Most of the time it’s not your fault.
Most of the time you are not in control.
It’s up to you how you “react“ because that’s in your control!
Did we have any control over the pandemic? No.
Many people lost their lives! I personally went through multiple tragedies in the last 18 months! And I am sure millions across the globe went through similar emotions. Now it’s up to us to treat this as an excuse and blame our luck for anything wrong hereafter or you turn around with resilience to accept the bitter truth of fact and rebuild your life!
Lies we have been taught include that you do this and your life will be set! The fact is life is never set! As soon as you breathe easy, something will or might happen to change your life! Similarly, any tragedy is not the end of the world! You being alive is the biggest gift! Make use of it! Accept reality and get up and get going!
One of the biggest problems that I see people having is that they face tremendous difficulty to ask for help! The world is filled with good people and even when some remain silent just come forward and ask and you will see many hands coming forward to support you.
Nothing is permanent! We move on! Even after tremendous tragedy, I have seen people recover and find joy in life! You can’t stop living! You can’t stop breathing! We need to remember one thing that till we are alive we are supposed to work towards happiness!
When I was 10 years old, a cousin of mine who was 18 at that time passed away due to an accident! The lives of my uncle and aunt changed forever! For months they remained silent! I remember staying with them for more than a month at their house! Hardly anyone spoke but they started recovering. Naturally, life was never the same again but then their elder son got married and smiles were back in the family! Does that mean we didn’t remember our cousin on that day? Yes, we did remember him and still remember him but we learned to live without him. Then my nephew was born and normalcy returned!
God has strange ways to remind us who is the boss! The more you believe you are in control, the more he will show you that you have nothing in control!
If you look at social media you will feel everyone is having a cool life! Everyone is getting fantastic returns in the stock market! Everyone is building a start-up and everyone is successful and filled up with new business orders! But the fact is most are showing off! Social media is a great place to mask yourself! You can say anything and everything and become an influencer! You will find absolutely irrelevant posts and tweets and copycats having more than 50,000 followers! And you are thinking, “wow” how did he do that? But why are you thinking that way? Will your life change with that thinking? You need to love yourself and try to live a better life than yesterday! Be resilient and learn to live life on your terms! Work on something that makes you happy and try to gain freedom! Time is the biggest leverage! And it’s up to you how you utilise it!
Many times I have seen people trying to control others! Frankly, you can‘t! Parents trying to control their kids are the worst offenders because the seeds are sown right there! Learn to make your kids independent! Don’t make decisions on their behalf but when they ask, help them and guide them! They will ask for guidance only when they know that you don’t control them. It’s the same in a professional set up too! You can’t control your team members! You can only inspire them and guide them! If the alignment is not there then part ways but never try to control! It will always give disastrous results!
The problems that you have today will vanish tomorrow but can reoccur the day after tomorrow! But don’t let the anxiousness of tomorrow take away your happiness of today! Always bring your whole self to work and at home! People mix up things too much! And this work-from-home scenario has actually done more harm for many of the individuals! If you don’t have a caring support system at home then it can lead to a situation where you are always at home and always at work and finally, you are not satisfied anywhere!
You need to take the call what is best for you! But first, you have to accept the problem! When acceptance happens you will find a way to the solution.
The world is abundant with love and joy and you just need to tell yourself that you will live a life of fulfillment! It’s all inside you, it’s your belief that matters!
If you lie to yourself, it means you are denying the problem, and till you are in a state of denial nothing gonna change! You will always be frustrated because you are yet to find out your “why”.
I have seen people telling me that if I get X amount of money from next month I will be happy. Two problems:
First, that is not gonna happen.
Second, what are you going to do to make that happen!
If you believe in the second option then you will find a way for additional ethical income. As I said earlier the world is filled with opportunities but it’s up to you to go for it. Of course, it means you have to work doubly hard to reach there!
Nothing will come easily!
You need to pick up new skills to make yourself more worthwhile. That requires hard work! But you can do it! If you believe in yourself I am very sure you can achieve it!
Make your mind strong enough to face adversity and build your power of resilience so that you don’t break down when things go against you! God has something for everyone! But it’s upon us to find it and live a life of fulfillment and joy!
Are you ready?
Come on, be a man!
We have heard this dialogue before in many Indian movies!
Isn’t that sexist?
Means, come on – if you are emotionally hydrated then you, as a man, have to show that all is cool and put up a brave face! That’s what this dialogue is all about.
But we are humans. We are vulnerable. We can make mistakes. We can get into trouble. We can get hurt. We can lose someone very close to us. After this also chin up? Be a man?
I have a big problem with this dialogue! It’s like men can’t cry. Men can’t show vulnerable emotions! Why so?
And when we show something to the world – which is basically a makeup – then deep inside we are falling apart. This leads to depression. It’s not so simple. But the fact is that depression is for real.
And the worst thing others can do is by saying, “be a man” or “it’s fine, move on”. These people don’t understand that depression exists. The person sitting right beside you might be suffering. Look out!
That’s why it’s important that you talk. Just talk and let another person listen to you. You need close family members or friends to get out of this scenario. People don’t understand the emotions that depressed people go through during these times.
Everyone is not the same. Some people play it very well or act very well.
But from the inside, these so-called strong people are broken. Many are! So it’s important that you talk to your near and dear ones. If you have a problem – speak. If you don’t have a problem – speak. All problems don’t need a solution. Sometimes what the other person needs is someone to talk to. It gets easier when you discuss or talk to another person. Even when there are no immediate solutions you will see the heaviness of your heart reducing after a candid talk.
Don’t make life difficult! Don’t make negative comments. Don’t be toxic. What works for you might not work for others! What emotions you had can’t be equated to another person’s emotion in the same scenario. We are all different and it’s important that we respect that.
By not talking we complicate matters! Isn’t it so weird that 25 years back it was difficult to communicate with people staying far away? When I used to stay in a hostel, I could speak only once a week with my parents. STD calls were very costly those days! There were no mobile phones. Today when we can call or talk with anyone at any time due to technology innovations, we take it for granted. We take relationships for granted. Relationships need to be given time. You need to talk.
If you are in a happy space and you are not making the first move to talk to your near and dear ones regularly then the problem lies with you. The people who are in the depressed zone won’t come and speak to you but they are yearning to talk. So give them the ears!
Depression is for real folks. Treat it very seriously! If you lose a close relative or a friend due to depression then you will be cursing yourself for life. It would remain a lifelong regret! Don’t do it!
Whom are you calling now?
You are grumpy!
Your friend asks you what happened.
You say you are tensed because your son’s admission to college is round the corner and you are having difficulty arranging the money!
Sounds similar? Sounds familiar?
And then when your friend says don’t worry, something will come around. But it’s not so easy because it’s your problem and it’s difficult to take things so casually!
We have been told multiple times that life is not about money. Also, we have been told that money can’t buy you happiness! But the fact is money can’t buy you happiness in the actual sense but it does buy you food which you place on the table!
One of the biggest anxiety problems is the money problem.
If you have debt issues: You can’t be happy
If you have a health crisis in your family: You can’t be happy.
Though health comes before wealth, you can dry up your wealth in one unfortunate crisis! How will you be happy after that? Your future anxiousness will only take you far off from happiness!
So whether you like it or not, it’s important to solve your money problems to ensure happiness! Your basic needs should be well covered for you to even think of being happy!
How do you do it? It’s difficult, but the fun fact is that you can turn this around even if you are broken today.
Let’s go!
First, get a hang of all your spending.
Get rid of any spending which is not a need.
Control your wants. And save and invest the rest!
There is no way you can garner wealth if you have not invested in equities.
Equity investment doesn’t mean you buy any cheap stocks! Believe, it’s your business which you are buying to be a part of! Buy with the notion of holding on for at least 15 years! Do not buy based on tips or don’t get into FOMO!
If you want a secure future and a happy life you need to get rid of your anxiousness! It’s not easy in theory because if you have a money problem you can’t be happy. Anyone telling you otherwise, don’t care for you because it doesn’t happen that way!
You should have the habit of purchasing equity regularly. You should be proud of your investments!
If your debts are taken care of and you decide to live a life within your means then you will have a happy and joyful time with your family and a good night’s sleep. Very few can afford this.
If you can start living a life within 50% of your earnings from today, be pretty sure that in 10 years to 12 years’ time, you won’t be running around for money. But you have to patiently do this.
So what to do with the other 50%?
Break that up into 2 parts:
30% – Wants
20% – Investments.
In your “wants”, you can have your EMIs. That is the maximum you are allowed to spend in EMIs. By default 20% has to go into investments.
100 – Age
If you are 25 years of age, subtract 100 from your age, that’s 100-25 = 75. Now 75% goes into equities and 25% in liquid products which can be RD (Recurring Deposits), FD (Fixed Deposits) or Liquid funds, or any endowment products. I prefer liquid funds because they can be redeemed easily.
If you have debts that will run for more than 10 years, make sure that in your next raise, you will put that extra money in servicing those debts. Debts cripple you. So get rid of them at the earliest.
If you follow the above rules consistently, 10 years down the line, you won’t be working for money because now money will work for you. It will grow when you sleep and that means you will have true control of your time. When this happens, you can do what you want to do rather than being forced to do something which you are not passionate about.
Are you facing difficulty in managing to create your goals and maintaining them? If yes, connect with me over LinkedIn and we can have a chat. Always happy to help.
Till then, take care and God Bless!
Writing cold emails or writing your first email to a lead or to any influencer whom you want to reach out to, is one of the most undervalued skills in the world today.
Are you in that bad habit of writing anything for everybody? Have you changed your writing habits and styles over the past 5 years?
If you have not, then it’s time to change. I am very sure that the results of your emails must have fallen drastically in the last few quarters! Have you checked your data? No? Go and check it first.
Go to your email inbox and filter your emails based on the last 3 years and see the response rate. If you have not changed your style of writing I am very sure you will be shocked with your findings. You might be right now at less than 20% responses.
You might be a great writer. You might be very good at English but for people to respond to your first email needs much more than just good English skills. What are they? Let’s discuss this in detail.
Decades back when computers were yet to make an entry into our lives, it was the letters that were sent to decision-makers, pitching for services. Generally, those letters used to be filtered by the secretary, and only the good ones used to land on the decision maker’s table. Today this has been replaced by intelligent spam filters. So, as a seller, if you are sending similar types of emails to hundreds of people, the server will block you and your email will land in your target customer’s spam folder.
This is of course one aspect of the whole matter because everyone understands the importance of spam filters these days so they generally customise or personalise enough to bypass the spam filters. But that doesn’t guarantee you that your target customer will open the email. Hundreds of emails in my inbox today are lying unread so I am sure you won’t want to have a similar fate – won’t you?
People don’t read emails, they scan. To improve the open rate, you need to work on your subject lines. I only open emails when a subject line interests me. Try to be innovative but don’t take innovation too seriously. Just be yourself and keep the subject line simple and within 5-6 words. People generally check their emails first on their mobiles, so keeping a short subject line helps in viewability.
As I said above, people scan emails so though your short and crisp subject line might prompt your target customer to open the email, will he or she read through that whole email is still a question mark.
This is where your first two lines make or break your effort. If your targeted user likes your first two lines, he or she will then make the effort to read the rest of your email. Hence your first two lines should talk more about your targeted audience’s problems rather than boasting about yourself.
Flattering works well in most cases. If your targeted customer recently got an award or released a book or one of his talk shows/videos went viral – then start your email with that point. Everyone loves to hear good things about themselves so when you start your email on that note, you will get immediate attention. This will confirm that your email won’t be passed by and it will be read.
After you gain the attention of your reader, it’s important that you start talking about how your product or service is going to erase a pain point in the customer’s work or life. Don’t start talking about your features yet, mention how you have found out the problems that your client is facing in his business domain and follow that with the solution that your product or service is going to provide to fill that gap.
If you have researched well and the client does have a problem which he is eagerly looking forward to solving, then the customer will read the rest of the email. So if you have not done research properly, then you will fail to get any results.
Once the targeted customer has read your email up to this portion and has not closed his email, then next he would like to know more about your offer.
You may give a gist of the features of your solution, or you can give a link to your website where everything is written in detail.
Ideally, this is your CTA (Call to Action) or you may prompt your reader to reply to the email to know more details.
Whatever is comfortable for you but you need to prompt your reader to do something after reading the email. Either he or she should reply back to learn more or your email should take them to your website. In both cases, it’s a conversion for you and your email gets its desired results.
Research has shown that the human mind gets attracted to content which talks of numbers. So when you are writing about your solution, make sure that you throw in some interesting numbers. For example: “Over the last 12 months, 75% of our clients have come from your region or your country and they have already received 100% ROI. If you wish, I can share their detailed contact details for your perusal“.
These numbers will immediately rouse his or her interest and they will be prompted to take action (either reply to you or visit your website for more details)
Follow-Ups is one of the most underrated traits in successful sales.
“There is ample chance that I like what I read but because I am busy I could not respond“.
Today we are all living a very fast-paced life and with 100s of emails hounding us every day, it’s quite possible for us to forget about “that” email to which I wanted to respond to. This could be the case with any of your clients.
Hence, following up is the salesperson’s duty and it should be done diligently. I suggest the Fibonacci sequence for follow-ups.
What is a Fibonacci sequence?
A Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers where the next number is found by adding up the two numbers preceding it.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 is a Fibonacci series of numbers.
So, Day 0 is the day when you send the first email. Give a gap of one day and then shoot your first follow-up. Then another gap of one day for the next follow-up. After this give a gap of two days, then three days and then 5 days. The follow-ups can be through multiple channels. It need not be always via email if you have your customer’s WhatsApp or skype details.
But follow up you must and it’s equally important that when you follow up, you follow the same principle of personalising your emails or calls.
As a final shot, please remember that no one is obligated to respond to you, and you as the email sender need not be frustrated if the conversion doesn’t happen. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. You need to be patient. Consistency, patience, and persistence are the keywords that you should swear by and they will lead you to success.
A book that is highly recommended for writing cold emails is, How do I write this email by Danny Rubin. It’s worth the investment if you truly want to master the game.
Do you write cold emails?
What’s the strategy you follow?
What has been your success rate?
P.S. You can test your skill by sending customised and personalised connection requests to a few of your targeted customers over LinkedIn and check out your conversion ratio. It’s a good place to start cold emailing.
We are strongly wired to our beliefs. So much so that we find it hard to accept our wrong beliefs. We hold our pre-conceived beliefs close to our hearts and try valiantly to not accept the facts when we are wrong.
But, the fact of the matter is we can’t be right on everything. Human beings have evolved over the years by accepting past wrongs, learning about new discoveries, accepting them, and moving forward.
Think about this:
Many years ago, we believed that the earth was flat. Then one day it was proved beyond any doubt that Earth in fact is round in shape. There was resistance to believe this new theory and hence it was commonly accepted many years later. But the fact is a majority of the population accepted the earlier mistake and changed their beliefs. Without acceptance, this new discovery wouldn’t have got the necessary approval.
Then, there was this belief that the Sun moves around the Earth. Once again it was proved many years later that the earlier thought process or the earlier learnings were wrong. Once again, people discarded the wrong knowledge and accepted the new learning and humanity progressed.
Only when you accept that your past learning was wrong, then only you will be able to learn and accept new findings. This is a fact and no one can deny this.
Recently I was having one of my evening walks at my terrace with my 7-year-old daughter in tow. She has this habit of turning a teacher once in a blue moon and that day she asked, “OK, Papa, answer this. How many planets do the solar system have”?
I said, “9”.
My daughter (remember, she is a teacher now) – with both hands at the side of her waist (forming a teacup) gave me a stern look.
I acted in bewilderment.
“What happened”?, I asked.
“Come on, Papa. You are wrong. There are only 8 planets in our solar system”.
I said, “OK name them”.
She started, “Mercury, Venus…ending with Neptune”.
I said, “what happened to Pluto”.
“Pluto is not a planet, Papa”. She said. “It’s a dwarf planet”.
I said, “But in my school, they taught me we had 9 planets with Pluto being the 9th one”.
Now it was her turn to show bewilderment.
She said, “Do one thing give me your mobile, I will show you on YouTube”. I opened YouTube and gave it to her and then she took out the video where it showed that the solar system has 8 planets.
I patted her head and said, “good”. See your father learned something new today.
She was happy knowing that.
I continued, “as you grow up, never accept anything at face value be it from your parents or from anyone else. Because we all are human beings and we might be wrong too. But don’t argue just for the sake of argument or don’t think that you are always right. Whenever you feel anyone, is saying something which you think is wrong, bring out the facts (like showing the YouTube video) and prove it. Don’t argue without data and similarly do not accept just because someone senior tells you something. Have the belief in yourself to validate it”.
If our children are taught that whatever we say is right then they will never venture out to find out what could be true. From our childhood, we are taught not to argue with seniors. Accept whatever the teachers are saying without questioning. I believe this is wrong. Because as parents we should teach our children to try and discover new things. Explore the unknown and when he or she thinks that another person has spoken something which is against his or her learnings or values, then stand up and give your inputs.
This is how they will learn to question – this is how they will explore the truths.
In life and at work we should follow the same example. When you are meeting with your boss or colleagues, you should question when you think the point raised is against your beliefs. By accepting whatever is being told even when you know it is wrong, you will never be able to be happy at work.
I can understand there are bosses who do not like their subordinates to question them or challenge them. That’s the signal of a toxic culture. If your boss does not accept the challenges or do not accept the wrongs then the team will become a band of “yes men”. And when you are surrounded by “yes men” sooner rather than later, the organization will end up making some big mistakes that could take years to rectify or could never be rectified.
As leaders, we should be flexible. We should give confidence to our team members that we could be wrong. We should allow them to criticize us openly. It’s much better that they criticize you openly than they talking about you or laughing about you at your back. When they criticize you, as a leader you need to accept their thought process, see what’s going wrong, and make sure you change the situation.
Your team members look up to you. You are a celebrity for them. So when they see that their leader accepts the mistake and makes changes, they will get emboldened to question you openly when they feel something is wrong in the organization.
A great company is built by a great team. You can’t build an organization alone. But if you are surrounded by yes men then in effect you are alone running the show. In the long run, your company’s growth will stagnate.
Allow people to question your beliefs and when they bring data to the table, accept the wrongs, appreciate their inputs and make changes to your plans based on these new facts. When your team sees that their inputs have been accepted and they see that their leader appreciating such inputs and putting their ideas into action – you will be able to build a company where there is fewer gossips, fewer politics, and more accountability.
Are you allowing yourself to be questioned?
Are you accepting your mistakes?
Are you learning and growing?
Let’s discuss!
We love to get validation. But the problem is, once you are dependent on validation for your ideas and decisions, you stop being yourself!
We love to show off. You put a comment against an influencer’s post – the influencer likes or shares or comments on that. Next, you take that as your bragging right and show off on social media, and people around you go “ga-ga”. This is a complex which is to be best avoided because now you will go after the vanity matrix. You will soon lose your originality.
We deem ourselves to be powerful when what you say, good, bad, or ugly is shared by your “yes men” across their communities! You get a false notion that you are someone great, though there could be more naysayers whom you are not aware of. You soon get cocooned in your island! You stop growing!
When you build a community of yes men, you stop failing (in your mind) because the yes men are always saying yes. No one is there to point out the mistakes. When you stop making mistakes, hubris sets in and your fall begins.
You are fearful that you will lose your position if people don’t say that you are right. You don’t love criticism. Under criticism, you are always defensive. You give excuses that are all external. These are all signals that you are fearful and when fear rules, you stop innovating – you stop thinking positively – you only think how you can be perceived in a different light.
With yes men around you there is no criticism and a false notion is created that you are not fearful. You are trying to send wrong signals to your brain and the real “fearful you” remains hidden while the world sees a confident man. This is prevalent in social media and that’s why having validation in social media can be very dangerous! If you are fearful, write down your fears. People love to interact with genuine people. All of us are vulnerable and there is no harm in accepting the truth.
You have 1000 followers or you lead a team of 100 people. You are the manager and you wish to become VP in two years! You can have a desire but when desire turns into greed, you will do things that will be unethical just like having 20 yes men who put pressure on your behalf to the senior management to see you go and grab the VP post! I recently saw a person having a bio, stating that he is a Padma Shri nominee – now what on earth is that and the guy is 21-22 years old. People write anything on social media and the funny part – the guy has close to 2000 followers. God save these kids – I guess staying at home for so long has taken our creativity to a different level. We have started fantasizing too much.
So don’t build a community of yes men. Build a community where people can express themselves genuinely. Allow yourself to be criticized. I see people deleting comments when they are criticized! Why so? Everyone has their point of view. You can delete if the language is obscene or crossing the line or going too personal. But the problem is that as you build your community, you feel you are someone great because so many people are saying yes and good to you and this leads to a false notion of greatness.
You don’t say yourself to be great – you don’t beat your own drum. Leave that to others! Most of us here, is a work in progress. Many of us are still searching for our own “why”! Many are still grappling with the reason for their existence so with whatever you can, help others to reach their goals. When you help others without expectations you can very well see your community is building around you!
You don’t become an influencer overnight. The people who are influenced by you will keep increasing as you keep growing! But stay grounded, stay humble, control your anger and if you have been able to achieve something in life then share and pay it forward!
The happiness of helping others is something which I can never express because it comes from inside!
A few questions to end this post with:
Are you surrounded by Yes Men?
Are you criticizable?
Are you growing realistically?
Are you happy?
I am looking out for your answers and interacting with you further on this topic.
Stay Safe! Stay Happy!
TGIF was the name of a restaurant in Koramangala in Bangalore (not sure if it still exists). When I first saw that restaurant back in the mid-’90s, I asked my friend what’s the meaning of that! Quite a naive question but then I was a small-town boy and didn’t have much understanding about such stuff.
He answered it’s the small form of “Thank God It’s Friday”. So basically it was a youngsters‘ joint attracting the young folks to come and enjoy the weekend. Fridays are always attractive because you get two days off from work after that.
Bangalore being a highly cosmopolitan setup, Fridays used to be party nights for young folks. The MG Road/Brigade Roads used to chalk a bloc on Fridays and Saturdays. Now, this culture is across all cities and towns and people let their hair down on Fridays.
But the bigger question is why do you love Fridays? Why do you look forward to the weekend? Is it because of two days of no work or two days of running away from the job? Or two days of fun with your family?
Whatever may be the reason you should ask this question to yourself! Why do you look forward to Friday evenings?
If you are thinking that you are happy that Friday is here because you can be away from your work desk for two days then believe me you are in the wrong job! You need to find a way out of that jam.
One thing that I suggest is that utilize part of your weekend in a side gig. I have a friend who works as a Distributor of AMWAY. I find that he looks forward to the weekends so that he can spend time on his side gig which is to make more sales in his AMWAY business to get financially independent one day. He keeps himself extremely busy during the weekend and he is as happy as any other day.
What’s important is to find your purpose and the goal of life. What makes you happy and how do you want to be remembered? Your off days should be spent on that. Everyone does not have the choice of working in a job where they want to. People make compromises and it’s quite natural. Opportunities are not abundant for everyone. Everyone has various problems because of which they have to stay in a job which they don’t like but if you enjoy and party on weekends to run away from that frustration then you are doing yourself a disservice.
Do what you love to do – your passion – your hobby on the weekends. You might be struggling today but you will have a brighter tomorrow if you can work on your passion during the weekends.
One of my friends loves paintings and enjoys teaching. But his day job doesn’t allow him any time for both those activities. He spends some nights in his painting activities and uses his weekends teaching kids. He has had amazing success with his students. That’s how I measure his success. Not by the money, he draws from his job but by the way, he gives back to society through his passion.
So the next time you say that you are bored with your job think about how you are spending your weekend! If it’s spent by watching movies, web series, and get-togethers then you are not helping your cause. You are not walking the talk. If you have to change your current situation then the power lies within you. Utilize your free time on that hobby of yours. Utilize your weekend on that gig that you have passionately yearned for. Nobody can push you in that aspect because here the choice is yours.
Remember your life situation 10 years down the line will depend on the choices you make today and the decisions you take today.
I wish all my readers good luck on their ride towards a better and brighter tomorrow.
Keep smiling and God bless!
Human minds are wired for shortcuts!
We are always on the lookout for shortcuts!
But shortcuts don’t get you sustained success!
You should be ready to put in the hard yards!
One important part of a salesperson’s job is to generate leads. As a B2B sales professional it’s the hardest job in the sales flywheel!
Flywheel was evangelized by Jim Collins through his exemplary work in his series of books starting with Built to Last, Good to Great, Great by Choice, and How the mighty fall. He brought all these studies together in a final book called Turning the flywheel. If you have not read these books yet, buy them and start reading them now!
For a long period of time, we have spoken about the sales funnel when it came to talking about sales and pipelines, etc. but I think the apt way to look into this is by the Flywheel concept. There are 6 important clogs in the wheel and when you remove these 6 clogs the wheel starts moving fast and then it flies off and when it flies off, your business will be the rock star business of the town. So what are these 6 clogs which I also call the 6 angles of a hexagonal diamond?
I spoke about qualifications in one of my earlier blogs. Today I will speak about the most important clog in a flywheel or angle in a diamond and that’s “leads”.
There are various ways to generate leads and some of them are:
Advertisements are the costliest and easiest way to generate leads. If you have the money power then that’s the best way to generate quick growth but today I am not going to write about that. My target is to see the various ways we can generate leads through the other 2 channels.
So let’s start with Cold Calling.
This is the oldest method of generating leads. This is still used and used quite effectively by many businesses. It works effectively by Credit Card companies, Real estate businesses, etc. It’s also used in B2B sales but quite sparingly these days because, with the advent of Social media, prospecting has become a touch easier. So, though cold calling is used in B2B business prospecting it’s punched with social media prospecting. Let’s see how it works.
LinkedIn is the world’s largest Business Networking site. So quite presumably you have a LinkedIn profile. If you don’t – then stop everything and get one done right now.
LinkedIn has a very good advanced search system. Go and search for the specified business domain for which you are targetting.
Say, for example, you run a Digital Agency and you want to connect with Digital Agencies in Australia. In the search text box, write digital agency and select the country. You can select the city too to narrow down the search further. Now, you will get a list of companies. Go to each of the company pages and when you visit that page, look for the “employees” button. Click that and it will take you to the list of people associated with this company. As a B2B business you will be interested to connect with the senior management, so go to their top designated people and check their profile and follow them. Do not send a connection request straight away.
Check out the posts he has posted or the activities he has been doing on LinkedIn over the past few weeks. See, if you can contribute to his content or engage with him. After doing that for a few days, you then send a personalized connection request. A personalized connection request is very important. You are unknown to him but if you have posted comments on his posts then the chances of him accepting your request are high. That’s why I ask you to first engage with his content and then send your connection request.
It’s important to keep a goal in front of you. Your goal is to connect to relevant decision-makers. So don’t hurry, go slow. You won’t get a prize to connect with a hundred people. Your prize is when you generate business from one of them. When your connection request is accepted, the first task is to thank him and write another small note informing him that you look forward to interacting with him and learning from him and you hope to add value to his network. Don’t push your sale. Every day I get spammed by at least 5 people on Linkedin, I always ignore them.
Keep up with his updates and keep checking what he is posting and also keep an eye on how you can connect with him with your business offerings. But the target is “Pull” not “Push”. So patience is the key.
Once a week, greet him and ask him what is the biggest bottleneck in his business. If he is in a happy space, he might not answer you – don’t get disappointed – people can be busy. Leave a note or if you have seen or written a blog that is related to his business, give that link to him. Always try to add value. This is a game of patience.
Many connections have their phone number visible to their 1st level connections. If that’s the case with your connection then you are in luck. Chances are that the number will be on WhatsApp. But that doesn’t mean you will start calling him right away. You need to do proper background research – why should he solicit you and how are you going to add value? Chances are that he is already happy with his current vendor, how do you pitch your value proposition – first of all, what is the guarantee he will pick your call?
If you are from a calling background, you might be itching to call him. If you are confident about how to make him interested go ahead but my advice would be to first track him on social media and keep a close watch on what he is posting and where he is commenting. You will of course have to call if he is not active on LinkedIn.
If you have to make a call, be sure of two things.
This is the same tactic that you need to use for Cold Emailing too.
In the ’90s and at the start of the new millennium, cold calling and cold emailing were rampant because “spam” was still not a dreaded word. But as more and more people jumped the bandwagon, people started getting too many unsolicited emails and calls. With the advent of mobile phones and low-cost internet, people started getting bombarded with sales calls and emails. Soon “Spamming” became a big problem and little by little, reaching your customer was not such an easy activity.
But even today, cold emailing remains an important marketing tool for many B2B and B2C businesses. For B2B businesses to reach the target customer through cold emailing is an art and I hope to write a detailed article soon on how precisely one should approach email writing. But here we are discussing “generating leads” for your B2B business and cold emailing and cold calling remain a very important clog in the wheel.
With the advent of Social Media, you can bypass this spam problem. Here is what you need to do which will be effective for you to generate business without being dependent solely on Advertisements.
As a salesperson, you should be a good content creator. You can choose the medium but you have to generate content. It can be short-form content for Twitter, or short videos on YouTube, write blogs, or write posts/articles on LinkedIn. This is the starting point of getting eyeballs on Social Media. You can’t generate interest without generating content.
If you are someone who has just started out, then select your business domain and start following some influential people in that domain.
Start commenting on their posts. Make a timetable and see when they generally post. Make sure you are online around that time so that you can read their posts and give your comments. Your comments should be insightful and engaging. It should take the discussion forward. As you start commenting on these posts, you will gain the confidence to write your own posts. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a journey and you should love the journey and there is nothing wrong with sharing the same. Never get into the mindset of not sharing the knowledge. Small or big, share it.
When you start sharing your stories on social media, little by little you will start building your own community. Remember to nurture them. You should engage with your new followers daily either on their posts or directly via messaging. Everyone follows someone due to a reason, ask them why they followed you and what you can do for them.
Helping others without expecting in return is God’s biggest gift to us. If you can do that, you will be able to build a strong following. When you build a strong community you will see that these people are rooting for your success.
Why will someone root for an unknown person? – only when they get value by remaining in contact with you.
This is a very long-term process and the last thing you should do is expect results in 6-9 months. For some people, it takes 6 months to generate their first lead through social media, and for some, it takes 36 months – but you will get the result only if you are consistent.
Another important aspect to look into is the audience. You need to know who your target audience is. When you know that, you should generate content for that target audience on a regular basis. Your community will become a healthy community when the people in your network get value through your content. They should learn something new by being connected with you.
Engagements on your posts are a good vanity matrix but the business will happen in your DMs (Direct Message). That’s where relationships get built – that’s where your community gets formed. So when you connect with new people, make sure that you nurture the relationship through DMs. No pushy sales – that’s a big letdown. Just be a connection who cares.
In social media, we see a lot of pushy salespeople who get connected and start sending sales pitches on DMs. I always ignore them. So do not make this cardinal mistake. It’s the pull theory that works. When you know your audience and you are generating content for that audience then one day or the other some of your followers/connections will get in touch with you with their needs. That’s the time when your sales wheel will start moving. Wait patiently for that tipping point to come.
As I have been saying above, it’s a long-term game. This process will never get you success in a few months. People look for instant results and hence either leave doing it after a few weeks or wait for leads to come to them via paid advertisements.
As days go on, AD spaces are going to get costly. With more competition, you will end up shelling out more money per lead. Your profitability will take a hit and soon your business will be under stress.
Before that happens, create an environment in your organization where people in managerial positions get active on Social Media. Ask all your sales folks to make social media a part of their personal KRA. Social Media not only helps you in creating your own brand, but it also helps you to generate leads. But people will only come to you asking for help in their businesses when they see that you are a person who can be trusted. And trust happens with time. See what you speak. Never get into an argument with anyone. You are leaving a digital footprint every day so if you speak out of turn then one day it might come back to bite you.
Goodhart’s Law says, “When a measure becomes the target then it ceases to be a good measure“.
So if you are always focused on the sales number you will not love the system or the process of reaching that goal. And to reach the goal of continuous business growth you need to love the process of how you can generate leads through social media and cold calling. I am focussing more on social media because once you get active on social media, you get to know about the target customer properly and when you make that first call or send that first email, you will be able to generate the hook better.
Do you generate B2B leads through social media? How are you doing it? Does the above strategy sound similar or do you follow some other process?
I am willing to hear from successful marketers and hope to learn from them.
Till we meet again, Take Care & God Bless!
Cricket fans especially from India are having a joy ride like no other. Accepted that the team lost out in the WTC finals but the consistency of this team has been eye-catching. The season started on a sedate note though, with India being bowled out for 36 runs in the Adelaide Test. All experts including me wrote the team off!
But then the comeback started. India won Melbourne, then saved Sydney by the skin of the teeth, and then did the unthinkable of beating Australia at Gabba!
This Indian team doesn’t give up and if the Australian tour was the trailer another act was played out in India when after losing the first test against England in Chennai, India decimated England in the next 3 matches to win the series and thereby confirming their spot at the top of the WTC table.
In every way, this new cycle of WTC (2021-23) was expected to be tougher for India because they are lined up to play two tough series away from home – England and South Africa!
India doesn’t have a great record in England, though it’s far better than in South Africa. On the other hand, England in red-ball cricket is completely opposite to their world-beating white-ball team.
Add to that the injury woes and Ben Stokes pulling out at the last moment made this English team extremely vulnerable!
By all counts, rain robbed India a fair chance to win in the first test match but no one could stop them at Lords where fortunes ebbed from one side to the other but the Indian team came good when mattered and eked out an amazing win.
But why am I writing this? Lots of journalists have already penned their thoughts about the lord’s test match – then why? Well, cricket teaches us a lot especially when it comes to life and corporate management lessons. Other than giving us joy, this is another aspect which we keep learning from cricket.
So what did we learn from the Lord’s test match? I point out a few which caught my attention the most.
Having ego stops us from thinking judiciously. We start believing that we are superior and we stop learning. When England batted and eked out a small lead there was this small passage of play when Jasprit Bumrah peppered the English number 11, James Anderson with short pitch balls. Anderson was left hopping around the crease and needless to say he was not thrilled one bit with that barrage of short balls directed towards his neck!
Fast forward, and that incident turned out to be the eventual turning point. At the end of day 4, India was 181/6 with a smallish lead of 154 runs. Realistically speaking it was Rishabh Pant who stood between England and victory. But early on the 5th day, Pant perished and the floodgates opened (or as it seemed). With tailenders to follow it looked game over for team India.
But quite unexpectedly England forgot the objective. In place of taking wickets in a normal way of pitching it up, they decided to target the Indian tailenders with short pitch bowling. Slips were removed and fielders were put on the leg side boundaries! It worked straight into India’s hands because feet movement was taken out of the equation. Overs after overs the tactic continued and India started building a healthy lead. The ego of Anderson influenced the captain Root and in place of trying to pick the wickets by bowling pitched up deliveries they resorted to short bowling and in the process handed India the decisive advantage.
When the history of this match will be written this aspect of bizarre captaincy would be written in golden words especially if the series is lost by England.
Never let your ego come in between your objective. Win matters – individual glory doesn’t matter.
When Jim Collins wrote his famous book, Good to Great, he discussed his flywheel concept and one of the first clog in that wheel was Level 5 leadership. To build a great business what matters the most is great leadership. Leadership matters and that’s why you will never find a great company with weak or average leaders.
It was amply displayed at Lord’s on 16th August. On one hand, we found Joe Root who got influenced by his fast bowlers’ ego to completely go against the normal line of thinking by removing slips and bowling short balls to Bumrah and Shami. And on the other hand, we found Virat Kohli who gave a stellar speech to his bowling unit before the start of the 4th innings making sure that the team would be relentless in attacking the English.
England went with the mindset of winning a minor battle which eventually led them to lose the war.
To be fair, Joe Root accepted his mistake because he did say at the end of the match that he did some mistakes which should have been avoided in hindsight. That’s a good hallmark of a leader though because when you accept your mistake you find a path to win. And that’s what Joe Root will be aiming for heading to Leeds next week.
Leading by example is an apt lesson taught in management. By that yardstick, Joe Root was far ahead of Virat Kohli.
In the first innings, he held the English innings together by scoring 180 runs remaining not out. Even in the second innings if India had to win the match it was Root’s wicket that was the key. Finally, when India did go past Root, that’s the point from where the win looked a possibility for India.
But let’s delve into some numbers, first.
Number of runs scored by Joe Root this series: 386
That’s more than 40% of the total runs scored by the whole English team in two matches.
Number of wickets by James Anderson and Ollie Robinson: 18
That’s about 65% of the total wickets taken by England across two tests. Both of them have a fifer too.
Now compare this with India. There are no runaway winners other than KL Rahul in batting. In bowling, all bowlers have contributed more or less equally other than Jadeja who has been under-bowled. Only Bumrah has one fifer.
This was the same scenario in Australia earlier this year too. The man of the series, highest run-scorer, and highest wicket-takers were not from India but finally, it was team India who took the series.
The point I want to make here is that it’s the team that wins. Individual results are good for optics but if you are to be remembered in history, you as a team have to win in tough conditions. You have to win against adversities. In Australia, the Indian team came back from a disaster in Adelaide to win the series 2-1 with many of their frontline players being injured. Here, going into the 5th day England had a bigger chance to win but how spectacularly did team India bounce back?
This happens through sheer teamwork. Each and everyone puts their hand up and gives 100%. The pressure created when a team works in tandem is much much more than when a team is solely dependent on a couple of players.
The relentless attack of the 4 pronged pacers of India was a sight to behold. We have seen that with England in the 70s, West Indies in the 80s, Australia and Pakistan in the 90s but we have never seen that with India.
In that sense, it was a new India that was visible on 16th August who was not ready to give an inch to the opposition. The whole idea of intimidating Bumrah backfired because the expected protagonists were left vanquished.
If you compare Virat Kohli with Joe Root individually, particularly in this series, Root is far ahead but when you look at the final results, India is ahead.
England went to win the battle but ended up losing the war.
Let’s not forget the back-end team of India at this moment of glory. Bharat Arun and Vikram Rathore have been doing a stellar job at the back. That India could attack relentlessly with that 4 pronged pace attack has a lot to do with the work that Bharat Arun has been doing with the team over the past many months. Similarly, if Shami and Bumrah were going behind the line of the ball on the 5th morning we have to give some credit to the batting coach, Vikram Rathore. His efforts are bearing fruits.
As I said above, it’s the team that wins. For long, in the ’90s or later in the new millennium we used to see individual performances which helped India win but now it’s more about everyone in the team contributing. That’s what great teams are all about, be it cricket or in corporate life. It’s the team that wins. Backing each other and making sure that everyone’s contribution matters is what differentiates between a great team to an average team.
This current Indian team is a perfect example of that.
Let’s not get too overboard though. Three test matches are still to go and India should be ready for that. Lord’s win was great but winning the series would make this win sweeter in the final analysis.
Let’s take a breather for a week and come back stronger and hungrier on 25th August. Headingley is like an English fortress so India needs to be at their very best to keep the momentum with themselves.
Bring it on. Headingley here we come!
Today is 15th August 2021 and we celebrate our 75th Independence Day.
India has come a long way from 1947 when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the tricolour on the intervening midnight of 14th and 15th August.
India has improved leaps and bounds over the years and with time our economic conditions have improved too. Today we are the 5th largest economy in the world and boast of having the youngest average population in the world.
We got political freedom from the colonial rule in 1947 but how many of us have gained financial freedom? To be fair we are far away from it.
India today has a thriving middle-class population but a big question that raises on my head is – are we financially free?
What is Freedom?
You are free only when you can decide what to do when to do and with whom to do it. Freedom also means you are the master of your time. Confused?
Let me explain.
But before that, let me ask you a few questions.
If the answers are no to the above then you are not free. Yes, you are politically free, you live in a democratic nation, you have freedom of speech (I guess we have) but you are not financially free. And till the time you are financially free, you will have to keep saying yes to a lot of things that your heart doesn’t agree to.
It’s all about choices. It’s all about decisions taken or the choices made that have put us in such a situation. I have been an equal culprit of such a situation in my life. So you are not alone, you have a partner.
If you want to truly enjoy freedom, then what you should yearn for, is freedom of time and that’s only possible by making the right choices today. It won’t come easy. India’s freedom struggle was a long drawn affair but believe me, this freedom struggle won’t take that long.
There is a difference between being rich and being wealthy. Rich can be seen but wealth is not visible. Wealth is like an iceberg it’s 90% invisible! You can seem to be rich without being wealthy. One can have a big car, a big house, go on yearly vacations but if most of his major lifestyle expenses are serviced through debts then that’s not a wealthy lifestyle – it’s a rich lifestyle!
So try to garner wealth. Don’t try to show, being rich. We are living in constant need of self-gratification and we are under pressure to prove ourselves to others! But this doesn’t get you happiness! It gets eyeballs and nothing else.
Living within your means is the order of the day! Our needs and wants are controllable and that’s what is the first step towards getting wealthy. Restraining your “needs” and controlling your “wants” is what differentiates between living life under stress or gaining freedom!
In one of my earlier posts, I wrote about the 80-20 rule. Here I break this up further! It’s the 50-30-20 rule.
How we control our wants is what defines if we will gain freedom or not. Imagine a day when you get up and you can decide what to do, not what you “have” to do. You have a job you may love it too but does that give you a purpose and pleasure! If yes, great, if no, you need to gain freedom. But to gain your freedom you will need to sacrifice something. And that something is to control your wants. You can’t decide to purchase items that can be postponed.
Ideally, if you plan to buy something don’t buy it immediately. Wait for a month and see if your desire is still strong on that. Most of the time “wants” are changing and hence once you postpone after a few weeks, you won’t have the desire to buy. In that case, your money is saved. Even after a prolonged wait if your desire is still strong then go and buy it only if it’s within the above formula.
Insurance is not an investment tool or product. Two have completely separate reasons for existence. Insurance is bought to protect our future needs or for future unknown eventualities.
If you have a child below 5 years, protect his future by buying a child education endowment plan. But how do you know what’s the amount that’s needed? Head to Funds India calculator. They have a marvelous calculator which can give you an idea of what amount you need to save for particular goals.
Insurance premiums are expenses that fall under the category of “needs”.
If endowment policies don’t cover within the 50% rule then opt for a term policy, only. 10-12 times of your net annual income should be covered under your term policy. This basically means you will have to relook at this every 5 years. Because every 5 years your expenses will increase due to rising inflation and you need to ensure that you are properly protected.
Discuss with your spouse about all your insurance policies. People tend not to talk about “insurance” with their spouses because no one likes to talk about deaths but it’s a truth that all have to admit. There is no guarantee of how many years one may live so even if that happens it’s your duty to ensure that your family doesn’t struggle for basic needs after you are no longer there.
Health insurance is a must due to rising medical expenses. Minimum policy coverage of Rs. 10 lakhs is required for a family of 4. Have a top-up policy every year in case you can’t afford the premium of Rs. 10 lakhs right now. So you may buy a basic floater policy of Rs. 5 lakhs and every year purchase a top-up which should be double the basic amount. The advantage is that a top-up policy can be purchased at 25% of your existing premium. This way you can keep yourself properly insured.
Our earlier generation used to buy cars and houses when they had enough money to cover that expense. Today we purchase cars and houses based on the down payment affordability and by EMI affordability. For a flat worth Rs. 40 lakhs most don’t have that money in their bank so they opt for loans based on the fact that they can give down payment of Rs. 10 lakhs and finance the balance Rs. 30 lakhs. Two things happen. One, your savings of Rs. 10 lakhs goes towards down payment (you lose your compounding power) and you end up paying EMI of more than Rs. 20k per month.
Now imagine if you are earning Rs. 40k per month. You end up paying more than 50% of your income in servicing the debt. This would eventually mean, “no savings”. You are young and free to think that your salary raise will take care of your future savings with time. But that’s a “big if”. “If” because our desires are always aspirational. Today you will buy a 2BHK house which will feel small after 5 years and you will then yearn for a bigger house.
Some get lucky and things fall into place but what’s the guarantee you are one of those lucky ones? Having a life of no debt is the first thumb rule for freedom. You gain freedom when you are not answerable to anyone.
But if you are living under a pile of debt then you have not gained freedom.
You might have a big car, you might have a big house but if they are financed by banks then these assets don’t belong to you. And till you pay them up, you are not mentally and financially free.
You might be in a job that pays well but has a toxic environment! Can you change your job at the drop of the hat if you have debts? You can’t. And you end up living a life which you are not happy about. Then what’s the use of having a house and a car if you are not happy?
These are hard questions, you need to ask yourself. If you need freedom, if you need total control of your time, first thing first, get rid of all your debts.
If you are already under debt then it’s time to stop and have a look at your finances and see where can you reduce your expenses so that the extra cash can be given to your existing loan.
If that means you will have to stop some investments – do it but first get rid of your debts.
Another thing to keep in your mind is that your term policy should be enough to finance that loan just in case something bad happens to you. I don’t mean to frighten you but you are responsible for your family. If something happens to you, God forbid, can your family pay up the pending loan via the insurance? If you have not done that, then do that today.
6-12 months of your needs should be available in liquid form at any point in time. So, for example, if you can take care of your needs within Rs. 15,000 per month then ideally Rs. 1.8 lakhs should be in your savings account or some liquid funds. If it’s not there then you are not close to gaining freedom.
If you are in a job which makes you unhappy, can you change it immediately? Most of the time, the answer is no. It takes time to get a proper job that will match your needs. But if you are not happy can you leave it immediately? You can take that decision, only if you are debt-free and when you have a 12-month emergency fund available with you.
Emergency funds are not supposed to be used in your “wants”. They are only kept for extreme emergencies. If you don’t have one, create today. I have a separate savings account altogether where I put some portion of my money every month to finance my emergencies. It’s a habit that I started in 2013. In between, I have had medical emergencies and those were taken care of only due to the availability of that fund. Even today that’s the first activity I do on payday. By default, 5% of my net income goes into that fund every month. And frankly, I don’t look into that account other than once a year when I have to submit my IT returns. If you don’t have one – start today.
We want freedom, but you will only get freedom when you plan properly. You can’t expect to be free if you have debts and if you don’t have an emergency fund.
People feel that they will get wealthy when they get better pay. But the fact is that you don’t get wealthy with that mindset. You may get rich but not wealthy. Because wealth is created over time. You become wealthy when money works for you, not the other way round.
With your pay raise, if you push the goalpost of lifestyle expenses then you can’t get wealthy. Your goalpost should be firm. Your lifestyle expenses should not increase with your pay raise. That’s the only way to get wealthy. Because once you do that, what will happen is that your extra cash will be put under the savings/ investments bracket.
The only way to increase your wealth is to let your money grow over time. And keep increasing that investment amount every year with your pay raise.
Top-up SIPs are a great way to begin that journey.
If you have EMIs to pay, then pay some portion of your extra EMI with your new pay raise. Debt reduction is equally important to gain freedom.
But if your pay raise is used to finance a new vacation or a new electronic gadget, then you are pushing your date of freedom.
Finally, it’s a choice. And the choice is yours. Do you sacrifice a bit today to have freedom for yourself and your family or do you want to have instant gratification! I leave it to you to decide.
Having goals is very important in life. So it’s vital to ask yourself what are the goals you have in life that you need to fulfill or wish to fulfill. You will need money to finance your goals and it’s best you do not be dependent on anyone other than yourself for those goals.
You can break up these goals into buckets (I put them in an excel sheet with each tab having one goal).
What could be your goals?
It’s absolutely personal but generally speaking, people have goals like Children’s education, a dream house, a foreign or domestic vacation every 6 months, etc. Now that you have defined your goals, give a deadline (time) against each goal. If your child is 5 years old then you would need to finance his or her education in another 12-13 years. So you have a time of 10-11 years to build that corpus.
How do you know how much is needed? Well, head to Funds India and they have some good calculators which can project the costs of your future goals. Once you know the amount that you need you to get into planning mode.
If yes, add these up and see what’s the expected amount after 10 years. You can calculate that too with the Funds India calculators.
Now, check if adding them is taking you to your goals or not. If not then you will need to arrange more funds which if not possible today, wait for your next raise and invest it in a mutual fund of your choice.
As I stated above, insurance products are not investments. You are investing for your freedom. If you are new to investments then you can start with Mutual Funds. But remember you have better choices in case you have a window of 12 years or more. Even with mutual funds make a plan to have a proper balance of funds.
This is not at all something which I am advising you. It’s a suggestion. Finally, it’s your choice.
If you ask me, I will suggest that you invest only 50% of your kitty in Mutual Funds. 30% in stocks. And 20% in cryptos.
I am not keeping Gold and Real Estate in this discussion but I do believe SGB is a good option in building assets in the medium term.
Century SIPs provided by a few mutual fund houses are a good option too. This is a product that can connect your investments with insurance. You get insured 100 times your SIP amount. This is good because you are forced not to stop or withdraw your investments for a fixed amount of time. Discipline is very important to get wealthy and this product forces you to remain displined.
For direct equities, once again you will need to do a lot of research on what to buy and when to sell. Most people don’t have so much time but that doesn’t mean you should pay these Mutual Fund companies the various expense charges that they keep charging you. You can get rid of these expenses by investing directly in equities via Smallcase and Zerodha. This allows you to have full control of your funds – you become your own fund manager.
Open an account in Smallcase.com which is directly integrated with your Demat account. Zerodha is very easy to use and is very user-friendly and you will have fewer charges to pay if you invest through Zerodha. Smallcase allows you to invest directly in equities in portfolio formats and you can buy it in SIP way too. The advantage is that you are the owner of the stocks and you will have full control of your investments. And if you are a man like me who loves to enjoy dividends then because you are investing directly in stocks you enjoy the dividends too not like in MFs where you do not get any dividends.
Over the past few months I have been reading and talking with people related to cryptocurrencies and I think 15-20 years down the line this will become the new normal on how people deal with money. It’s a big disruption in the money market and I think if you invest today, you can get multi-fold returns a couple of decades down the line. But do not invest too much yet, be very sure about your risk appetite because you can lose a lot of money in the short term. It’s highly volatile but the returns can be quite unimaginable in the long run.
I maintain a retirement fund. I used Funds India Calculator to understand the corpus I need to create for me to retire (Retirement means financial freedom – not retirement from work). These are the places where I have invested for my retirement goal.
Now, this is something I won’t advise you to copy. Because your way of thinking could be completely different from mine but I just wanted to give you an example of how I have diversified my retirement corpus. Every year, I update my excel sheet to understand how far away I am from my goal.
I am definitely not there yet but I am surely getting there.
If I can do it, I am very sure you will be able to do it too. I would really love all my friends to enjoy freedom. It’s important to live a life filled with happiness and that’s only possible when you do not have any burden. I advise you to plan your freedom today.
Happy Independence Day everyone and I hope to see you financially free too.
PS. If you are young and you are yet to get going, I will advise reading a few time-tested books to further crystalise your thought process.