1/11 One from my blog archives...
* LESSONS LEARNT FROM BUILDING BLOCKS *
It's weekend & I decided to do something child like . Started building a house out of "THE YOUNG ARCHITECT" blocks which were gifted to me for my 10th birthday! ( Yes , I keep things carefully!!) 😇
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2/11
Filled with excitement akin to a 10 year old , I carefully laid out a blueprint of the desired house in my mind palace ( Sherlock fan 😉)& began with gusto ! But I made the layman error of not paying proper attention to the surface area required for a sturdy construction.
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3/11
There went my initial efforts in vain as I saw the house crashing like a bowling ball hitting skittles !!! 🙄
I reworked & this time ensured my unwavering attention to the base ,gradually building the house. Basically just going with the flow, enjoying myself immensely.
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4/11
Pretty soon I was done !! ( Honestly, would have been super embarrassing had I taken long , considering the fact that these blocks are actually made for 10 yr olds!!!)😐🤷
As I admired my craftsmanship, (Yes, I can be a narcissist at times 😋)
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5/11
I actually felt elated that I decided to do this for it taught me THREE very important things :
* Firstly, I learnt that one can survive any circumstance, if one has a #Strong foundation . #Selfdoubt , especially during failure is common .
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6/11
All we need to do is #focus on the "#Fundamentals" & keep building on them ,never quitting however trying the circumstances get!
* Secondly , I learnt that a house (This can be anything in life) which might seem beautiful to me , might not for a majority.
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7/11
Say for instance - The house might seem too small for someone,whilst another may comment on the colour combination used,a third person may disapprove its layout . But does that mean that I should quit building the house as per my thought process altogether ?🤔
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8/11
No. Absolutely not! #Opinions MATTER but they must NOT DEFINE us or our thought process. If we aspire to please everyone , we shall find ourselves to be amongst the most unhappiest souls !
*Lastly , I learnt that one needs to be #flexible in life to get things done.
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9/11
We must learn to work around something & eventually we find everything just falls into place ! Until then we simply need to laugh at all the confusion & learn to revel in the chaos! Take the case of these blocks ! Initially I had a tough time with them,
10/11
figuring out how to make my house look as elegant as possible with most of the fancy pieces missing in the set! (Tchh Tchh...Now don't judge me for the set is a couple of decades old! 🙄🤷)
But then as I progressed I realised that I had to make do with whatever pieces
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11/11
I had and make the best use of them & it worked out just fine in the end!! 🙂
"VERY OFTEN WE ARE OUR OWN WORST ENEMY AS WE FOOLISHLY BUILD STUMBLING BLOCKS ON THE PATH THAT LEADS TO SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS" - LOUIS BINSTOCK.
A book that must be read by all direct equity investors but will be appreciated & understood by a few, that too only after witnessing an entire cycle play out in markets.
Few of my takeaways from this 💎 by Howard Marks.
👇🏽
2/30
To consistently beat the market,
You either need a ton of luck or superior insight & awareness of psychology.
Because investing is at least as much of an art as it is a science, it is essential that one's investment approach be intuitive & adaptive always.
3/30
All investors can't beat the market, since collectively, they are the market.
Stellar returns majorly come from correct non consensus forecasts.
Here Second Level Thinking matters immensely.
And the number of people capable of it is tiny.
Weekends used to consist of watching episodes of Mahabharata , Ramayana,Mogli ,He Man and the likes.
We danced clumsily to the 90's Indi Pop songs & thought WWF was real.
We created so many memories with hardly any photos thanks to the 32 film roll. 😄
3/10
Small things like a top , marbles , a rubber ball , or even a piece of cake with some frosting ( there was no concept of black forest cake ) used to make us insanely happy.
We valued each & every possession of ours.
And somehow never craved for more ...
A brilliant no frills book that offers a framework for thinking about how to improve your decision making , along with a set of tools that help execute it.
A few of my takeaways from this gem !
2/18
There are only 2 things that determine HOW your life turns out : LUCK & QUALITY OF DECISION MAKING.
We have some control over only one of those two things.
When you make better quality decisions, you increase the chances of good things happening to you.
3/18
Our objective is to choose an option that gains most ground in achieving our goals.
Sometimes which entails the least risk.
Thereby we examine the quality of the beliefs informing the decision,the available options & try to envisage the future based on our choices.