISK.
If one wants to truly get rich in EVE, it’s a good idea to diversify one’s portfolio, and treat it seriously. This means having multiple streams of income, such as missions, salvaging, planetary infrastructure, mining skills, and the pursuit of some kind of activity that can not only keep you engaged, but also reward you for your time and effort on a relatively consistent basis.
Sure, you might find a billion-ISK item while traversing a wormhole, but if you find that item once a month (or longer), that kind of ISK might run out before you know what to do with it. And if that becomes your only activity and doesn’t yield consistent profit, you’re going to end up driven to pursue some other path.
Sure, you could descend into the dark rabbit hole of scamming people in trade hubs, but will you be able to sleep at night? Will you be proud of yourself and your ill-gotten gains?
One component of EVE is the balance of time-to-profit and risk-versus-reward; high-risk means high-reward; lengthy investment and improved skills typically yield greater profit, or at least raises your chances of higher profit.
If one is just starting out, mining, missions, and selling the salvage from both are good starter pursuits, which can generate a good income as you improve your skills and performance.
Longtime veterans might run more advanced missions, Incursions, Agency events, or PVP and sell the dropped high-yield gear.
Personally? I fly Incursions, but I’ve also been flying Incursions since 2013 almost non-stop; I’ve made investments to prepare for and pursue Incursions no matter where they strike in the cluster. And I am rewarded handsomely for my time.