Save your money

The twenty’s and thirty’s are the most productive periods in one’s life because what one does in this period determines his/ her success in wealth creation, a continued comfortable life and financial security.

Here are some tips that could be useful:

1. You need mobility but not in a high end car that needs that extra 5-8 lakhs which could be saved in a bond or a good stock.

2. Dining out with family and friends is fun and relaxing but spending huge money every week is a drain on your pocket. Instead use that money to buy mutual funds through SIP or invest in insurance products.

3. Branded clothes, shoes and hand bags look appealing to others’ eyes but what other benefits do they offer? A stitched or a less costly outfit also fits well on you and saves you a lot of money that can buy the most essential need of your family. A huge wardrobe may amplify your life style but frankly do we need all those dresses that are worn very rarely?

4. Costly smart phones or gadgets fulfil your esteem needs but the cost of owning them could help you to upgrade your professional skills or go on a short holiday with your loved ones. A less expensive phone does the same work.

5. Dating is good to know about your future partner, but ensure you are off if it doesn’t work out for both in a few meets. Expensive on the wallet.

6. Ensure your passion doesn’t stretch you on the dollar, unless it turns into a livelihood. Paintings, Intercontinental travels, accumulating real estates, piling up on stocks or owning a summer resort are all for the deep pocket biggies. Not for someone who waits for the pay check every month.

7. Acquiring assets on EMI is enticing but unknowingly you pay more by way of interest that otherwise could have funded other important expenses. First time buys like home, car etc is fine but second time, third time…gets you in debt trap.

8. If both husband and wife work, the double engine makes the life chugging along nicely. Extravagance lures you but during uncertain times ( like Covid times) could badly hit either of you and you need that extra savings to get on track.

9. If you are from a large family of siblings, pressure is enormous if sisters are to be married off in your income. You need all that savings to support when your parents cannot. Family is important than a flashy life style.

10. Friends may be the lifeline for many but underwriting their debts get you in deep mess when they default and you are legally mandated to pay for their loans from your income.

It’s not about tightening our waist belt. Just think about Kitty bank that we were so fond of in our childhood. Let us continue that habit !

Move the needle for a Better Sustainable world

‘Create a Sustainable world’ has been a clarion call for many decades but the big question still remains – are we doing enough for the future generations?

In a 1987 report, Brundtland called out a sustainable development as the one that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs. We keep repeating this statement even after 35 years without doing much in this space that will hold the hope for the future.

The concepts of Sustainability and sustainable development are interlinked. UNESCO formulated a distinction between the two concepts as follows: “Sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal (i.e. a more sustainable world), while sustainable development refers to the many processes and pathways to achieve it.

Today the sustainable development is focused on economic development, social development and environmental protection. All these three have inherently relied on technological development that has its own downside. We have seen how fossil fuels had helped the phenomenal growth of automobile industry to meet industrial, social and personal needs. But we are talking about how they gave rise to pollution and carbon emissions, a clear downside of a technological innovation. Hydrogen fuel and Electric Vehicles are ray of hope but disposing used batteries has not yet become a big worry. Paper was invented and manufactured in billions of tonnes every year only by destroying forests and eco-systems. Fortunately we see a hope of less paper being used these days as we have moved long ago into gadgets like hand phones and computers that helped to store what we see,write and read into virtual storage for us to retrieve later and enjoy. Similarly, energy from atoms was considered a huge technological break-thru until Chernobyl disaster happened. We have put that tragic incident behind to make the atomic plants more safer and also moved away towards producing energy from wind power and solar power in a big way that are not big worries for the environment. So, for every invention or innovation, the world came out with a balancing act that sustained the negative impact with a safe and improved product or method.

Sustainability and technological development are two sides of a coin and we need to keep flipping it as it is big challenge nay impossible to get both on the same side. It is a constant balancing act of innovations and sustainability that keeps environmental degradation in check. It is a huge responsibility for all of us that we make every effort to protect the human race and our environment from extinction. There needs to be more developed and developing countries in every continent and if we fulfill a part of the goals relating to poverty removal, hunger removal, clean water, better health, better education etc we have made a great start.

United Nations General Assembly has actioned on Sustainable Development Goals and has made a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere.​ There are 17 Goals ( 2015-2030) that are interconnected, apply to all countries, and need to be carried out by all stakeholders – governments, the private sector, civil society, the United Nations system and others – in a collaborative partnership.​

Sustainable Development Goals: 17 Goals to Transform our World​ | United Nations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development

DYG

There are a few tips an entrepreneur should be aware of:

  • As a CEO or MD, you are the lifeline of the enterprise. But train or hire a person who could fill in your shoes, if you are unable to perform for some medical reasons.
  • Your second line in every function that you are driving needs to know what you are doing and whom you are working with outside the company. The growth milestones cannot remain still and they need to move up in your absence.
  • Your board is the Trust you create on the minds of all stakeholders including investors. Induct a face known well in your industry. He or she is there to reassure your commitment to the outside world.
  • Governance is a key element that builds up the reputation of the company. Adhere to the rules of land and that of the board.
  • Transparency to stake holders gets you all the support when the going gets tough. They must know the milestone misses more than the hits.
  • Remember the team that you are building has reposed faith in your capability and leadership. Take good care of them to build their loyalty with the company. You have already hired them at a pay higher than the market price and hence you must not lose them, as replacement involves time & more money.

Forgot the above, you will DYG – dig your grave – at your own peril.

#entrepreneur #leadership #entrepreneurship

Growth is Fire

What is Growth for an individual?

It has to be multi dimensional, aspirational, purposeful, holistic and is a fire kindler.

Our growth needs to be encompassing every aspect of our life and has to be multi dimensional. Materialistic growth alone doesn’t determine our personality or who we are. It has to be seen in every sphere of our life – our support to the needy, our care and empathy to other family members and friends, our resolve to stand for the right cause, our respect to all types of people, our recognition of efforts from others in every walk of life, our adherence to the rules of the land, our endeavour to deploy right business or work ethics, our willingness to appreciate those doing good work, our devotion to dharma and above all our belief in the supreme power that operates and controls our mind and body.

Growth of an individual is the result of fulfilling the aspirations , which are again have to be for the right causes. One cannot be aspire to be a millionaire by dubious means. A politician interested in serving the society could be a noble thought but he or she should desist from amassing wealth by unethical means and use it to help the needy. That is definitely setting a wrong example. Likewise making use of your friends and well wishers to rise in a business or career and then ditching them is an act that is never considered as growth. Adhering to the rules of the land and the society that we live in, is essential for our growth.

A purposeful growth is inclusive of right path, right methods and right ends. The growth needs to be of help to others. We have many industrialists and businessmen who have grown multi-fold in terms of net worth in our midst and they have created Trusts with their own money to set-up social organisations that run hospitals, schools, charities and promotes talents.

Growth aspiration is like a fire that kindles our mind to think big, act big and achieve big. It has to be constantly lit with our relentless efforts to keep it alive. A dead fire signifies the total absence of desire and effort. Let us turn our entire focus on our holistic growth and that of people who are with us. They also need to grow, otherwise the society will not grow and flourish.

A growth that has deep, strong roots cannot be swept away by any storm or flood. It stands firm even in adversities or calamities.

2023 & thereafter – Expectations for a better world than today

2022 has been a heart breaking year for many who are grieved and displaced due to the ongoing war. It has also been a year of remarkable turn around for many coming out of Covid impact.

Indian economy, in particular, has bounced back with a renewed optimism. But the effect of war and the general downtrend in economies of other leading nations is a big worry.

Social unrest is the biggest worry of all and it gives credence to the fact that wealth is not evenly distributed with rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. How do we set right this imbalance? You need not be a communist state to do it but the leaders of business, politicians and the governments must make all earnest efforts to correct it.

Hope in 2023 ( not withstanding a second Covid like scare) and the years after, we will work towards setting right the balance of power, inequality in economies and living conditions and most importantly prevailing social togetherness.

  • Greedy Politicians with their role of middle men take the sizeable chunk of people welfare fund that help them to buy votes. This breed of people have not changed in a democratic set-up like India and they roam around scot free with the courts and government agencies unable to penalise them.
  • Corporate leaders take home a huge pay that is many times the median salary of employees who are also a part of growth and profitability of the business. A leader should lay himself off first before doing that act to employees this saving many jobs.
  • Governments go about appeasing sections of society in the name of social
    justice and squander public money. Job generation is forgotten and dole-outs take centre stage. Good governance has become a rarity and it is difficult to differentiate between politicians and law makers.

Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Fear Factor – Impact on an individual’s development

From our early days of childhood, most of us have developed a sort of fear about people, events, animals and above all their own self. Can I do it? Am I good at it? I can’t do better than him.

Is it a good attribute for our personality development ?

Psychologists say fear is an underlying phenomenon that had developed in our mind over the years and is the one that holds us back from giving our best. We feared so many things in our early life – school, mathematics, darkness, Sea, mountain top etc but as we grew older they disappeared. During our teenage days, we feared the stage but the more we stepped on it, the more comfortable we became. We don’t get tested if we remain in our comfort zone for long.

We have seen people in TV game shows attempting some impossible feats and only those who had overcome fear succeed in them. It gets you a sort mental attitude that is tough to break in any adverse situation.

How do we master fear by understanding it better and turning it to get us success ?

Fear can be a challenger when we don’t get bogged down and confront it with a definite purpose and focus.

Fear acts as a motivator that lets us stay with our objective and succeed. Without fear, complacency sets in and we let our guards down to fail.

Fear kindles the curiosity in things that we dare to do or probe. A curious mind looks for the next steps to reach our goal of knowing something new and exciting. We must be curious to learn what we are afraid of and work towards negating that state of mind.

Fear is a guide too, because our purpose is over shadowed by the absence of efforts and ways to work towards a solution. Fear alerts us to be cautious and bold in our decision making whenever they are needed.

Fear lets us discover our wisdom that propels us to do successful actions. It dispels the emotional feelings attached to a proposed action and objectively evaluate the consequences of that action. Our mind thinks rationally once our wisdom takes over.

Fear lets us to discover the greatness in us other than weak spots and it is a catalyst to infuse a positive mind set to use our greatness to achieve success.

Our personality is what we consciously define because nobody else has that personality and to define it for us. It is unique to us that we shape it well. Fear, and not overconfidence, helps to define our personality to take risks, be authentic, be competitive, be rational and successful.

Remember, some of us raised our hands in our class to answer a question, however stupid the answer was. That questioning mind helped to shed our inhibitions and seek answers in our lives.

Transformations – In Individual, Organisation, Economy and Country

What is a Transformation?

Today Transformation is the buzz word but we fail to notice it has always been happening. Every value creation of a product or service is a transformation. Every individual gets transformed over the years. Every economy is is grown tapping into the energies and growths of individuals and business organisations. Every country makes attempt to develop into a formidable one with the strengths of its people and economy.

An economic transformation always involves individuals’ transformations, product transformations, service transformations and value creations that are experienced and felt by the people. It is just that today it happens in a digital era and we call them Digital
Transformations.

A self transformation adds value to an individual like learning a new art or sport, learning a new area of business or changing our attitude towards people and life. We don’t grow without transformations. Timid, introvert individuals turn most eloquent and participative. Aggressive, self centred persons turn most understanding and pragmatic.

Likewise businesses don’t grow if they don’t want to improve and transform by creating values to their businesses and its partners – employees, vendors, customers and other-stake holders. Everybody gets the value in an inclusive growth model.

Successful organisations have tremendously grown over the years and if you look at their growth records it is the values that they had created over the years that are well accepted and appreciated by their customers. Very rarely single product companies have survived in a competitive world and if they did, it is the variations on their product mix that have helped them to keep pace with the growth and volumes.

In this journey of transformation,

– an individual takes help of an agent in parents, elders and mentors.

– Organisations employ leaders to help them create values.

– Governments gets the help of both people and businesses to deliver a good governance and to improve the economy of country and its people.

Transformation is a rolling cycle wheel to keep us always moving forward. The moment it stops we are drowned by sorrows, miseries and poverty. We have seen how some countries in this last few decades have reached this state that got them into deep debts by not creating economic values. Leadership is an important tool in the time of crisis and economic turmoil. Let us identify and strengthen those leaders toward a path of progress and prosperity.

PTO – Peeling The Onion

In a figurative speech or in a negative connotation, we have heard “peeling the onion” means dwelling deeper and deeper into a cause or an event or exposing the true characteristics of a person. It is like the ‘turning a page over’ or simply PTO that we are used to while reading a book or novel. We are keen to know what remains at the end. This is the general nature of human mind to be curious all the time to know what are the next steps and how do we move forward.

An onion gets rotten if we allow it too long in the basket. We peel it layer by layer until it is good to be cut and used. Sometime it is so rotten that we cannot even use it for any good. Humans wear multiple layers of skin as we grow old, but our basic characteristics that were formed at our cognitive years of learning and growing do not change entirely during our life time.

The skin of innocence that we wore in childhood gets shed as move into adolescence to get into another skin. This is when we form our strong likes and dislikes in worldly matters. Years pass-by, we become more matured ( rather we think we are) and start pursuing our beliefs and disbeliefs. A strong character emerges here that eventually shape up who we are and why we feel we are less important or more important than others. Just like an onion turning rotten is a slow process, these strong beliefs and disbeliefs turn dormant in our inner self and reflect our true character. We expose this character to others in our words and actions and those in turn invite positive and negative actions from them. Conflicts in views and actions often the result of conflicts in characters of people involved. Wars are fought by leaders and not by people, for the right or wrong cause. Even when people do not want a war, the society or the political set-up has given their leaders that liberty to wage a war against a cause they only believe right. This belief is precisely a reflection of the true character of leaders. Similarly, societies get into turmoils due to the action and inaction of its leaders and what we see today around us is hatred towards one another or group or a religion. We have seen many of those long standing friendships or partnerships turn sour when friends or partners start seeing the rotten left over in a peeled onion. Divorces happen, siblings disagree, neighbours quarrel, team members fight with each other, political parties accuse each other and all these because the rotten stuff is exposed.

In our ancient way of education, the relationship between a Student and a Teacher was that of a knowledge giver and a knowledge seeker. A knowledge that was imparted in such a way was never aimed at creating hatred and intolerance but at creating harmony and to live a righteous path. A teacher of those times, peeled the skin of the student layer by layer to make him feel what was good for him and why it was so.

The education system that is practiced today has mostly failed in the above aspect of a student asking what and why. It is just preparing him to memorise what is taught to him by the teacher and pass an examination. There is no attempt to make a student intuitive or creative to deploy his mental, emotional, Psychic and spiritual thinking abilities. Let us bring those elements in our methods of teaching.