What is business?

I have observed a quite interesting phinomenon. Many might have already did. Business is all about looking for opportunities at the right time. During the economy boom, the rich have seen an opportunity in real estate. They became richer and the middle class guy realized he has missed an opportunity. During the economic boom, the middle class guy wasnt very sure of the economy and didnt dare to invest whereas the rich did. Similar is the case of migrating to America. The rich guy saw an opportunity in America. He didnt fear taking into account that there are not many Indians in America at that time(around 2000). He got rich and became a citizen. The middle class guy went to America only after he is convinced that there are a lot of Indians in America and hence dared to migrate to America. But by that time everything got over. There is no more opportunity in America. This is the typical mindset of a middle class person. He realizes the opportunity after the rich has already realized and the when trend is already over.

Learn to deal stress and make life easy....

Most of us get anxious when we face a competitive exam like gre,cat etc.,Also due to bad spending habits many people find themselves in a pathetic situation.Stress has become inevitable in todays fast paced world.But students got to learn coping up with it.Those who do it land up being successful and happy persons whereas those who dont end up as failures or unhappy persons.In severe cases it may also lead to drastic circumstances like suicides.


There are two kinds of people.Those who have fear of failure and those who have killer instinct.Either way a student can score well and become successful.But the former one leads to stress .They do not take risks and are subjected to stress because of fear of failure.It is actually a good thing,in that ,it indicates that you are concerned about your result.But too much stress has drastic effects.One very famous personality Rahul Dravid himself puts it this way"I feel tensed when i walk into the field.Sometimes i think it is too much and hence effects my game.Having no tension at all also effects my game in the same way as it effects when i have a lot of tension".Guys, this chap belongs to the first category and that is the reason why he is not able to handle a lot of pressure when he was made captain.On the other hand youth icon "Dhoni" never feels tensed about the game.That is understood from"it doesnt concern me whether India wins or looses .Only thing that matters is whether we are giving 100%". This is the point i am trying to make.

Now we are concerned about the former set of students .Students are very much tensed during the exams season because they do 'one day batting' as it is popularly called. Almost every engineering student does it. We spend the whole year wasting our time and during the final exams we are subjected to stress.I break my head during the exam season not knowing what to do about the lots of stuff i had to read.The student at this point develops all kinds of negative feelings like for eg.,what if i fail in the exam,then i will be disqualified for the campus interviews,my parents rebuke me etc.,Such situations arise when you want to accomplish something big but you are not up to it.
Lets consider a broader picture. Due to bad spending habits many people go bankrupt. At this point they face a similar problem which is much more severe. They dont save money for the future
Letting those negative thoughts into your mind only exacerbates the situation.Then the best thing you can do is to give your best shot.Always have confidence in you.If not get the highest marks you can atleast get a decent score if you are placid enough.Read everything you can read and leave the rest to God.


But the above said solution is when you are really out of options.If you really want to accomplish something big you have to prognosticate and plan accordingly from beginning.Even the international players do that .For eg.,unless the cricketers practice in the nets they dont have that confidence level to go and play in the field.Always remember "prevention is better than cure"whether it is helmet or something like that:-)To have high confidence levels you need to prepare for that accordingly from the beginning.

My first book

After a lot of days i have taken up blogging again. It is better not to discuss the reasons behind it.lol. Anyways i am on holidays now and i have read a couple of books on investment coz i am really passionate about earning money. I am willing to share my thoughts regarding how i am going to proceed about it.
The first book i have read is "Rich dad poor dad"by Robert Kiyoski. It is actually a good book to start with. It is one of those few books which makes you wonder how foolish i would have been had i not read the book.
After reading the book i have made up my mind to invest and start yearning for financial education. The author says that successful entrepreneurs look for opportunities which the other people do not. One can do it only if they have the zeal for money every moment , they dont relax with what they have, but keep searching for opportunities every second.
In the investment world,people should not be influenced by emotions like greed,fear etc., I would like to brief u on that since that is really important. For eg., u see your stock growing in price,then your greed comes into picture. U ll imagine all the royalties u would have if you sell all the stock that u can purchase like a a BMW etc., and so u want the stock to further rise but all of a sudden the stock stumbles. Greed blinds u to the facts.The same happens with fear also. If u have fear u ll have all the negative thoughts and u act like a paranoid. U cannot watch your stock falling down. U ll get tensed and in that emotion u ll take a decision not based on your financial education.Warren buffet himself has said"Dont stay in investment business unless u can see your stock falling down by 50 percent" As a final gist of the para i ll put it this way"In an investment business one should make a sound decision based on their financial education and not by their emotions".
which takes us to the second part which is financial education. Every now and then i see ppl of middle age investing in stocks but have no idea about investing. So there would be no wonder if i see myself in the same position tomo where i want to invest in stock without financial education. I dont want that to happen and so utilize my time in improving financial education.
which brings us to the next question where do i start? In the book "Rich dad poor dad" the author says "I remind people that financial iq is made up of knowledge from four broad areas of expertise"
1)accounting-so learn all that u can learn about it. It is the ability to read and understand.
2)investing-science of money making. this is the creative side.
3)understanding market-check this out.It serves as an excellent example of supply and demand economics.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/3090/Elmo/tickleme.htm
4)law-Rich people control everything but own nothing.The middle class first pays all the taxes to the Govt. and keep the remaining. You can manipulate the money in a smart way if u know the following.But this is only advised only if one has a sizable assets.Otherwise it is complex but if u can be patient it is interesting.
a)tax advantages.
b)protection from law.

Clarity

"There is no need of confusion.U got to make things simpler.Jot down on a paper as to what your future goals are like what you want ultimately in your life whether it is money or something else.Now start looking for the right path.Weigh the advantages and disadvantages in each case with your aspirations in the mind.Just go according to that.It is as simple as that.In doing so you have to assess your capabilities.Eg.,I am not a very capable person in managing people.The only thing that i am good at is shares and earning money and that is what i am doing.U need to keep things simple .Dont think of a lot of things.Narrow down your thinking to what exactly you want."

Finally got the visa.

It was the day when my dad joined me in a visa training centre. I thought it is supposed to boost my confidence levels. But it didn’t work that way !! Oh my gosh. I am supposed to by heart the answers for the visa interview. I couldn’t by heart the answers my tutor gave me and started loosing confidence.

I could hardly sleep the next day. Self analysis solved the problem finally. The reason my tutor gave me for the need to by heart is that under pressure at the US visa consulate, one may not be able to give an instantaneous answer. I thought whatever mam said applies to people who are low on confidence and not to me.I have informed the same to my madam. She is flexible enough to change her teaching method. I would give an answer which would come naturally to me though it is not rich in vocab and idioms. This worked and my confidence is back.

On the day of my visa interview I am confident. I said to myself that I can do it as I have required communication skills, decent educational background, genuine financial certificates. In the worst case, if I get a reject I can go for job in Satyam. I greeted the officer with a smile on my face. Here are the questions

1) what are the universities you have applied to?

Sol: blah..blah.blah

2) Is this the cheapest university?

Sol: No Sir, I have got a financial aid of about 7000$ from FDU. That is the cheapest university.

3) What is the costliest university you have applied to?

Sol: NYIT.

4) Why only this university?

Sol: This university has got very sophisticated labs which can help me understand the subject better and I can have hands on experience…..(i went on saying. The officer interrupted and asked me the next question.)

5) What are parents doing?

Sol: blah blah blah…

Ok , I am issuing a visa and would be looking forward to see u in America..

Thanks a lot Sir.

The whole interview lasted for a few seconds. I was very happy and made my first telephone call to my father. He is the happiest man on earth . Amazingly he thanked me and said that his tension got relieved . Never seen my father in such a tensed state.

Beware of the future.

In this article i shall discuss something that life has taught me. Lets consider two categories of people, students who postpone and people with bad spending habits. I shall discuss how their habits make them stressful ,its prevention and cure.


Students are very much tensed during the exams season. Most of us spend the whole year wasting our time and during the final exams we are subjected to stress.The student at this point develops all kinds of negative feelings like what" if i fail in the exam,then i will be disqualified for the campus interviews,my life is not worth living" etc.,Such situations arise when you want to accomplish something but you are not up to it.


Likewise a more severe case is the bad spending habits adopted by people. People in 30's since they don't have many responsibilities go for luxuries without saving money for the future. After a certain period there might be a necessity of money due to ill health or for children's education etc.,by which time he\she has decreased energy levels or might be too ill to work because of age. Even such situations lead to stress.


In the above two cases a situation arose primarily due to the absence of foresight. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”If a student studies everything in advance he will be confident enough to face the exam. Likewise if the person plans his future and saves money,he can be out of stress.