Every human is a seeker of ‘Truth’. But almost all give up in the middle since they are threatened by their alter
ego, ‘The Fallen One’. The first step is to accept that yes, ‘I’ am ‘The Fallen One’ and then proceed for soul
searching. This is unstable equilibrium so the caution has to be practiced. So, I would like to reach ‘Youth of
India’ in particular by presenting them what ‘search for self-realization’ has to offer. It is not easy, perhaps the
most difficult task to be undertaken, but the persistence is the key. The book also contains few concepts related to
science and mathematics which should interest logical minds. It is also meant for those who have gone under the same
set of experience while performing soul search.
Chapter 1 – The Fallen One
In this chapter the main focus is on the very entity responsible for challenging virtues in an individual. This is
‘something’ which is not separable for any of us. It is just a myth that we consider him to be something not part of
us, it seduces us to commit evil. So we just guard ourselves from outer world but what about inner aspect which we
just ignore. We believe that propagator of evil is ruler of Hell, which resides outside, so it does make sense to
talk about concepts of Heaven and Hell. And how far they have penetrated our psychology? We are keen on finding
answers what will happen after death but do we seriously try to change the way we live, something which can change
the way we perceive and accept the end.
Chapter 2 – The War: Dark and Light
What will an individual do when he is threatened? Most of us will become violent and try to justify our actions by
calling it an act of self-defense. That’s the impact evil has on inner world of an individual, the noises in forms
of evil thoughts which originates in his mind. But he does not realize that he is just fighting under their
influence since light has nothing to do with any dispute. The seeker is forced to engage since he is not yet evolved
as source of light but he should be selective in such battles else he will never experience a respite. The very
break he needs to continue his journey.
Chapter 3 – Faith Hurts
A stand has to be taken in the war. Either an individual will surrender to ‘The Fallen One’ or he will keep fighting.
But sooner or later his resources will decline and he has to grab something to ensure continuation of the journey.
That something is ‘Faith’. But getting attached to ‘Faith’ brings pains, sufferings and feeling of burning. The
reason faith forbids engaging in any futile activity which may feed ‘The Fallen One’. Just imagine starving ‘The
Fallen One’ who have been fed incessantly will react. He will grow aggressive will try to tear the new beliefs in
pieces and that gives a feeling to an individual that faith hurts.
Chapter 4 – Who Am I?
Faith has its own way of awakening. Answers flow, doubts vaporize and sometimes events are of such magnitude happen
that an individual may not have ever comprehended them. He would not have asked answers for few questions but still
they are revealed. In fact, he would not have even asked such questions. So, answers to such questions may be
discarded as mere illusion or myths of sleeping body but in reality they are indications that consciousness is
gaining dynamism; then, the perception and outlook of the traveler changes. All the earlier believes begin to fall
apart. A new human rises and the basic question about our origin begins to dissolve. An individual who always
believed to have separate identity throughout his journey so far finds out that he is just an infinitesimal part of
Infinite.
Chapter 5 – Death: The Biggest Lie?
Matter, any physical form, has inevitable end. Why to ignore this fact, the basis of any life? Death is not being
afraid of but it has to be respected since it will cease the opportunity form consciousness to continue further. But
is it really the ‘Truth’? That is something which is revealed during the journey. No it is not since few destined
one escaped it by becoming eternal. And then the ‘Death’ just appears as annihilation of physical form not of the
consciousness.
Chapter 6 – The Selfless Warrior: Consciousness at The Highest Level
Individual have realized and accepted that Death is inevitable. But that is only by physical aspect. If the
consciousness is raised to highest level the fear of death will just vanish. And right there a warrior is born. His
agenda is not to raise war but to initiate the war against evil irrespective of fact whether it is found inside or
outside. He does not make errors in selecting the war since he is the only one to recognize right and wrong. He does
not carry out order from any living person, like in army a soldier has to respond to orders from his superior; He
just listens to the will of ‘The One’. He is not seeker anymore but ‘A Transformation’ whom ‘Light’ has Himself
designated as ‘His Own’.
People ask me from time to time, why do you read so much? And I quote them a phrase from one of my favorite books: “A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That’s why I read so much Jon Snow.”
And here's what Tyrion Lannister had to say about 'death':Here's what the Night's Watch think about the dead and the death:
Do the dead frighten you?
I hope at least some of you would have figured out which book am I talking about. It’s A Game of Thrones, the first book of the series “A Song of Ice and Fire”, by George RR Martin, first published in 1996.
The HBO produced TV adaptation of this book is insanely famous across the world, mainly because of the bold content and gruesome visuals. However, there’s more, much more to the book that one can enjoy, and learn from.
Despite being an intricately crafted monolith of a book, stretching to a mind numbing length of 800 pages, akin to the fictional “WALL” in the Westerosi universe, the story can essentially be broken down into 3 simple categories:
1. The longest part of this book tells how the noble Stark family deals with conspiracy and court politics in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, with particular emphasis on Eddard Stark, the father and leader of the noble family.
2. A second story follows the exiled princess Daenerys, one of the last descendants from the previous royal family, as she grows up on another continent.
3. A third story follows Jon Snow, the illegitimate son of Eddard Stark, as he grows up in the north of Westeros. He is in the special military order called the Night’s Watch, which is dedicated to protecting the civilized Seven Kingdoms from the dangers beyond the Wall.
So, it’s not that hard to follow, after all. Okay, there’s a lot going on here, but the book is actually pretty clear about everything.
Talking about the takeaway for the reader, I’d like to share 3 powerful and deep quotes from the book, spoken by the lead characters at different intervals of time.
1. “Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.”
We’ve been taught from our childhoods, that we should always speak the truth. From our national flag to the photo of Gandhi on our currency notes, everything encourages us to stick with the truth with all our might, for truth always prevails. Yet, how many of us actually do it in real life? We lie so much every day that it has become an integral part of our life. We lie to our colleagues, our friends, our spouses, and, most shockingly, ourselves. It’s easier to deny a truth, much harder to face it. And that is the question this book will leave the reader with. Are you brave enough?
2. “We all need to be mocked from time to time Lord Mormont lest we start to take ourselves too seriously.”
A sense of humor can win over any situation. We face numerous challenges in our daily lives. The pressure of completing an assigned job, the fear of running out of salary before the days in the month, the uncertainty of losing our loved ones over petty disagreements, or any of the other million things that run in our minds. Though we can’t control everything that life throws at us, we can surely control how we react to it. This book leaves the reader with a lasting lesson of not taking ourselves too seriously in life. Nobody gets out of it alive, anyway.
3. “Winter is coming.”
Talking about the industry I’m a part of: technology and education. Winter is coming, a constantly recurring phrase throughout the series, tells us the importance of being vigilant at all times. Being complacent with our current knowledge, is the luxury we educators cannot afford. For the times change constantly, and technologies change with it. We need to keep learning if we are to stay abreast. “...a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That’s why I read so much Jon Snow...”
I hope this blog post has inspired you to pick-up the book, and give it a read. “May the gods be with you.”
Tags: Book Summary,Politics,Indian Politics,Emotional Intelligence,Psychology,Behavioral Science,Communication Skills,
Good evening friends and today we will be discussing the book ‘The ONE Thing’ by Gary Keller.
The book introduces the readers to the concept of ‘ONE Thing’ by the help of quotations, stories, and results
from researches.
The first quotation that appears in the book is:
“IF YOU CHASE TWO RABBITS... YOU WILL NOT CATCH EITHER ONE.”
Following up with it is the Domino effect and right next would be how it works for us in life.
THE DOMINO EFFECT
A domino effect is essentially what happens in a domino fall.
A research showed that a single domino is capable of bringing down another domino that is actually 50 percent larger.
This idea was then replicated in an experiment with 8 dominoes.
The first was a mere two inches, the last almost three feet tall. The resulting domino fall began with a gentle
tick and quickly ended “with a loud SLAM.” Imagine what would happen if this kept going.
The 10th domino would be almost as tall as NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. By the 18th, you’re looking at a
domino that would rival the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Number 57 would practically bridge the distance between the
earth and the moon!
Line up enough dominoes and, with a simple flick, you can start a chain reaction of surprising power.
The idea is that: When one thing, the right thing, is set in motion, it can topple many things.
GETTING EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS: Success is built sequentially.
So when you think about success, shoot for the moon. The moon is reachable if you prioritize everything
and put all of your energy into accomplishing the most important thing. Getting extraordinary results is all
about creating a domino effect in your life. Toppling dominoes is pretty straightforward. You line them up and
tip over the first one. In the real world, though, it’s a bit more complicated. The challenge is that life
doesn’t line everything up for us. Highly successful people know this. So every day they line up
their priorities anew, find the lead domino, and whack away at it until it falls.
When you see someone who has a lot of knowledge, they learned it over time. When you see someone who has a lot of
skills, they developed them over time. When you see someone who has done a lot, they accomplished it over time. When
you see someone who has a lot of money, they earned it over time.
The key is over time. Success is built sequentially. It’s one thing at a time.
...
Now the book talks about six lies that lie between you and success. We are going to cover them one by one. So the
first one is:
Lie #1. Everything Matters Equally
Equality is a lie.
Understanding this is the basis of all great decisions. So, how do you decide? When you have a lot to get done in the
day, how do you decide what to do first?
The 80/20 Principle
It says the minority of your effort leads to the majority of your results. It points us in a very clear
direction: the majority of our results are due to 20% of our activities.
A to-do list becomes a success list when you apply 80-20 Principle to it.
...
Lie #2. Multitasking
So, if doing the most important thing is the most important thing, why would you try to do anything else at the same
time? It’s a great question.
In 2009, Clifford Nass set out to answer just that, “how well so-called multitaskers multitasked”.
Nass had been “in awe” of multitaskers and deemed himself to be a poor one. So he gave 262 students questionnaires to
determine how often they multitasked. He divided the test subjects into two groups of high and low multitaskers and
began with the presumption that the frequent multitaskers would perform better. He was wrong.
“I was sure they had some secret ability” said Nass. “But it turns out that high multitaskers are suckers for
irrelevancy.” They were outperformed on every measure. Although they’d convinced themselves and the world that they
were great at it, there was just one problem. To quote Nass, “Multitaskers were just lousy at everything.”
Multitasking is a lie.
Every time we try to do two or more things at once, we’re simply dividing up our focus and dumbing down all of the
outcomes in the process.
...
Lie #3. A Disciplined Life
There is this pervasive idea that the successful person is the “disciplined person” who leads a “disciplined life.”
It’s a lie.
The truth is we don’t need any more discipline than we already have. We just need to direct and manage it a little
better.
Success is not a marathon, but actually a short race—a sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick
in and take over. When we know something that needs to be done but isn’t currently getting done, we often say, “I
just need more discipline.”
Actually, we need the habit of doing it. And we need just enough discipline to build the habit.
When you discipline yourself, you’re essentially training yourself to act in a specific way. Stay with this long
enough and it becomes a habit. So when you see people who look like “disciplined” people, what you’re really seeing
is people who’ve trained a handful of habits into their lives. This makes them seem “disciplined” when actually
they’re not. No one is.
...
SELECTED DISCIPLINE WORKS SWIMMINGLY
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is a case study of selected discipline. When he was diagnosed with ADHD as a child,
his kindergarten teacher told his mother that he will never be able to focus on anything. Bob Bowman, his coach
since age 11, reports that Michael spent a lot of time on the side of the pool by the lifeguard stand for disruptive
behavior. That same misbehavior has cropped up from time to time in his adult life as well. Yet, he’s set dozens of
world records winning gold medals in every Olympics. Talking about Phelps, one reporter said, “If he were a
country he’d be ranked 12th over the last three Olympics.”
Now, how did this happen? How did the boy who would “never be able to focus on anything” achieve so much? Phelps
became a person of selected discipline.
From age 14 through the Beijing Olympics when he was 23, Phelps trained seven days a week, 365 days a year. He
figured that by training on Sundays he got a 52-training-day advantage on the competition. He spent up to six hours
in the water each day.
It is not a stretch to say that Phelps channeled all of his energy into one discipline that developed into one
habit—swimming daily. The payoff from developing the right habit is pretty obvious.
...
TODDLER TORTURE: In the late ’60s, researcher Walter Mischel began methodically tormenting four-year-olds at a
nursery school. The devilish experiment was called “The Marshmallow Test.” It was an interesting way to look at
willpower.
Kids were offered a treat — the now infamous marshmallow. The child was told that the researcher had to step away,
and if he could wait 15 minutes until the researcher returned, he’d be awarded a second treat. One treat now or two
later.
On average, kids held out less than three minutes.
And only three out of ten managed to delay their gratification until the researcher returned.
It was pretty apparent most kids struggled with delayed gratification. Willpower was in short supply.
Initially no one had any idea what success or failure in the marshmallow test might say about a child’s future.
Starting in 1981, Mischel began systematically tracking down the original subjects to measure their relative academic
and social progress. His hunch was correct—willpower or the ability to delay gratification was a huge indicator of
future success.
So, when your mother told you “all good things come to those who wait,” she wasn’t kidding.
...
Lie #4. Willpower Is Always on Will-Call
Willpower is like the power bar on your cell phone.
A research showed just how fleeting our willpower can be. Researcher divided 165 undergraduate students into two
groups and asked them to memorize either a two digit or a seven-digit number.
When they were ready, students would then go to another room where they would recall the number. Along the way, they
were offered a snack for participating in the study. The two choices were chocolate cake or a bowl of fruit
salad—guilty pleasure or healthy treat. Here’s the kicker: students asked to memorize the seven-digit number were
nearly twice as likely to choose cake. This tiny extra cognitive load was just enough to prevent a prudent choice.
The implications are staggering. The more we use our mind, the less minding power we have. Willpower is like a
fast-twitch muscle that gets tired and needs rest. It’s incredibly powerful, but it has no endurance.
A measly five extra digits is all it takes to drain our willpower dry. While decisions tap our willpower, the food
we eat is also a key player in our level of willpower.
...
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The brain makes up 1/50th of our body mass but consumes a staggering 1/5th of the calories we bum for energy.
A 2007 article detailed nine separate studies on the impact of nutrition and willpower.
In one set, researchers assigned tasks that did or did not involve willpower and measured blood-sugar levels before
and after each task. Participants who exercised willpower showed a marked drop in the levels of glucose in the
bloodstream.
Subsequent studies showed the impact on performance when two groups completed one willpower-related task and then did
another. Between tasks, one group was given a glass of lemonade sweetened with real sugar and the other was given a
placebo, lemonade with Splenda. The placebo group had roughly twice as many errors on the subsequent test as the
sugar group.
The studies concluded that willpower is a mental muscle that doesn’t bounce back quickly. If you employ it for one
task, there will be less power available for the next unless you refuel. To do our best, we literally have to feed
our minds. Foods that elevate blood sugar evenly over long periods, like complex carbohydrates and proteins, become
the fuel of choice for high-achievers.
...
Lie #5. A Balanced Life
COUNTERBALANCING
The problem is that when you focus on what is truly important, something will always be underserved. Leaving some
things undone is a necessary tradeoff for extraordinary results. But you can’t leave everything undone, and that’s
where counterbalancing comes in. The idea of counterbalancing is that you never go so far that you can’t find your
way back or stay so long that there is nothing waiting for you when you return.
In the world of professional success, it’s not about how much overtime you put in; the key ingredient is the focused
time. To achieve an extraordinary result you must choose what matters most and give it all the time it demands. This
requires getting extremely out of balance in relation to all other work issues, with only infrequent
counterbalancing to address them.
You never forsake your personal life for work and vice-versa. You can move back and forth quickly between these and
often even combine the activities around them, but you can’t neglect any of them for long.
In your professional life, go long and make peace with the idea that the pursuit of extraordinary results may require
you to be out of balance for long periods.
Going long allows you to focus on what matters most, even at the expense of other, lesser priorities.
...
Lie #6. BIG IS BAD
“We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”
For more than four decades, Stanford psychologist Carol S. Dweck has studied the science of how our self-conceptions
influence our actions. Her work offers great insight into why thinking big is such a big deal.
Dweck’s work with children revealed two mindsets in action —a “growth” mindset that generally thinks big and seeks
growth and a “fixed” mindset that places artificial limits and avoids failure.
Growth-minded students, as she calls them, employ better learning strategies, experience less helplessness, exhibit
more positive effort, and achieve more in the classroom than their fixed-minded peers. They are less likely to place
limits on their lives and more likely to reach for their potential. Dweck points out that mindsets can and do
change. Like any other habit, you set your mind to it until the right mindset becomes routine.
...
PURPOSE, PRIORITY AND PRODUCTIVITY
Think of purpose, priority, and productivity as three parts of an iceberg.
With typically only 1/9 of an iceberg above water, whatever you see is just the tip of everything that is there. This
is exactly how productivity, priority, and purpose are related. What you see is determined by what you don’t.
You see the productivity, what you don’t see is ‘priority’ and ‘purpose’.
And to help you in prioritizing, there is one question that is repeatedly posed in the book, try to answer this for
yourself:
“What is the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
...
THE BEGGING BOWL:
Upon coming out of his palace one morning and encountering a beggar, a king asks, “What do you want?” The beggar
laughingly says, “You ask as though you can fulfill my desire!” Offended, the king replies, “Of course I can.
What is it?”
Note that this is not an ordinary beggar but a saint dressed as one. After a long conversation that was belittling to
the king, beggar asked the king to fill his bowl.
“That’s it?” asked the king, and he instructed his vizier to “fill the man’s begging bowl with money.”
But now whatever, no matter what the king poured in the bowl, it disappeared and the bowl would be empty.
Word spread throughout the kingdom, and a huge crowd gathered. The prestige and power of the king were at stake, so
he told his vizier, “If my kingdom is to be lost, I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated by this beggar.”
He continued to empty his wealth into the bowl. Diamonds, pearls, emeralds. His treasury was becoming empty. And yet
the begging bowl seemed bottomless.
Finally, as the crowd stood in utter silence, the king dropped at the beggar’s feet and admitted defeat. “You are
victorious, but before you go, fulfill my curiosity. What is the secret of this begging bowl?”
The beggar humbly replied, “There is no secret. It is simply made up of human desire.”
One of our biggest challenges is making sure our life’s purpose doesn’t become a beggar’s bowl, a bottomless pit of
desire continually searching for the next thing that will make us happy.
…
SUCCESS IS AN INSIDE JOB
One evening, a young boy hopped up on his busy father’s lap to seek for his attention and time. Now the father
quickly started racking his brain and he hits upon a promising idea. He grabbed his son, gave him a huge hug, and
announced that their first game would be to put a puzzle together, and when that was done they will head outside to
play.
Earlier while reading the newspaper, he had seen a full-page ad with a picture of the world. He quickly found it,
tore it into little pieces, and spread them out on the table. He found some tape for his son and said, “I want to
see how fast you can put this puzzle together.” The boy enthusiastically dove right in, while his father, confident
that he had now bought some extra time, buried himself back in his paper.
Within minutes, the boy once again yanked down his father’s newspaper and proudly announced, “Dad, I’m done!” The
father was astonished. The man was looking at the picture, not a single piece out of place. In a voice mixed with
parental pride and wonder, the father asked, “How on earth did you do that so fast?”
What had happened here was that the pieces were lying on a glass-top table and the boy had dropped a piece on the
floor. While picking this piece, he noticed the picture of a man on the back of the pieces. That was it! When the
boy put the man together, the world just fell into place.
The lesson of this story is that “Success is an inside job”. Put yourself together, and your world falls into
place.
This post is about the book “Screw it, let’s do it” by Richard Branson. We are going to cover the best lessons that are presented in this book by the author.
The first lesson that Richard talks about is “Take The First Step”.
Plato once said, 'The beginning is the most important part of any work.' A journey of a thousand miles starts with that first step. If you look ahead to the end, and all the weary miles between, with all the dangers you might face, you might never take that first step. And whatever it is you want to achieve in life, if you don't make the effort, you won't reach your goal. So take the first step.
Second is “Believe It Can Be Done”.
Richard’s mum, Eve, is a perfect example of this.
During the war, she wanted to be a pilot. She went to Heston airfield and asked for a job. She was told only men could be pilots. Eve was very pretty and had been a dancer on stage. She didn't look like a man. That didn't stop her. She wore a leather flying jacket and hid her blonde hair under a leather helmet. She talked with a deep voice. And she got the job she wanted. She learned how to glide and began to teach the new pilots. These were the young men who flew fighter planes in the Battle of Britain.
After the war, she wanted to be an air hostess. Back then, they had to speak Spanish and be trained as nurses, but Eve chatted up the night porter at the airline and he secretly put her name on the list. Soon, she was an air hostess. She still couldn’t speak Spanish and she wasn’t a nurse. But she had used her wits. She wouldn’t say no. She just did it.
Third is about the “Birth of Virgin Music” and the lesson “Have Fun and Money Will Come”.
Throughout 1977, Richard had been working on making something out of Virgin Music. By the end of the year, Richard needed a break. His girlfriend, Joan and he had split up. He was sad but he likes to make the best of things. He always likes to get away from London in the winter. Music, sun and sea makes him feel good.
The distance from London gives him the space and freedom to think and plan out fresh ideas. He went to Jamaica. It was part holiday, part work. He swam in a worm sea. He sat on the beach. He listened to some great reggae bands. Then he heard a new kind of music. It was made by local DJs and radio jocks, who were known as `toasters'. It was a kind of early rap, so he was at the start of something big. Jamaican musicians won't take checks so he signed up almost twenty reggae bands and some toasters from a case filled with cash. They went on to sell lots of records with them. It was a perfect example of his motto — have fun and the money will come.
Now a touch of reality:
If you do have to work for a boss at a job you don't like, as almost everyone does at some point, don't moan about it. Have a positive outlook on life and just get on with it. Work hard and earn your pay. Enjoy the people you come into contact with through your job. And if you are still unhappy, make it instead your goal to divide your private life from your work life. Have fun in your own time, you will feel happier and you'll enjoy your life and your job more.
Next is: Be bold. Calculate the risks and take them.
In 2004 Richard made a TV series, The rebel Billionaire. The final episode had a twist at the end. Richard offered the prize winner, Shawn Nelson, a check for one million dollars - but there was a catch. He could take the check or toss a coin for an even bigger mystery prize. If he lost the toss, he would lose it all. Richard held out the check. Shawn took it and saw the long line of zeros. Then Richard took it back, put it in his hip pocket and held out a silver coin.
'Which one will it be?' Richard said. 'The coin or the check?'
Life is full of hard choices. Which one would Shawn go for? Shawn looked shaken. It was a huge gamble. All or nothing. He asked Richard, 'what would you do?' 'It's up to you,' Richard said. Richard could have told him that he takes risks, but they are calculated risks. He weighs the odds in everything he does. Instead, Richard said nothing.
Shawn had to make up his own mind. Shawn walked back and forth, trying to decide. It was tempting to gamble. It would make him look cool. Also, the unknown prize might be amazing. At last, he said he couldn't risk losing that much money on the toss of a coin. He owned a small company. He could use the money wisely to help his business grow. It could change his life for the better. It would also help the people who worked for him and believed in him. 'I'll take the check, ' he said.
Richard was pleased and told him 'If you had gone for the coin toss, I would have lost all respect for you'.
He made the right choice and didn't gamble on something that he couldn't control. He got the million dollars but not the mystery prize. The big prize was to be president of Virgin for three months. Virgin has 200 companies so Shawn would have learnt a lot. It was a golden chance. Richard does say that 'Believe in yourself. You can do it' but he also says, 'Be bold but don't gamble.'
The next lesson is: Challenge yourself.
Everyone needs something to aim for. You can call it a
challenge, or you can call it a goal. It is what makes us human. It was
challenges that took us from being caveman to reaching for the stars. If you
challenge yourself, you will grow. Your life will change. Your outlook will be
positive. It's not always easy to reach your goal but that's no reason to stop.
Never say die. Say yourself 'I can do it. I'll keep on trying until I win.'
Ricky’s First Big Challenge:
Ricky’s first big challenge was when he was five years
old. He went to Devon for two weeks one summer with family and relatives. When
they got there, he ran onto the beach and started at the sea, he couldn’t swim
and his aunt Joyce bet him ten shillings that he couldn’t learn to swim by the
end of the holiday. Ricky took the bet.
Most days, the sea was rough and the waves were high, but
Ricky tried for hours. Day after day, he splashed along with one foot on the
bottom. He grew blue with cold and swallowed a lot of sea water but still he
couldn’t swim.
Ricky had lost the bet and his aunt told him to never
mind as there is always a next year.
As they set off for home in the car, Ricky gazed out of
the window. He wished he had learned to swim, he hated losing the bet. And, the
family hadn’t got home so they were still really on holiday. Ricky thought, now
was his last chance.
“Stop the car,” he shouted. His dad followed as both of
his parents knew about the bet and they obviously knew their son. Ricky jumped
out of the car, stripped quickly, and ran across a field to the river. When
Ricky turned his head, he saw everyone standing and watching him, his mum
smiled, waved and called out “You can do it, Ricky”. As soon as Ricky got in
the middle, the current caught him. He went under, choked, came up and swept
downstream. He put one foot on a rock and pushed off, and soon he was swimming.
He swain in an awkward circle, but he’d won the bet.
Next: Stand on
your feet.
‘IF YOU WANT MILK, don't sit on a stool in the middle of
the field in the hope that the cow will back you up.'
An old recipe for rabbit pie said,' First, catch the rabbit.'
Note that it didn't say, 'First, buy the rabbit, or sit on your bottom until
someone gives it to you.'
Lessons like these, taught to Richard by his mum from
when he was a toddler, are what have made him stand on his own two feet. He was
trained to think for himself and get things done.
Stand on your feet (The Virgin Story)
Although Richard relies on himself and believes in his
goals, he lost faith in himself once. In 1986, Richard was told that he should
take Virgin public. Two of his partners who knew him well, were not very keen.
They said he would hate losing control.
But the bankers said it was a good idea. It would give him
more capital to work with. Other big private companies, like Body Shop and Sock
Shop, had gone public. They were doing well. Pushed hard by the bankers, Richard
launched Virgin on the stock exchange.
Around 70,000 people applied for shares by post. Those
who had left it too late lined up in the city to buy shares in person. Richard
writes he will never forget walking up the long line of people to thank them
for their faith in him. He was very moved when they said things like, 'We're
not going holiday this year, we're putting our savings in Virgin' and, 'We're
banking on you, Richard.'
But it wasn’t long though that he realized he had made a
mistake. Now instead of having casual meetings on his houseboat to discuss what
bands to sign, he had to ask board of directors for a meeting for which he
would usually have to wait for four weeks. Plus, these people had no idea what
music business was all about.
They didn't see how a hit record could make millions
overnight. Richard could not sign someone who was hot before his rivals did. Or
they'd say things like, 'Sign the Rolling Stones? My wife doesn't like them.
Janet Jackson? Who's she?'
Richard has always made fast decisions and acted on his
instinct. But now, he was stifled. Most of all, he no longer felt that he was
standing on his own feet.
Then, there was a huge stock-market crash. Richard felt
that he was letting down all the people who had bought Virgin shares. Many were
friends and family as well as Virgin’s staff. But many were like the couple who
had given him their life savings.
Then, Richard made up his mind. He would buy all the
shares back — at the price everyone had paid for them. He didn't have to pay
that much, but he didn't want to let people down. He raised the £182 million
needed and Virgin became private company again.
After this Richard writes, “I felt nothing but relief.
Once again, I was the captain of my ship and master of my fate. I believe in
myself. I believe in the hands that work, in the brains that think, and in the
hearts that love.”
Next: Live the moment!
Richard’s grandmother lived life to the full. At the age
of 89 she became the oldest person in Britain to pass the advanced Latin
American ballroom-dancing exam. She was ninety when she became the oldest
person to hit a hole in one at golf. She never stopped learning. In her mid-90s
she read Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time, which may make her
one of the few people to have read it all the way through! Shortly before her
death at the age of 99 she went on a cruise around in Jamaica wearing only her
swimming costume. Her attitude was that you've only got one go in life, so you
should make the most of it.
About having regrets, Richard writes:
In a way, regrets are like wanting the peach you have
thrown away. It’s gone, but you are filled with remorse. You wish you hadn't
thrown it away. You want it back. Richard believes that the one thing that
helps is to have no regrets. Regrets weigh you down. They hold you back in the
past when you should move on.
About living in the future:
Always living in the future can slow us down as much as
always looking behind. Many people are always looking ahead and they never seem
content. They look for quick fixes, like winning the lottery. Goals are
important. Money is important. But the bottom line is money is just a means to
an end, not an end in itself. And what is going on now is just as important as
what you're planning for the future. So, even though Richard’s diary is full
for months ahead, he has learned to live for the moment.
Next: Value
friends and family.
If anyone asks Richard what he believes in above all
else, he would say his family.
And it is true that sometimes families split up. Then,
some people don't have anyone. But close friends can be like a family. We all
need a strong support network.
Even though Richard was taught to stand on his own feet, Richard
writes, “without my loyal family and friends, I would be lost”.
Next: Have respect.
One time Richard had to go to a meeting. He was already
late, so he grabbed some papers and jumped into a taxi. On the way, the driver
got very chatty. He had recognized him and said “I know you. You're that Rick
Branson. You've got a record label.” And after that, the cabby would not shut
up. He told Ricky that he might be a cabby by the day but he was also a drummer
in a band.
He asked if Richard would like to hear his demo tape.
Richard’s heart sank. People were always playing tapes to him in the hopes they
would be discovered. But Rick didn't want to be rude. 'That would be lovely,'
he said. The cabby had house around the corner and he had got Richard to accept
his offer for tea, and just outside this house when Richard heard 'I can feel
it, coming in the air tonight...' coming from the speakers. Cabby jumped out of
the front seat and held the door open for Rick. The cab driver was Phil
Collins, laughing like mad.
When Richard made “The Rebel Billionaire”, he copied the
idea from Phil. He made himself look like an old cabby and drove the young
contestants to the manor house. Rick had his ears peeled and listened to what
they said in the back. Rick also noted how they treated an old man who couldn't
lift heavy cases. Rick learned a lot about them from that, much to their
dismay. Respect is about how you treat everyone, not just those you want to
impress.
It is very important to always keep eyes and ears open
and to be polite. They say that you never know who might hear or see you.
Is money root of all evil?
It's said that money is root of all evil, but it doesn't
have to be. Money can be used for good.
The biggest charities in the world were started by rich
men and women, but some were begun with next to nothing.
Harvard, the wealthiest college in America, is a
charitable trust. It started with a few books and just £350.
IKEA started in a garden shed. Its parent company is a
charitable trust.
The man who dreamed up the Big Mac started life selling
paper cups. His company now gives $50 million a year to charity.
And, you don't need to be rich to do good. Children used
to collect silver paper and empty cola tins to raise money for good causes.
There are many ways of helping others.
That was all about the book, hope you liked it and
thank you all very much for visiting.
An excerpt from Chapter 2 - Be Bold:
Richard writes:
I get sent thousand of ideas each week – they are people’s goals and dreams. There are too many for me to look at. My staff read them first and weed them out. I look at the best ones.
One plan I was offered ended in disaster. I was young. My urge to try anything almost killed me. Sadly, it killed the inventor.
A man called Richard Ellis sent me a photo of his ‘flying machine’. It had a three-wheeledbike beneath two large wings. It was powered by a small outboard engine. There were rotors above the pilot’s head. The photo showed a man soaring above the treetops. I was curious and I invited him to show me how it worked.
When he came, we went to the local airfield with Joan and some friends. He took his machine to a landing strip. You had to pedal like mad to get speed up. Then the engine would cut in and start the rotors. He said I would be second person to try it. But he didn’t want me to fly.
‘You need to get used to it first,’ he said.
It looked like fun. I sat on machine. He gave me a cable with a rubber switch at end, which went in mouth. I had to bite on the switch to make the engine cut out. I would stop at the end of the runway before I took off. ‘Ok! Go!’ Ellis shouted.
I put the cable in my mouth and set off down the runway. I pedaled like hell. The engine kicked in. I went faster and faster. When it seemed fast enough, I bit into the switch to stop. Nothing happened. I went even faster. I bit harder. Nothing. I reached thirty miles an hour. I could see Joan looking at me at the endof the runway as I got closer. Suddenly, I rose into the air. The flying machine took off, with me hanging on. I was flying.
I soared over some trees. I rose higher. When I was at one hundred feet, I knew I had to stop it somehow. I tugged at wires and pulled them out. I burned my hands on the hot engine but at last the engine cut out and I spun down to the ground. At the very last moment, a small gust of wind flipped the machine over. Flipped the machine over. A wing took the Impact. I fell out onto the grass. I was safe but shocked.
A week later, Ellis took off in the flying machine. It crashed to earth. He died on Impact. His death was sad, but people with vision do die. Mountain climbers fall, and test pilots crash. As a child, I knew the war hero, Douglas Bader. He was a friend of my aunt Clare’s. He lost his legs in a flying accident. He learned to walk and also flew again. You can take care and try to avoid the risks, but you can’t protect yourself all the time. I am sure that luck plays a very large part. It’s easy to give up when things are hard but I believe we have to keep chasing our dreams and our goals, as these exciting people did. And once we decided to do something, we should never look back, never regret it.
Lessons from chapter 1: HAVE FUN
- Have Fun, Work Hard and Money Will Come
- Don’t Waste Time – Grab Your Chances
- Have a Positive Outlook On Life
- When it’s Not Fun, Move On
Lessons from chapter 2. BE BOLD
- Calculate the Risks and Take Them
- Believe in Yourself
- Chase Your Dreams and Goals
- Have No Regrets
- Be Bold
- Keep Your Word
Download Link For The Book: Screw it, Let's Do It (GitHub)Tags: Book Summary, Management, Non-fiction
If we had invested an amount of Rs 1000 in Nifty50 on the 3rd of Jan, 1994, today that amount would turn out to be
Rs 11407 (as of 17th May 2019). Another metric we can look at is the 'Gain per day', how much do we gain each day
here on if we stay invested.
Answer is: Rs 1.1.
Here is a graph that shows how this number is not prone to fluctuations and how it grows over time:
The curve is a "knee curve" with knee forming in year '1994" itself.
Here is a closer look at the three quarters of 1994:
So, the curve settle around 1.1 right in the third quarter (ending in Sep) of 1994.
This figure shows that investment in Nifty50 is profitable.
What if we invest Rs 1000 every month instead of a one time investment at the inception of the fund?
If we were to invest Rs 1000 each month in Nifty50, we would be having a current value of our investment to be Rs
1,691,507.
The figure 'Gain per day' would stand at: Rs 182.
This is a very slowly changing number:
Datetime
Gain per day
2019 May, 10
182.934
2019 May, 13
180.754
2019 May, 14
181.933
2019 May, 15
180.858
2019 May, 16
182.462
But if we look at its growth over time, it mimics the original Nifty50 curve but while the range of "Gain per day"
is 0 to 185, the range of Nifty50 is 1000 to 12000.
Here is a look at the two curves, first "Gain per day":
The NIFTY 50 index is a well-diversified 50 companies
index reflecting overall market conditions. NIFTY 50 Index is computed using
free float market capitalization method.
NIFTY 50 can be used for a variety of purposes such as
benchmarking fund portfolios, launching of index funds, ETFs and structured products.
