Fools say they learn by experience, I prefer to profit by other people’s experience

As we grow in life, we learn new things every day and it is important to learn new thing, as there is only one thing that is constant, and that thing is the change. So, the change is the only constant thing in the world. Whatever happen, the world will keep changing, it will never stop for anyone. So, to survive in this continuously changing world, you need to keep learning new things.

To learn new things, it depends on you, how you learn. With the speed the world is changing, it is very difficult for an individual to learn with the same speed as the world is changing. And to learn from your own experience is very limited, so what are the other ways, that you can learn from.

I can suggest, as you can learn from your experience, you can learn from other's experience, you can learn via reading good books, you can learn via reading good blogs, you can learn via teaching others, you can learn via writing blog or your personal journal.

On learning from others experience, Otto von Bismarck said:

“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”

people normally argue on why to read books, blogs, why to write blog or personal journal. They give common excuses like they don't have time, they are very busy, but they are not, instead they are not appropriate time manager of their own time. One thing you can observe in this world, the higher the position one man/women can have, the more work he/she must do, and he/she only save more time to do such activities like writing books, blogs or reading books. Any great personality of the world you can read (like Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet), they have time to perform all this activity. And i don't think that we are more responsible and busy then those leaders. So instead of arguing on it, just read the below quote in image and learn what we are. 

Bismarck famously said -

“fools say they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by other people’s experience.”

Whatever is that we are doing and trying to accomplish, other people have already gone through that and it’s all written down. People have been moving West, leaving school, investing their savings, getting dumped or filing for divorce, starting businesses, quitting their jobs, fighting, and dying for thousands of years. As Lord Chesterfield advised his son:

“Surely it is of great use to a young man, before he sets out for that country, full of mazes, windings, and turnings, to have at least a general map of it, made by some experienced traveler.”

So instead of learning from your own experience, start learning from other people experience as well and the best way to learn from other people experience is start reading good books, blogs and start teaching your learning to other people via any medium like writing blogs.

Let’s me close the post with the beautiful quite from Leo Tzu-

"Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom;

Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power."

So, to know yourself, you have to think about yourself and to think you need to read, so keep reading and keep learning.



-Mahesh

No problem so bad that we can’t make it worse

Think what the scariest thing you've ever done in your life?

That's how retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield opened his TED 2014 talk in Vancouver on Monday evening before describing what's it's like to blast into space.

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse" Hadfield said

During liftoff, Hadfield said, "you are in the grip of something vastly more powerful than yourself." He added: "It feels like being in the jaws of an enormous dog and foot in your back pushing you into space."

How do you deal with the very real risk and danger? "Having the goal in mind directed me to thinking about all of the small details." 

Its a lesson for us, and guide us how we can deal with the real risk and danger in our life. Always have a goal in mind and act accordingly and in the direction of your goal. I think a //TODO checklist will help us to work in the direction of our goals. We must prepare our weekly, monthly, yearly and long time goals and prepare the everyday //TODO checklist in the direction of our goals.

When dealing with such complicated machinery, the only thing you can do is prepare. 

In his TED talk, the astronaut advised us on with many life lessons, like always prepare yourself for the dangers, risks, so at the time of adversity you can fight against it.

Chris Hadfield is the author of "An Astronaut's Guide To Life on Earth" the star astronaut reveals more about astronaut training, spacewalks, and preparing for disasters.

You can watch the TED talk via the below video:

I do investment in stock market, and what i can relate here is the everyday volatility of the market. If you are a long term investor then stop looking at your stock price and performance daily. It will make the problem worse.

The daily market already too much volatile and on top of it, if you look the fluctuation in your holdings, it will force you to make more decisions of buying or selling. And at the end, you will end up with the loss only. So stop looking the holdings and the performance on daily basis.

The same is true to the major decisions of your life. Things will take time to reflect. So, just do right things at the right time and patiently wait the right outcome to come but remember, change your process of decision making and decisions when the facts change. You can read more about it here.

You can find the similar things in your family life, there are some quarrels in family and via reacting to that in wrong way, you are just increasing the problem not solving it. What you just need is, let the moment pass, be calm, be patient, you get the reward,let the bad moments go.

Remaining cool-headed in times of crisis and adversity is one of the most critical skills. The worst that can happen is not the event itself but the event and you losing your cool.

Chris Hadfield, the astronaut, reminds us that there is “no problem so bad that we can’t make it worse” and panicking is the best way to do that. Resolve, like John Adams did in a 1776 letter to his wife, that “the Panic may seize whom it will, it shall not seize me.” You can buy the collection of all letters here.

Keep reading, keep learning

-Mahesh

Death smiles at every man, and all a man can do is smile back

There is a line in the movie gladiator - now improperly attributed to the real life Marcus Aurelius in countless memes—

“death smiles at every man, and all a man can do is smile back.”

there is only one ultimate truth in this world and that is death. it will happen one day. whoever get birth, must die one day.

every religion has different explanation for death. like Hindu dharma says, that we just possess the body, but the soul is eternal, it will neither get birth nor die. it just changes the body like we change clothes. so, we should not worry about death, we just have to focus on our karma, we should just enjoy the journey between birth and death. this life is given to us just to enjoy the time on this planet with the given body and do right karma.

the writer of the bestselling book the outsider, Wolfgang Borchert writes a very interesting fact about death:

a man dies ... only a few circles in the water prove that he was ever there. and even they quickly disappear. and when they're gone, he's forgotten, without a trace, as if he'd never even existed. and that's all.

you can test, recall you grandfather, then your grandfather’s grandfather, i think you don't remember if you are not from any kingdom family or not from any celebrity family.

on this earth, out existence is only till we are alive, if we are a normal person, not any celebrity in any region. then why to think about other, about what other will say or think about your action or inaction.

William Shakespeare, the re-known poet, playwright and actor wrote about death: 

cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once.

it's true, we afraid of doing many things in our life that we want to do. one aspect of it is, we are sacrificing the desires that we want, for the sake of avoiding the problems in the future. in one way we are killing our actual desires and without desires we are not more than a dead person. the courageous person does what he wants to do, he faces problems and solve them and enjoy the life and then at the end like everyone he dies but he doesn’t have any desires left, that he regret. to explain the above argument, read the below quote, it will help to clarify the fear of death resides in us:

death is nothing; but we fear, to be we know not what, we know not where.  --John Dryden

the best lines, on life and death is by the poet Bhartrhari in "against the desire of worldly things":

morn after morn dispels the dark, bearing our lives away; absorbed in cares we fail to mark how swift our years decay; some maddening draught hath drugged our souls, in love with vital breath, which still the same sad chart unrolls, birth, eld, disease, and death.

...........

god satisfies the snake with air, grass to the cows is food and bed, man's nobler soul is clogged with care, struggling to gain his daily bread.

.............

i have not wasted life, but life hath wasted me, i have not chosen pain, but pain hath been my lot, some men make time their fool, but here time's fool you see, i've long been dead to joy but passion dieth not.

...........

insults i've borne, but not with patient mind, pleasures forborne, to which my heart inclined; put up with hunger, nakedness, and cold, not for the love of god, but love of god; thought much on wealth, but not on siva's feet, and broke my slumbers not to pray, but cheat; i've lived a hermit's life without his creed, made earth a hell, but gained no heavenly meed.

............

wrinkles deform my face, and hoary hairs my head, withered my youthful grace, but avarice blooms instead. the joys of sense will vanish soon, what do we gain thereby? those only store up merit who in all themselves deny; when pleasures flee, they leave behind a never-ending smart, but he who hurls them from him fills with heavenly peace his heart. as knowledge grows, content expands, and fell desire abates; but worldly joys, if long embraced, a baneful influence gain; thus indra, like a mortal king, hopes, trembles, loves, and hates, from having held through endless years an undisputed reign.

the above poem is full of wisdom on life and death. 

death is the natural part of your life, so instead of getting afraid from death, embrace it and enjoy the life. do the things that you really want to do. keep learning, keep exploring, keep experiencing the life, keep reading and keep writing.

-thanks

Mahesh

Avoid debt - that will kill you

“What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?”-Adam Smith

We normally don't think on trivial things like taking debt in form of EMI for buying new mobile phones with so many features that we are not going to use, but just for the showoff, we buy it. The same is true with the cars, we buy more specious cars, costly, beautiful looking and so many features but on the cost of debt in the form of auto loans. Why? just to impress or jealous others or just to feel good. We do such many things in our day to day life and we don't have any thought on it.

Normally, if we think closely, we find that we don't need such things like costly mobile phones, costly cars etc. In budget mobile phones and cars also, we can fulfill our needs. Even this thing is dangerous for our pockets and for our health as well. Observe your surroundings, most of the people are very busy with their mobiles while driving, walking (Though very less people do walk now a days). Most of the people have very costly cars and they drive alone in those cars most of the times.

I know many people will not agree with my logic here but that doesn't matter, it's your money, your life and your decisions, i am just sharing my thought on it.

There are many forms of debts in the market like credit card debt, student debt, personal loans, and marriage loans. We think they’re necessary but they’re not. They cause more headaches than they’re worth, they can ruin lives, and they cost us way more than we get.

By participating in this debt game, we joined the rat race, that will force us to do more work and ruin our life and relations with our loved ones.

Now a day, getting money is easy but in the form of loans. In old times the Zamindars or land lord gives loan to the farmers and the farmers die while returning the interest of the loan itself. Now the Zamindars is replaced by financial institutions (NBFC, Banks etc) and the farmers are replaced by educated and job doing people like you and me.

In this debt system, everything is converted into a business. The cost of college education today is so high that many young people are giving up their dream of going to college, while many others are graduating deeply in debt.

Benjamin Franklin suggested on not taking debt as below:

"Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt."

The famous essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson compared a debt laden person with a beggar. As per Emerson:

"A man in debt is so far a slave."

Believe me, taking debt is easy but repaying the debt back with interest will kill you. Currently i am in the process of repaying my home loan (Anyway it is said that home loan is a good loan, so i don't worry more about it), so I can agree with Mr. Emersion. The loan is forcing me every day to do more work and at the end of the month pay the EMI.

Till here, we have discussed some types debts and how they impact us. Let's see some of the ways, how we can save ourselves from this debt.

- It might be on sale, but that doesn’t mean you’re saving if you don’t need it. Uninstall unnecessary marketing and shopping apps from your mobile. Because, when you see some sell, you are tempted to buy in less price, but actually you are not saving anything in this process, if you actually don't need that sell item at this point of time. 



- Knowledge is power. Try to not collect credit cards. there are so many offers on credit cards but remember it is a trap. Teach your teens about credit cards. Help them avoid the debt trap.


-try to stay away from debt trap. Don't buy unnecessary items, if you don't need them. Never use payday loans to keep up with debt payments.

On buying unnecessary items that you don’t need; warren buffet warns us as below:

"If you buy things you don't need, you will soon sell things you need."

- Learn to say no. This skill of saying NO will save your life, save your time, save your relations and many important things in life. Say no to unnecessary spending, to the salesperson, to yourself sometimes, to your smartphone shopping apps (I suggested say to unnecessary use of your mobile and TV). To develop any skill, will take time. So, develop the skill of saying NO and start saving from today. Let’s take help from Warren Buffet again for the skill development:

"No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant."

- Go for shopping with a shopping list and buy only that is mentioned in the list. It will save you a lot of time that you can invest in more reading and a lot of money. It will also save you from unnecessary buying. Whatever money you save by this activity, just invest that money for long time and let compounding play it's game.


-Planning for a vacation, it's good but plan with cash not with credit cards. Save first and then go for vacation. Always follow:

income -saving=expenses

You should develop the discipline to save first before spending; if you spend first before saving, there will be nothing left over to save after all the expenses. ... To start, set aside at least 5% of your income for savings

Once your debt finished if any, then start building an emergency fund first thing! it will help you in crisis timing. Bro, planning is everything in case of finance. Plan your spending, saving, and debt repayment. any costly item buying like car, home, plan it then save accordingly and then buy it. Try to reduce your online shopping as much as possible. Online shopping is another fancy way to get money out of your pocket.

Remember: if you can’t pay for it, you can’t buy it.

There will be many more ways, that you can suggest me and the other readers of this blog. Please share your suggestions in the comment box.

Thanks,
Mahesh

The Quiet Moments Are The Best Moments

In search of peace, we go to temples, churches, mosque, hills or any such place where noise is very low. We look peace in this place, instead inside ourselves. We have the calmest place inside our self.

We can meditate, can do Yoga, can do Dhyana (One form of Meditation) or just simply sit quite with empty mind. Do it just for 15 min daily and you can observe the new energy within you.

There is a line from Lao Tzu.

“Peace is in the emptiness. Emptiness is in the fast of the mind.” It’s in the quiet, still moments that we feel what matters in life. Standing on the shore of a lake. Looking out over a canyon. Resting your head against someone else’s. It’s a shortage of these moments that give rise to the feeling that we haven’t lived enough, that we have to keep going. Seeking them out, encouraging them is what makes you feel like you’ve done plenty."

In quest of gaining more, we forget the power of less, we forget to enjoy those, that we already have. We forget to spend time with our loved one's (Parents, Spouse, Kids etc.). We are just running behind an imaginary goal.

Just do a postmortem test on your life, think you are at the age of 65, now you are retired, you don't have any work to do, your desires are less now, you want to spend the time with your loved one's but unfortunately some of them is not with you now: It's life my friend! Your kids are young now, they are married, and they have their own life and they are too in the race of life. They also don't have time to spend with you now, the same as you were not having time to spend with them in their childhood.

We normally, skip the very important things for later in life, but my friend life does not stop for you, it will continue, and that later moment never come. Whatever is there, it is now. Spend the time with your loved ones, do the work you want to do now.

And when you realize this, when you are in quite moments. Spend some time with you only, alone. Just sit calm in one corner of your house or on any natural place, far from any kind of noise. Let the soul talk to you, that is the best conversation you would have in your life.

In a fast-paced world driven by noise, excitement, and continuous connections via mobile, Facebook etc., thanks to technology, I think we’ve lost an appreciation for something essential to the human experience: Quiet moments.

Each person has their own way to spend time with himself, t can be just sit calm and close your eyes and try to empty your mind, it can be just sit and start reading any good book, it can be exercise, it can be swimming. It can be anything that you enjoy doing.

In today's world, we are too busy with technology, mobiles, Facebook, twitter, WhatsApp, movies, news, TV etc. This all things do not matter to you most, when you think in a long term. News and TV programs are momentary, just collecting facts or information does not help you to improve the quality of your life. Increase the number of friends and like on Facebook and twitter does not help you to get a loyal friend and it also does not help you to improve your life. Too much use of mobile also not good, it may damage your eyes and there are many case where people lost their life while they were too busy with their mobiles.

Technology have both the sides, if you use it in proper way, it will help you to improve your life and your work. But if you misuse it, it will ruin your life, your relations, your health.

Now the question come, how do we overcome this noise in our lives and reconnect with our inner voice? Do we abandon society’s progress and values?

The answer is different for each person. These quiet moments can be a simple fifteen minutes unplugged on the deck in solitary reflection. They can be a trip to a local park or outdoor area or a temple, mosque, church. They can be a walk in a quiet section of town with a loved one or an afternoon on a lounge chair. They can be a long, hot bubble bath or an hour on a secluded exercise, swim.

These quiet moments come in all forms.

These moments remind us what truly brings joy and purpose to our lives. They remind us to live the life we have today, and to focus on the beauty around us in the present. They remind us there is so much to be thankful for and that life is a journey we need to appreciate every step of the way.

So, take a moment, take a break, and take some time to find the quiet in your life. For a moment or an afternoon or even a full day, let the sun and the outdoors be your life’s soundtrack from time to time. Let the quietude of your surroundings remind you that life is beautiful and meant to be appreciated.

Most of all, let the quiet moments in life remind you that your inner voice deserves to be heard.

I think the below image is the best help to get more quiet moments in our life.

-Keep reading, Keep learning

-Mahesh

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what you want, the other is getting it

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what you want, the other is getting it.-Oscar Wilde

In life, everyday we need to make many decisions and the outcome of those decisions decide our future. Sometimes the outcome is in our favor and sometimes it's not. When the outcome is not in our favor, we feel measurable and it becomes a tragedy.

Every action of ours have a defined wants to achieve something and outcome of the action had only two possibilities, either we get what we want or we don't get the want.

We always desire something that we even do not know what it really is, but the problem, here, we will not be satisfied by our desires even we get it. There will be always some missing elements, and even our desires will change its forms. However, the interesting part is that when we lose it, our desires for that object will boil up again, which is the other tragedy that we all experience in our lives.

For a moment, let's imagine, that I make you the offer of a lifetime:

I am going to give you rs 100 million, but…you have to accept this money publicly during a widely televised event.Would you take my offer?

Before I even finish this sentence, your mind is already racing about what you could do with rs 100 million. You could own your home, you would never have to work again, and you could say goodbye to your boring job forever. Wouldn’t life be big? Accepting the money is a no-brainer, right?

But think about what else this offer entails. You are worth rs 100 million and everyone knows it. Long lost lovers and friends that you fell out of touch with are coming out of nowhere. They apologize for being too busy to keep up with you, but were “just thinking of you” the other day.

In fact, You now have hundreds of newly found “relatives” who can’t wait to meet you. Unscrupulous financial advisors are blowing up your phone and every charity in the world is trying to convince you why their cause is the most worthy. Forevermore you won’t know who actually cares about you and who just wants to get closer to the money. Who is legitimate and who is a charlatan? Who can you really trust?

It’s easy to see how rs 100 million would arguably improve your life without even trying. However, it’s much harder to imagine the 2nd order (and higher) effects of having this much money.

Remember, money and fame can destroy lives too. It can happen to anyone. While the upsides are clear, the downsides are obscured. You can imagine the benefits, but not the hidden costs.

Felix Dennis writer of How to Get Rich: One of The World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets:

Still, let me repeat it one more time. Becoming rich does not guarantee happiness. In fact, it is almost certain to impose the opposite condition—if not from the stresses and strains of protecting wealth, then from the guilt that inevitably accompanies its arrival.

Or, how about what one of the greatest modern financial writers George Goodman wrote in The Money Game:

I have known a lot of investors who came to the markets to make money, and they told themselves that what they wanted was the money: security, a trip around the world, a new sloop, a country estate, an art collection, a Caribbean house for cold winters. And they succeeded. So they sat on the dock of the Caribbean home, chatting with their art dealers and gazing fondly at the new sloop, and after a while it was a bit flat. Something was missing.

Yet, this goes beyond just getting rich. Time and time again I have seen how our society idealizes things that are littered with hidden costs. We want the great body, but without the exercise. We want the returns, but without the risks. We want the lake house, but without the frozen pipes bursting because we forgot to put in antifreeze.

We can idolize wealth, status, fame, and beauty all we want, but we don’t think about what happens if we ever actually get them…

Be Careful What You Wish For

“There are only two tragedies in life:one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it ”

I believe it’s a perfect example of human thinking, we humans really don’t know what we actually want in life.We keep on discovering what we desires from life.

If somehow we discover what one wants then by “not getting it” you end up by chasing your desire with accomplished DEPRESSION for not getting it.

If somehow “someone gets what one wants ” then you will LOOSE it’s worth soon and it all will seems as a basic thing of life.

When we finally get the things we are chasing after, will they truly make us happy or fulfilled?

-Keep reading, keep learning

-Mahesh

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated

Confucius had said 2,500 years earlier, 

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

Jon Jandai gave a TED talk on simplicity of the life, have a look here. 

the crux of what he says is that we don’t have to do what society tells us, we can have the life we want, and our choices determine if we get such a life.

Consider saving money and investing it well over a long period of time. This is all you need to create wealth. Simple, right? But the question again is, like Jon asked, why do we make it so hard?

Of course, money isn’t everything in life. But it sure does help to consistently spend less than you earn and invest the difference well. Over time, compounding will do the rest for you.

Living a minimalist, no frills, life is a powerful idea

The quicker you grasp this simple idea about saving versus spending, the quicker you will be able to start living like a free bird…even if you don’t have many millions in your bank.

Charlie Munger once described the secret of success as 

“take a simple idea and take it seriously.”

Spending way less than you earn and investing that difference well over a long period of time is that simple idea.

This is a very simple blog post and very small in size but it will help us to live a very fulfilled life.Think about it.

-Keep reading, keep learning
-Mahesh

Getting Angry Wastes Too Much Energy

"You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."-Gautama Buddha

As a human being, we are not free from biases, human behavior and errors of human behavior. The worst human behavior is envy, jealousy and getting angry.

Getting angry is a human behavior error and it harm more you than others. As we know that everything is a form of energy n this universe. Everything meaning you, me, any physical object or any logical object that is present in this universe is just a form of energy. This concept of energy is best explained by Jaggi Vasudev (Sadh Guru) in his book The Inner Engineering.

What Sadh guru said is - The energy neither created nor destroyed. it just converts from one form to another like what we inhale for living-Oxygen that is exhaled by trees and what we exhale (Co2) is inhaled by trees. so, it just simple give and take or simple transformation of energy from one form to another.

The same is said by Lord Shree Krishna in Bhagvad Gita. In Bhagavad gita the context is different, it is about soul, birth, death and body. What Bhagavad Gita says:

"na jayate mriyate va kadacinnayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyahajo nityah sasvato 'yam puranona hanyate hanyamane sarire"

The meaning of the above shloka is :

For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.

The purport of the above Shloka is :

Qualitatively, the small atomic fragmental part of the Supreme Spirit is one with the Supreme. He undergoes no changes like the body. Sometimes the soul is called the steady, or kutastha. The body is subject to six kinds of transformations. It takes its birth in the womb of the mother's body, remains for some time, grows, produces some effects, gradually dwindles, and at last vanishes into oblivion. The soul, however, does not go through such changes. The soul is not born, but, because he takes on a material body, the body takes its birth. The soul does not take birth there, and the soul does not die. Anything which has birth also has death. And because the soul has no birth, he therefore has no past, present or future. He is eternal, ever-existing, and primeval—that is, there is no trace in history of his coming into being. Under the impression of the body, we seek the history of birth, etc., of the soul. The soul does not at any time become old, as the body does. The so-called old man, therefore, feels himself to be in the same spirit as in his childhood or youth. The changes of the body do not affect the soul. The soul does not deteriorate like a tree, nor anything material. The soul has no by-product either. The by-products of the body, namely children, are also different individual souls; and, owing to the body, they appear as children of a particular man. The body develops because of the soul's presence, but the soul has neither offshoots nor change. Therefore, the soul is free from the six changes of the body.

A simple picture of life rotation or soul journey as per the HINDU Dharma is :

If you look in the science of micro objects then you came to know that everything is built of small fragments particles. and this small fragments are just one form of energy. 

Now, let's think about the anger. What is anger?

Anger or wrath is an intense emotional response usually involving agitation, malice, or retribution. It is an emotion that involves a strong uncomfortable and hostile response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. Anger can occur when a person feels their personal boundaries are being or are going to be violated.

Definition suggests that anger is an intense emotion of negative thoughts.

Observe, positive thought motivates you and increase your energy level. The opposite is, negative thoughts consume your energy and drown your energy level and reduce your creativity and motivational state.

"For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds if happiness."

Then why we allow our self to get angry on meaningless things?

The reason is obvious, we don't have control on our biases or behavior and may be we don't know the biases itself.

The energy that we have is limited, so we must use or waste it very cautiously.

There is a wonderful passage in the book : The Boys in the Boat. 

The book, which tells the story of the University of Washington rowing team in their pursuit of Olympic gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, focuses mostly on a young man named Joe Rantz. Rantz had experienced a horrible childhood. His mother died when he was four years old, and his stepmother began throwing him out of the house around age ten. In the end, he would end up abandoned by his family and end up hunting and foraging for his own survival. His father would eventually intervene, only to abandon Joe again when he moved the entire family.

Asked by his fiancée why he wasn’t mad about all of this, how he seemed to take this betrayal and loss so stoically, he tells her:

“It takes energy to get angry. It eats you up inside. I can’t waste my energy like that and expect to get ahead. When they left, it took everything I had in me just to survive. Now I have to stay focused. I’ve just gotta take care of myself.”

And of course, Rantz was well-served by this strategy. A longshot for making the crew at University of Washington, his team would end up narrowly beating Italy in the 1936 Olympics and winning the gold medal. But even if he hadn’t achieved all that success, had he not “gotten ahead”—to use his term—he still would have been right.

The Stoics saw anger as a destructive, draining weight that we add on top of already difficult situations. Like Rantz, they questioned who can afford to burn up so much energy? Things are tough enough, why put yourself further behind just because it might feel good to yell? Or to carry a grudge? Nobody abandons a family because they didn’t know it was wrong. Nobody is going to stop hurting you because you resent them for it. And no amount of rage will ever change the past.

It’s hard enough to survive life as it is. Getting mad about the unfairness or maddening randomness of it all wastes too much energy. Let’s focus our energy on where it can actually make a difference.

Focus to direct your energy in the right direction and see where it will take you in your life. Why to waste your energy on useless things, instead use the energy to increase your wisdom, teach the wisdom to others via physical classes or writing blogs like I write or maintain your health (Exercise).....

In my opinion, this post is very helpful for the person who is short tempered. I have many friends who are short tempered. 

Remember, anger is just an emotion and it is under your control if you want to control it. It is you, who is driving all the emotion inn your body not the body itself drive your emotions. There are many ways to drive your emotions like meditation and whoever have kids, anyway I think they have already learned patience in their life because kids teaches us how we can control our anger.

Let me close the post with the beautiful quote:

"Sometimes you must realize that the world is too beautiful to waste your time being angry or sad when you could be enjoying what life has to offer. "

To reduce or control your anger, reading good books is a best therapy. It will sure help you.

-Keep Reading, Keep Learning

-Mahesh

Freedom : What will you do with your freedom?

Most of the people, on name of freedom, do whatever they want, whatever comes to their mind. But that is not the actual meaning of freedom. We must understand the actual meaning of the freedom, so let's explore the freedom in this post today!

Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom. 

George Washington Carver

What is freedom?

As per the definition, the freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. To live the life as one wants. It’s a freedom of living, freedom of thinking, freedom of behaving, and freedom of everything that a human being wants to do and be happy but in the boundary of oneself i.e. your freedom should not be a cause of trouble for others, like playing music in loud in mid night, riding bike fast, similar kind of stuff.

It’s your freedom to play the music in loud but it’s not comes under your freedom to disturb others, right!

Your riding fast may cause an accident and it will ruin the life of others as well as yours.

The economist Adam Smith said:

“One individual must never prefer himself so much even to any other individual, as to hurt or injure that other, in order to benefit himself… and who does not inwardly feel the truth of that great stoical maxim, that for one man to deprive another unjustly of any thing, or unjustly to promote his own advantage by the loss or disadvantage of another, is more contrary to nature, than death, than poverty, than pain, than all the misfortunes which can affect him, either in his body, or in his external circumstances.”

What Marcus Aurelius’ said on the misuse of the freedom is :

"What’s bad for the hive is bad for the bee."

We are a social animal and we have to stay in this society, we must not misunderstand the real meaning of freedom and should not misuse it. Think, if everyone starts misusing their freedom? Imagine how the world will be in that scenario?

if we take care of ourselves, if we hold ourselves to high standards, and we actively work not to hurt other people (because we are all citizens of the same world, as Marcus put it), then we indirectly and directly make everything better for everyone.

In a society of world, we have different types of freedom. We have freedom of association, freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom to express oneself, freedom of the press, freedom to choose one's state in life, freedom of talking to each other, freedom of religion, and above this all we have a freedom of choice.

But remember, all the freedom you have in your control but the consequences of the action that you take is not in your control.

Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity. Herbert Hoover

We are free human being; we have freedom to form societies, clubs, and other groups of people, and to meet with people individually, without interference by the government. We have freedom of to choose your religion, you have freedom to choose your career, and you have freedom to choose your life partner. You are a free bird. This is a biggest gift that you have a freedom to choice and no one can take it away it from you, whatever bad the situation will be.

Without freedom, there is no happiness, there is no meaningful life.

But with freedom, a very big responsibility come, that what you do with your freedom?

Doing work for someone else, having a job or loving someone has nothing to do with freedom. Freedom is NOT doing whatever the heart desires right now. Freedom is the possibility of doing whatever the heart desires right now. Freedom is the possibility of breaking free, if and when needed. Freedom is the confidence of not being chained in an unhappy state. Pursuit of freedom is to continuously ensure that one is not relenting control of life to any person or any sort of circumstances.

You are the architect of your life, so whatever happened, or happening or will happen in your life, no one will be responsible. It's you and only you are responsible, so take this responsibility seriously and start doing something good for yourself and for society.

Most of the people say that they are not enjoying their work or job. They should rethink, what enjoyment they are looking in the work or job, and which work or job will give that enjoyment to them, then once they got the true answer then start your life in that direction.

Instead of giving excuses, give efforts. Slow and steady move in the direction of freedom. 

Like each coin have two faces, the term is used in two ways, one in positive way, that we have discussed above and another is the negative way. 

Recall the 9/11 attack on twins tower, honor killing incidents, gang rapes,  accidents by human overconfidence etc.

the intention to write this post is to identify your positive freedom and direct your life energy towards that direction.

Be safe and let other be safe. Enjoy your freedom and let other enjoy their freedom....

The below image will explain everything about freedom:

 

-Keep reading, Keep Learning

-Mahesh

Predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does

The idea to write this post Predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does comes from the book (My favorite) Seeking wisdom fromDarwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin.

The title of the post comes from the well-known investor and one of the richest person in the world: Mr. Warren Buffet. This is Buffett's Noah principle: 

"Predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does."

What does it mean? 

It means that telling us about market problems isn't as important as how you act on them.

In stock market, the fluctuations are the part of the market, it works on crowd mentality and all the participant in the market don't think in the same way. The same information is viewed by different people in diverse ways and the meaning also withdrawn in diverse ways. So, the reactions also different. That’s why the market go up and down. And what buffet says here is don't worry about this fluctuation. What Buffett suggests is "Building arcs", meaning use this fluctuations in your favor for the long term wealth creation. If all fundamental is right than invest more in your portfolio on reasonable price levels and this fluctuations (Rain) will help you to get the reasonable price to invest (Help you to create your arc for the long term wealth).

The Noah principle is applied to all unpredictable scenarios (Black Swans in terms of Nassim Nicholas Taleb) whether in market or in life or in business.

What peter Bevelin says in his book is: 

"Why invest resources in something today since we don't get any credit for preventing something we don't even know will happen. "

The world is a complex adaptive system and we cannot predict for sure anything in short term. So how can we predict the market direction in short term. So, the advice is always bet on long term investments.

The book 365 Days With Self-Discipline: 365 Life-Altering Thoughts on Self-Control, Mental Resilience, and Success by Meadows provides the below lessons for us-

We often ignore distant problems and we are reluctant to prevent future threats. Your decision should have a margin of safety, always have some buffer for to go wrong in your decision. You are just a human being and mistakes are part of the decision-making process and can go wrong as well. So, for taking decisions, always keep achecklist of all possible errors or threats, that may impact your long-term decision and direct you in the wrong or right directions. So, the advice is, always keep a margin of safety and always keep a checklist while taking major decisions. One more thing, always keep learning and keep reading, there is nothing called failure or success, it is just learning.

Peter Bevelin shares the words of Warren Buffett in his book as:  

"It took Noah 20 years to build an ark. And people said he was being silly because the skies were beautiful. And of course, the whole time, he looked stupid - until it started raining. You can spend a long time building an ark while everybody else is out there enjoying the sun."

What is the lesson learned here?

Your efforts to improve will draw criticism or ridicule from people who don't care about self-improvement. It's possible you will spend a long time doing things without a reward and starts wondering whether your goal makes sense. Like I am writing this blog and I know it may take a very long time to make sense for me as well as for my readers. But I think it’s a journey for a lifelong learning and as Lord Krishna suggests in Bhagvad-Gita, focus on your Karma, don’t think about the outcome. So, just keep reading, writing and learning, one day you may acquire the worldly wisdom.

"Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kada chana, Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani"

 Meaning:  

"You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty."

Let’s experience in our day to day life, what is the meaning of the teachings from Krishna and teachings from Mr. Buffet –

Is it worth it to spend several years working so hard to get a degree, build the business or move up the ladder in your company or invest for long time, reading books and writing this blog while others are partying and enjoying their lives on credit?

I think for me, it is a big YES. I am not writing this blog for anyone else, I am not reading the books for anyone else, I don't invest for others. I do this all for myself, I enjoy doing this activity. this is one reason for me to worth this all. The second is, I believe in Karma. Just keep doing the work.....

I know this is a very long process, and during the process you might face doubts and even feel tempted to give up. However, five or ten years from now, the once who were wasting time will get the short end of the stick when they realize that they wasted their time on ultimately meaningless pleasures (Tools of mass destruction), borrowed money on credit cards to enjoy the temporary pleasures, they don't know the benefit of delaying the gratification. Now, they are in debt, worrying about how to pay their bills, and doubting that they will never have a successful career, while you are enjoying the fruits of your labor.

check the analogy: 

Predicting rain doesn't count is enjoying (wasting) the precious time on meaningless things and building arks does meaning investing the same time in meaningful things.

Whenever you are in doubt, remind yourself that you are building an ark and that rain will come. May be now you aren't enjoying yourself as much as others are, but in the grand scheme of things or life, it's better to be prepared and suffer a little now to prosper in the future that live in sweet denial and one day when you realize it, then it's too late.

Most of my friends ask me, why I read books, why I spend less, why I invest the remaining, whatever left or reverse, why I invest first and manage my expenses in the remaining? 

My answer to them is, I am building an ARC for myself, it may, the rain (Any tragedy) come in future.

Now, we all understand, what the ARC building and what is the rain. Let’s explore some more, how we can build our own arc in life, so we get very less damage while it will rain.

Deciding to do nothing is also a decision. And the cost of doing nothing could be greater than the cost of taking an action.

We are the product of our past decisions, that we have taken at some point in past in our life. Whether decision you take consciously or not, but the decision is always taken, because deciding to do nothing is also a decision. And if all the time, we are doing some action as per the decision we make or not make, then it’s better that we should act on our conscious decisions instead of unconscious random life decisions that life through up on us, because the cost of doing nothing could be greater than the cost of taking an action. 

Remember what you want to achieve.

In the process of building your own arc, you should be having a pre-planned blue print or architecture structure of the arc in your mind. else you make something that is of no use. So always know what you want (Your Arc). then act accordingly.

Once we know what to do, we should do it. 

If we identified our arc and we have our blueprint ready clearly in our mind, then why we are not building the arc. Once you know what to do, just do it.

The 19th Century British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley said: 

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a person's training begins, it is probably the last lesson a person learns thoroughly."

In simple words, if you want to travel from the city A to the city B in a car in night, then just start driving, you have car and you have light, the road will be visible to you in the night as well with the help of the car lights, and you will reach to the city B. The thing that is required is the courage to drive in the night.

The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it does exist.

Start building your arc today, small steps make significant difference in long time. Who know when the rain will start.

Keep reading, keep learning.

-Mahesh