For moments for self...

Read somewhere today, '...reduce clutter in life and life will turn better...'.

Removing physical clutter i.e. cleaning up room and bringing stuff in place helps, always. Did that yesterday and it was: wow!

Removing mental clutter just needs few moments with self. Few moments, where I just leisurely sit and enjoy my moment of inactivity. Today, on a bright Sunday morning I loved the sun and the time I spent with my self, the moments trimming the nails just flew by and I realised how calm I was with the clutter settling down.

The whole day passed with peace - had gone out for shopping but was quick to be back on the goal...studies. So, those few moments not only helped the present, they helped the near-term present as well.

I really loved the chair and the peace and the sun and the cutting down of clutter. Few aha! moments for me. Life is good.

CFA Level 2 - pains and learnings

It happened again. I cleared CFA Level 2. Moment of joy!!! Here are bits of the mind holing process and few of leanings.

Well, level 2 was more difficult than I had initially thought it to be. There were reasons to that - higher course volume, more abstruse topics (I never understood how emerging markets' valuations are done) and likes .There were moments when I though why at the first place did I register for this. But, then beauty of all of it was I learned a lot during the process.

Compared to level 1 there were topics which went on and on and on. These never ending topics seemed to be the biggest challenge. At the first sight you may say that number of pages for level 2 notes has increased by 70% therefore, the I need 70% more time. But, that unfortunately is not true - because there are so many topics which just don't sink in well and you keep on reading over and over again to figure out what the author is saying; only resulting in a decreased confidence and little increased knowledge.

Few things which I learned out of the whole prep story were - better time management helps; focus on what is just expected to be known and don't waste time on things which not important outside of the study hours. There are two faces to time management. One is higher level another one is micro level. At a higher level I was bang on target; gave a fortnight for each book and moved on. But what happened within those 15 day brackets was interesting - I used to roam around for the first week and then as the end of fornight approached I used to start working harder. So, this led to a lot of inconsistency in preparation and therefore, a feeling within that I m just not there. Secondly, reading CFAI books is great but then somewhere it doesn't help you for the recall part in the exam. Hence, all time that went into the CFAI books was not useful. Thirdly, I was wasting a lot of time during weekends which proved to confidence shattering. After wasting a full weekend I just used to go home and think was wasting the whole weekend essential.

So, here I am - with few learnings and a positive result. Life waits for an MBA now.

Nothing Succeeds Like Success

I tracked Media stocks in Indian for markets for whole of 2007. There were great companies like PVR, Adlabs, BAG films etc. Mostly people believe that the best stocks to buy are the ones with great stories and reasonable valuations . But over a period of time I have learned that to make relatively quick success you actually have to RIDE THE SUCCESS WAVE. Just waiting for the wave to come and take you along may take ages. Simple strategy is - Buy what is being bought. Adlabs moved three times in H2 07. When I was writing my novice-investors.blogspot.com/ blog I stated that PVR is better placed. But I was wrong. PVR could just double up and Adlabs tripled.

I analyzed three of my seniors after their post grads. One with the best school name in spite of an okayish study stream landed in a job which pays him equivalent to what the other two are earning.

I also noticed my peers who just after grad - if they landed in great jobs they moved on to even greater jobs and the ones which were not so lucky mortals actually landed up in equally bad or slightly better jobs/profiles/companies.

Look at Narendra Modi in Gujarat or Left in West Bengal. They are SIMPLY WINNING it all.

This may just be another way of stating 80-20 principle. But, it works amazingly.
Just an analogy - Success GETS COMPOUNDED LIKE INTEREST IN A BANK ACCOUNT.

Ethnic Indians protesting

Ethnic Indians protesting for their rights in other parts of the world. Is this emerging India?

Come back into the shell

Standing at/on the terrace of the office with the senior director and trying to decipher life's mantra, I stood surprised by the simplicity and risk appetite of the man in front of me. Analyzing has gone into the blood the so much so that , judgment has become a habit. I listened to him, agreed to him, disagreed to him; but all this while; I was all thinking - Why has this man not done what he says? And if he does, why does he not show it off.

Questions were many, answers none. But determined to take a take-away out of the whole scene, I got one thing - 'You need to not only think different, but you need to follow that with passion as well'.

Passions need (to) be discovered, nourished and as life vanishes like a mild cigarette; keep an eye on number of hours spend on nourishing passions. They are less and as we age, passions die out...Truth remains - we are INTO the matrix and getting out needs a mental transformation. Which is not possible without 'free thinking - free action'.

In spite of knowing all this; like the pets of my landlord, who run away and come back home in a couple (of) days... I too moven, shaken to think at times; come back into my shell within a couple (of) hours.

SO this was the GAP :)

And when I left my CFA dream...

This is like saying I don't want Nicole Kidman because I don't have time.

Going on a business trip the same day as that of CFA level 2 makes me feel hapless. But the reality is I was quite far in terms of even solving 2 out of 20 Qs there. My manager says - ask if they can return your money. Hah! poor he; doesn't know - give a rupee to a beggar today and ask for it again tommorow - he won't return.Leave alone a profit org. Reparation is no more a truth on this planet.

So next this thing is - Keep going dude...