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