Anecdotes from life and lessons learnt

All through my school life, I was an introvert and lacked an ability to start conversations. I went on with the same mindset in college but the environment was different. College taught me to explore, to dream big and work towards it, to make lifelong friendships and many more such things. I went on with the environment and now I can see the benefits of that.

Lesson learnt - Be ready to change when you can see that it's for the good. It helps being dynamic and in not being rigid. If we are open to ourselves, we can unleash our potential.

I was someone who tried to manage things by studying less and scoring more than average. I was getting confident of soaring through CA but my habit of studying less and relying on instincts and at last moment studies did not work. I failed during my CA - IPCC (Intermediate Level). It broke me. I could not gather my confidence back and as a result I became insecure in life. I wanted an approval from my family that I am doing things correctly even though I was not. Finally, those delusions came to an end one day when I had decided to take charge and lead my life through perseverance. That helped immensely.

Lessons learnt 

- There's just no shortcut to success. You have to work hard to earn it. Even if you fail there will always be a satisfaction that you tried your best.

- It is about accepting yourself the way you are. 

Very often in life, we all are very harsh on ourselves. If we do not succeed the pangs of self guilt create a huge problem in accepting those failures. We try to fight with reality but to no avail. We need to accept ourselves the way we are. That is of course, after working hard to achieve something.
If something doesn't come to us even after working hard then we need to accept ourselves and the reality. It will be satisfying and it will surely create a base for success in the future.

My close friend and cousin sister moved to Mumbai in March 2015 after bagging a great profile at one of the big four. I became possessive and demanding, all this while her job required her to put in a lot of hours. As a result, I was always left with little or no time with her. I felt like being left out but soon developed other interests and I was able to understand her situation very well. This in turn made her happy.

Lesson learnt - Don't be way too possessive about people whom you love. Sometimes, just giving a little extra makes all the difference.

Mistakes you should avoid while investing in the Stock Market

I have been investing in the market and analyzing investor behaviour for some time and have tracked markets for last 7 years. Here are the few mistakes which you should avoid while investing in the market;

• A lot of investors these days don’t really put in the hard work in micro managing their portfolio. Now, this is an important aspect. Your portfolio manager might be doing a fantastic job but at the end of the day, it’s your portfolio, you have to analyze it and make sure you bring in the desired changes by talking to your manager. 

• In the market but without any fundamental knowledge of markets and finance, and blindly following the recommendations of Analysts, Commentators and brokers.
  

• Not spending much time in understanding the data related to volumes of the index or even particular stocks. If an investor does some number crunching about indices or stocks, he’s more likely to get a good deal.

• Going for ‘Averaging’ when stocks go way below the purchase price. There’s a reason why a particular stock has fallen from the peak. You don’t have to catch a falling knife just to average your purchase price. You are already in losses and instead of going for good companies, you are again putting money in a company which has been a bad investment for you.

• Showing more inclination in buying a company which is of lower price (say a two/three digit) than a quality, proven business which is of higher price (say a four digit).

• Buying without any return expectations. The investor should be sure about his risk taking ability and his expectations of return from the investment.

• Trying to game the market. It’s almost impossible to game the market. You have to respect the volatility and other aspects of the market.