A little secret from my engineering years, I used to write my paper by thinking of what the examiner wanted to see. I would make up diagrams that looked relevant and made my handwriting more legible for sentences I was sure about. Worked!
tl;dr: Examiners like to flip through many pages of relevant looking content. Make their life easy.
Moving forward/progressing would happen no matter what direction you take..
is filled with obstacles that repeat over the course of your life, but looking at things differently each time lets you explore opportunities you might have missed..
And you can learn from them, only after you have admitted that you have committed one.
Blaming others (people, circumstances etc) for your mistakes means you are distancing yourself from the possible learning that might come your way.
If you have not committed mistakes in your life, you clearly lack experience.
IMHO, learning from your own mistakes requires few qualities.
Most important of them being, being able to role-play yourself in situations where you made mistakes. i.e able to go beyond denial mode.
Second, self-confidence that is needed to admit things.
Third, courage which is needed to bring changes.
So, In short:
1. Admit your mistakes. Be wise.
2. Make sure to make use of your mistakes. Learn from them.
3. & MOVE ON to next venture.
It's a poor organization if the following happens:
You observe people spending much of their time fighting organizational boundaries. (think broken processes and practices).
You observe people are confused about their job. Or are not very clear about expectations from their job. This leads to the situations where/when no-one knows if they are getting the job done (or not). (missing value-add)
You see some people working hard and extra hours, and they think that they get the job done. But in the hindsight, they have no idea what it means for the company and their own careers.
If someone finally manages to work up the courage and tell management how screwed their situation is. Following things happen (in sequence):
Denial mode ensues. Management denies there is a problem.
And then..Defend mode ensues. Management defends status-quo.
And then, Do-nothing mode ensues. Management ignores the problem.
Hiring is too much skewed towards referrals and interview feedback is not respected.
...
- Always plan assuming that it would change sometime soon. Still plan.
- Understand risk management. Many people claim to understand risk, but that is not true.
- Identify your blind spots (thought process). This will take years and a mentor to do it right.
- Hope for the best. At the same time be prepared for the worst. This is not easy to do both of these at the same time.
- Learn to learn from what people *did*, not what from they *think*. (Even if they have failed.)
-- Opinions are just opinions.
-- Strategy is also just a strategy until it's executed (even if you fail).
- Execute quickly...and if you have to, *fail early*. Or *Pivot* into new strategy before you start hearing about it from outside.
- Don't paint everyone with the same brush. Context/perspective is the key to understand the world around you.
For most of us (including myself) ... investing is scary. Simply because the world of finance is an ultimate confusopoly.
There are so many options from which to choose that many people are willing to pay perhaps 1-2-3% of their portfolios per year for experts to manage their money. (PMS services. Distributors, etc etc).
And those experts might invest your money in managed mutual funds (managed by yet other experts) that charge you another 1-2% to pick stocks for you.
And all this is despite the fact that on an average, experts can't beat a monkey with a dartboard when it comes to picking stocks…
In theory, no-one can beat markets while being strategic…as far as I know.
Worse yet, actively managed investments will generate more tax liability for investors than necessary…because managers need to churn stocks to maintain the appearance of usefulness.
It’s never that experts would agree, roughly, in how a typical portfolio should be allocated.
If you are young, you should own mostly stocks. If you are nearing retirement, you should have mostly bonds. But lately, even this assumption is being questioned. Some experts now say you need a healthy percentage of stocks even if you're nearing retirement, because you might live another 30 years or so.
Suppose if we could come up with the world's simplest portfolio that is better than what the average money managing expert might suggest. (by better, I mean, it convinces you that it would work).
Let’s try out some ideas here, which can be improved upon later, keeping within some simple guidelines.
1. let's assume the hypothetical money is invested entirely for retirement, so we don't need to worry about keeping any of it liquid for college or buying a house. This assumption is just to keep things simple. Also because retirement planning is one of the most difficult financial planning I would ever do for myself.
2.I will only think about investments that can be made up to 10 years prior to the planned retirement. This is because, when you near retirement, you would typically and gradually want to convert as much of your equity portfolio into bonds as necessary to get the monthly income you need. That's a more complicated scenario, I prefer not to discuss here. It’s easier said than done.
As a starting point, a perfectly adequate simple portfolio for young people might involve putting 70% of your money in an index-equity fund. (say NIFTY), which captures the entire market trend. In other words, you can buy one financial instrument and own a little bit of just about every public company in the market.(though technically might not be correct, as NIFTY is just a representation of some 50 odd companies, but that still is well diversified). That's all the diversification you can get within one country. And because these fund managers don't do much buying and selling within the portfolio, it doesn't generate much overhead costs to pass along to investors.
I picked 70% to allocate to this investment because I contend that no expert has a good reason for picking a different figure. Some experts might tell you 60% is the right allocation, and some might say 80%.
I contend that most allocation recommendations of that sort are no more defensible than horoscopes.
For the remaining 30% of your investments, we can invest in commodities like Gold exchange traded funds. This gives you a play on the commodity side with a hedge against equity, while maintaining growth in the long run.
That too at low cost, with no fund-manager-decisions involved and low taxes.
And remember that this suggested portfolio was supposed to be simple enough for the average person to understand and obtain without expert advice and without excess risk.
Does it sound good?
PS1: This is just a mental exercise I am doing for fun. Not an advice by any means. And if, you were about to believe all this, you should understand that any roadside financial planner would be able to take you for a ride easily. Be cautious!
I think, we should always try to see things form other people’s perspective..This allows us to empathize even if we disagree.
Compassion, I believe, gives you room to relate with people because we no longer regard them as a drain/threat.
The alternate path is to be stubborn and adamant idiot…unwilling to consider anyone else’s opinions and needs…living in shear ignorance. I have so many live examples around me..so don’t ask more.
I believe, money, in itself, is a means to an end and not an end unto itself. (just like success is a journey and not a destination..)
This is an important distinction.
Have you heard of those really..really unhappy and *rich* people ? The ones that get depressed or get crazy and drink their lives away or kill themselves?
They are the people, at the first place, who thought that money would bring them happiness.
This is a myth.
Sure, money can help you buy nice things and open up all kinds of doors. But if you don’t have that happiness already, all money is going to do is...give you more sadness...or boredom.
It is an amplifier, and whatever you already feel(and have) will become more intense as you get more of it. This includes unhappiness.
I think...the pursuit of money is really silly.
Instead, it should be the pursuit of things and ideas that bring you money. And for the things that money can help you do or achieve.
Lyrics:
Koi deewana kehta hai koi pagal samjhta hain,
magar dharti ki bechani ko bas badal samjhta hain,
Main tujhse dur kaisa hu,tu mujhse dur kaisi hain,
Yeh tera dil samjhta hain ya mera dil samjhta hain
Ke mohobbat ek ehsaason ki paawan si kahaani hain,
kabhi kabira deewana tha kabhi meera diwaani hain,
Yahaan sab log kehte hain meri aakho mein aasu hain,
Jo tu samjhe toh moti hain jo na samjhe toh paani hain
Mat poooch ki kya haal hai mera tere aage,
Tu dekh ke kya rang hain tera mere aage
Samandar peer ka andar hain lekin ro nahi sakta,
Yeh aasu pyaar ka moti hain isko kho nahi sakta,
Meri chahat ko dulhan tu bana lena magar sun le,
Jo mera ho nahi paaya woh tera ho nahi sakta
Bhramar koi kumudni par machal baitha toh hungama,
Humare dil mein koi khwaab pal baitha toh hungama,
Abhi tak doob kar sunte the sab kissa mohobbat ka,
Main kisse ko hakikat mein badal baitha toh hungama
"If a little is not enough for you, nothing is." –Epicurus
All the more..what’s amusing to me is the fact that philosophers..since ages..have been keen to tell the rest of us.. “how to live” and “how to be happy”.
And..if we go by it…the advice comes to us “with the lustre of intellectual achievement”…WTF?
Isn’t this in itself .. Being happy for them?
So..this is what the dude(err..I mean Epicurus) suggested..
1. Don't fear the gods (or fate, or blind chance)
2. Don't worry about death
3. What is good is easy to get
4. What is terrible is easy to endure
Philosophy: Study of philosophy is central to happiness…can help us deal with both..our fear of death and.. of the gods.
Friendship: Friendship is one of the most important aspects of the good life. Not only does it give us many benefits, it also benefits our friends as well.
Now, this is interesting.. Epicurus advised against getting married. He wasn't that impressed with sex either saying we should count ourselves lucky if sex didn't cause anyone any harm(!).
Prudence: is an excellent way of making decisions. All decisions can be seen as leading to pleasure or pain. Thinking ahead, planning for the future with these possible outcomes in mind will help lead a pleasurable life.
Security: Well you have to agree to it as-is…
And, according to the modern school of thought…
1. Epicurus was wrong about the detached life and commune living
2. Epicurus was wrong about avoiding marriage
3. Pleasure is not the opposite of pain
And this is what our dude got right…
1. Using cognitive strategies to deal with death and pain
2. Friendships matter more than status or money
3. Happiness comes from moderate varied pleasure
