Relationships & Investing

“Corona Virus” I am sure its difficult to find someone who has not heard about this pandemic. How won't one it's all over the world, take first place beating all of our other problems? It has bent our ego, made us stay home, stopped our routine made us come to a standstill for a while now.

The world has however adapted to live in conditions with this virus, started resuming normal life with a lot of changes which now we call it the new normal. I want to talk about the time we were home with our family, the time we spent with them.

I would like to share my own example here, to begin with I was away from my family for past 7 years. I used to visit them at festivals, holidays and vacations. I had not spent more than 2 months with them since last 7 years. I had forgotten how it felt to stay with them.

I am sure a lot of people might have a similar experience in terms of spending time with our family. One thing it has clearly taught me is I owe almost everything to my parents. If it were not for the sacrifices they made and the constant love & support they gave I would be nowhere close to where I am.

This leads to next thought i.e. relationships. May it be in the form of friends, family or your partner. They are fragile, you need to take care of them. Think of them as different plant saplings in your garden. You need to nurture them (a parallel to love), water them (parallel to spending time), keep them in a place where they get sunlight & air (parallel to give space & at the same time be besides them) to let them grow.

Another analogy you can think of is these relationships are like investments. Those that you really take care of in return will do the same for you just like creating wealth from your investments. The way you need to cash out certain investments in tough times is similar to the purpose strong relationships serve when you are having a bad time. The sheer psychological support they provide makes it very easy in times of pain & suffering to overcome whatever that is troubling you.

Changing your perspective towards friends you make or even professional relationships you maintain can single handedly change your life. When I say looking at it as an investment the one meaning I want you to derive is you need to nurture them. Help them without expecting much in return, be kind and forgiving and have patience while dealing with them. You would hit a jackpot if you have even a few real friends who would stick with you through life. Those that don’t turn out to be good leave them where they are without any hard feelings if they realise their mistake they might come back otherwise you’re good without them.

It takes time to develop meaningful relationships you need to understand the person akin to understanding the company you would want to invest in, you need to understand the circumstances they are in akin to industry the company you want to invest operates in , you need to spend time and be there with the person akin to developing conviction for the company you want to invest in.

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Connecting the dots

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