Special Report

A Safal Niveshak reader (let’s call him Mr. V) recently asked me a question. I am paraphrasing his words for brevity.

Hi Anshul,

In last few years, I have read more than 50 books and 300 blog posts on investing. I am very structured in my reading process. I don’t rush while reading. I diligently take notes. Plus, I record everything I read. Please see the excel that I attached. [He had kept a meticulous record of every book and blog post along with dates and remarks for each]

While I can comfortably recall the contents of a book, it’s not the same with blogs and articles. Looking back I was surprised that I don’t remember the contents of many of the older read blogs. I don’t even faintly remember. Hasn’t all the effort in reading these 300 articles gone waste if I am not able to use such readings when needed?  [Read more…] about Special Report: A Few Thoughts on Reading and Retaining

Who wakes up every morning thinking, “I am going to make bad decisions today”?

No one.

Yet we all make poor decisions, more often than we want to. Surprisingly that’s not the biggest irony.

The biggest irony is that intelligent people – those gifted with above average IQ – not only make biggest mistakes but their bad decisions affect other innocent people who put their trust on these so-called smart decision makers.
[Read more…] about Special Report: 5 Powerful Hacks for Better Decisions

In June 2016, I found myself sitting with a bunch of wisdom seekers. It was a 3-day course on behavioural finance taught by Prof. Sanjay Bakshi at Flame university. We were like a pride of starving lions waiting to lap up every last drop of knowledge.

Prof. Bakshi’s mind is a fountain of insights and we had an insatiable thirst. No wonder the session would start at 9 am and go on till midnight. Even during the breaks, people would swarm him with incessant questions.

During one of the breaks, a course participant asked Prof. Bakshi, “Sir, we have benefited immensely from your teachings. How can we pay it back?”

[Read more…] about Pay it Forward

Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher who lived during 5th century BC, said –

A man can never step into the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.

I would like to posit that Heraclitus’ observation applies to books also. Unlike the river, a book doesn’t change much but the reader does.

When you reread a book, what you see and understand is very different from what you saw when you read it the first time. It’s true for the good books as well as the bad ones. In your second reading, you may realize that the book you initially thought as amazing wasn’t really so and vice versa.

[Read more…] about Real Reading is Rereading

In our VIA Investor Insight section, recently we’ve started asking interviewees about their favourite business person (apart from Buffett and Munger). The last two people who we interviewed (Saurabh Madaan and Jana Vembunarayanan) unanimously agreed on their choice. Here’s what they said –

Jana:

Jeff Bezos. He’s extremely focused, super-rational, and contrarian (right more often). Some examples of being a contrarian and right are free shipping for prime, kindle, and AWS. There were times he was wrong. For example, he didn’t like the idea of launching Amazon Studios. Even though Bezos disagreed, he committed to the plan. Writing about it openly requires a lot of humility, and Bezos scores full marks on that.

Saurabh:

By far my favourite is Mr. Bezos. If you read his annual letters, they are also just like Mr. Buffett’s letters. They have a lot of lessons about life and thinking in life in general. When he says long term, he really means long term. It’s not even five or ten years. It’s really long term.
[Read more…] about Lessons From Jeff Bezos’ Letter to Shareholders