Investors are Dancing - But no music can be heard

Is a Financial Tsunami Building up?

Just as the stock price of Tesla kisses $2000 (and by the time i finish writing this piece, it might be $2200) and Apple is way past the 2Tr$ Marcap, I receive a text message from an enthusiastic friend of mine who first started investing a few months ago (March 2020) after being forced to work from home and shared his stellar success at his new-go at the markets. He shared his desire to be a professional fund manager and started exploring ways to get a SEBI license to be a RIA (Investment Advisor) or a Portfolio Manager.

Being an investor since 1992 when I made my first investment and having managed funds for family and friends all life and now as a professional Fund Manager since the last few years, and having seen euphoria and fear again and again, I can say with some degree of confidence that this time it isn’t different and something is about to give way.

Covid has been the most unfathomable disruption, the likes of which hasn’t been seen by anyone alive today. The concept of Black Swan stands redefined which – till now – was an unexpected and improbable event and people would often relate to it by comparing it with a Tsunami or an accident or a sudden unexpected failure of an enterprise with global ramifications.

No one had ever imagined that within days, the global borders would be closed, airlines across the planet would be grounded (95% still remain grounded as I write this), and all levers of the global economy (travel, trade, manufacturing, shipping) would come to a grinding halt. ‘Sudden Stop’ in global economy was an academic expression that became a reality almost instantly.

Some 30 million Americans lost their jobs (more than 3 times than the previous highest), markets crashed by about 40% in 3-4 trading sessions, China got blamed for its alleged Chinese Virus, oil hit (-) 37 $ while the global leaders remained clueless and the only policy response was a complete lockdown of nations as leaders grappled with the  enormity of the situation.

Hundreds of millions of people have lost their jobs and millions of small businesses have shut down forever and the economic contraction has been so secular that some of the most high flying businessmen and executives have resigned themselves to the new normal only yearning for their basic needs to be met for their families and themselves.

While some countries have shared the real data and the extent of severe and unprecedented economic contraction, most have conveniently chosen not to release the same either to avoid embarrassment or to avoid panic. But imagine, for a second, that everything (revenue, earnings, profit, salaries, rentals, commoditiesetc etc etc) gets deflated by 40-70% - what effect it is likely to have on the global economy.

If the savings rate from income varies from 1% to 25% in different parts of the globe (it is believed that more than 70% Americans have less than $500 in savings and the max savings rate is about 25% in China and India), it is safe to assume that every person on a monthly salary / entrepreneur is already digging into life investments and assets to keep afloat as the inflow (after salary cuts or loss of income) is far lesser than the outflow. Majority of my friends and acquaintances have either stopped their SIPs or redeemed their Mutual Funds. I read that last 2 months have been the worst for the MF industry because of incessant redemptions and negligible inflows.

And Yet…

The Indian and global stock markets have shown immense resilience making these an easy ATM to churn out daily profits for Robinhooders.

Human memory is short and 10 years is a long time to lose and gain confidence all over again and the stars (Corporations and Executives) of yesteryears fade away while the new ones emerge on the evolutionary principles of Creation - Preservation and Destruction

It is believed statistically that 95% of market participants and fund managers have less than 12 years of experience which implies that only 5% have seen the crash of 1987, 2000, 2008 and a few other mentionable flutters in between. And human mind is generally tuned to be optimistic as hope and evolution trains the mind to expect a better future always in every which way. Little credence is given to people who invoke caution and sometimes border pessimism as a result of lifelong experiences and perhaps that’s the reason the world is deriding WarrenBuffett for having lost a decade by underperforming and not investing in Tesla and Amazon and all the 30 yr olds have seemingly outperformed by simply investing in Tesla or Kodak or Overstock kind of shares.

Parameters such as performance Ratios, Profits, Real cash in the hands of shareholders have lost every mentionable significance and price earnings of 200/300 or even 1000 in case of Tesla seems like 'THE' new normal.

And while the bears have been irreparably scathed in this recent melt-up, it would be prudent to remember that over long periods of time, either the price catches up with the fundamentals of a stock or the fundamentals catch up with the price,  but just to put the things in perspective (and I know nothing about Tesla and am not a Tesla basher sitting here in India – but it’s a good example) if Tesla was to maintain its present earnings, it would take about 1000 years to fully recover ones investment through Tesla s present earnings. Anyone who buys a Tesla stock now is valuing it at approx. a million dollars for every car sold.

Markets are a beautiful place that allow immense wealth to be created and accumulated for people who have patience and discipline but history is replete with examples of more than 70% of investors of all times to have permanently lost capital by chasing garbage (aka penny stocks) that seems to provide short term euphoria.

Lets talk of a few Indian stocks and themes or should I say wealth destroyers.

Between 2003 and 2008 Infra and Housing was a great story and a mere ‘infratech’ (use of tech and infra) in a company s name would get it rerated. Unitech, IVRCL, HCC, NCC, Sintex, DLF, …………… have destroyed almost 99% of shareholder wealth and most of these names have got delisted leading to permanent destruction of wealth. During hay days these were stocks that were the market darlings

Then came the era of banking and finance. Between 2009 and 2018 NBFC s and Banks had a dream run before the euphoria and invincibility of the sector was popped by the ILFS, Yes and DHFL type of fiascos and recently while a top outgoing CEO dumped his entire shareholding and ESOPS of 26 years in a jiffy (perhaps to pay for the expenses of grocery, maids and electricity bills during tough times amidst the pandemic), the gullible public and minority shareholders will be the last to keep holding the hot potatoes and the music would stop suddenly.

And Now

We have the API and the pharma theme on an assumption that all the medicine factories on this planet will stop production and all pharma orders will come rushing to Indian companies and the world population might start eating medicines instead of fruits and vegetables all produced by Indian pharma companies.

The same story gets repeated again and again. While the robinhooders are gloating in the wealth created by some new age, recently discovered pharma companies doubling in the value in less then 2-3 months, the end is always painful when the music or the party stops. And by the way graphite was the pharma of today or pharma/API was the graphite of those times.

The 5% people who have been around, all of them understand this, having gone thru cycles, but the 95% neither have the wherewithal or the research to truly fathom the depth or the lack of it in the present euphoria.

Every crop must be harvested at a specific and optimum time, lest it should rot. Same goes for ones stocks, corporations, businesses. Buying or creating is natural to ones instinct of evolution, letting go / harvesting is an art which very few understand or develop. And most end up in a feeling of regret esp small and minority retail investors who fall in love with their stocks, cannot sell and take the profits home.

The trouble is that most fund managers are obliged to be eternally optimistic (ignoring the risks) else they would face redemption thereby leading to lesser fees for the fund-house. Very few investors realize that cash in itself is a strategy and a position worth considering and to be in from time to time.

As Howard Marks says “To be a disciplined investor you have to be willing to stand by and watch other people make money on things that you passed on”.

Irony of the markets is well evidenced, rather strongly in just this one case in point :- PVR Cinemas

PVR used to be a perfectly fine and a successful popcorn and coke reseller till the pandemic struck and just 11 days of disruption in March saw its profit fall thru the floor. The future is bleak with zero sale in first 2 quarters and any of the movie buffs whom I have spoken to in Delhi, Bangalore and Bombay (where PVR has max screens) are not going back to a cinema hall as people have found a new freedom on OTT platforms and using affordable projectors at home and replicating a cinema hall effect without risking oneself to the virus-exposure. 

Producers are preferring - selling to and releasing movies through OTT platforms as that reduces their risk to zero. And yet retail investors are finding virtue in this company that has zero sales, bleak future, debt ridden and trading at 300 times its trailing earnings and no visibility of the future earnings. Some PVR stock lovers say – all will be well in a few years, we are looking at 2030.

CNBC has single headedly taken it upon itself to create a euphoric environment shrouded by global liquidity and has allowed all dubious promoters to talk up their stocks only on the base of 'positive commentary' as if the alchemist in them can turn just commentary into profits, cash and dividends.

On the other had a company like ITC that produces more cash and profits than all the other 6-7 top FMCG companies, is debt free, is trading at abysmally low valuations (15 times trailing earnings) and yet the robinhooders find it less appealing.

This dichotomy will self correct sooner rather than later and will come with its own collateral damage which most new entrants in the markets aren't ready to handle.

Harvest Your crop, take profits off the table, let some notional profits be lost along the way but evaluate the risk and reward that any company, valuation, story, potential – offers.

If this fine art of valuation equilibrium can be discovered, small investors would do themselves a great service of increasing their longevity in the markets and protecting their capital.

Enjoy the party, stay close to the door, so when the stampede starts, You can safely escape without being trampled.

My twitter handle @manurishiguptha

www.manurishiguptha.com

www.mrgcapital.in

Is God The Richest & The most Selfish being on the planet?

The Fragile ground, God's been occupying for 5000 yrs

Human Race and all other living beings were pretty much content with foraging sleeping and procreating for millions of years till God arrived and changed every single order that existed since last 2 million years, made us all useless, allowed us to comfort and bask in the warmth of its existence and the proverbial eye that it kept on us.

We Human Beings found solace in our hopes and beliefs because our focus shifted from the just the next meal and safety from adversaries & superior animals in food chain, to future comforts, education, aspirations, ambitions, greed, career, outperformance among the same species (highly characterised among the human beings of the present day mostly measured by solitaires and purses among women and cars and homes among men).

For the longest period of time we found comfort in deriding and under-appreciating Darwin and refused to believe that the fittest survive and organisms evolve and the weak perish. Because God came in between. As God was really the ultimate saviour from all known and unknown perils so far.

And God took advantage !!

The politics of white smoke over The Vatican, the hindu belief of karma etc, Islamic belief of shahada sanat zakat sawm hajj all made the human mankind dependant on the emotional crutches of the mind and faith and belief in the unknown and unseen.

All this while, in the human memory (average life span 70 years and active memory 50 years) people remembered what was convenient and passed on what was even more convenient. And God survived and thrived because we became slaves of the future aspirations for ourselves, for our progeny and started believing in God as the protector and the provider.

God has also been terribly lucky for an infinitely long time. Everything that is known to and seen by man has a limited lifespan. Take the strongest of edifices, the largest of corporations, beliefs and ideologies – irrespective of the robustness in those times - these had limited longevity. The largest corporations have hardly been able to survive more than a hundred years, East India Company was really more an Empire rather than a company and yet perished.

And God lasted the longest !!

Because humanity never lost faith.

Divide and rule came to be believed to be more of a modern day adage but it always existed. It always was what drove the world based on difference of opinions and beliefs and created just about enough conflict to maintain a balance in-spite of the religious holy wars. And agree or not, different Gods, through their self anointed representatives, tried hard to use this tool to control their respective fiefdoms.

Vagaries of nature in the form of Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Diseases, Floods, Droughts were never global, so-far, and we could always blame on the collective karma of the region.

The Tsunami of 2004, the hurricane Katrina (even though hurricane Galveston of 1900 was the most severe) were all severe but isolated events and we humans spared a thought for the fellow humans who lost their lives and were in the middle of such adversity but moved on with our lives the next day as the world moved on and the global economic engine moved efficiently. Deaths owing to these adversities became sad statics after a while.

Corona perhaps is the most secular event that has ever happened to Earth and all the purveyors of religion stand exposed because while the world waits for the vaccine to be discovered (which some say, is 18 months to 5 yrs away) the Gods have abandoned their posts, through which they used to instil hope and fear, and are suddenly missing in action.

Why else could such a scale of trouble not be sorted out by God. Most of us have resigned to our deservingness bias or the Just-World theory because “God is Great”

But one hypothesis definitely stands theorised – “God is only our fair weather friend”

Because the rapidity with which God deserted the guardianship of human race, its own places of worship is rather alarming. I was surprised recently, that the representative/incarnation of God was too angry to shake hands with a young lady.

Now lets look at the God’s PnL and Balance Sheet

Between the top religious organisations (links to research on their assumed wealth below) this is one corporation of religions that seems to enjoy all authority and no responsibility. Sift through the articles and the God’s (all of theirs) Balance Sheet could well be over 50 trillion dollars. About 2-3 years of USof A ‘s GDP.

This is just the declared wealth. In addition to available data, each of the top 50 religious places of worship earn over 150 million dollars each per annum. A temple in India annually earns about 27 million US $ from just the sale of human hair that are given there as offering.

Bottom line – These numbers are staggeringly unfathomable. And enough to remove all miseries from the planet.

The Associations, Trusts and Bodies that control these religious institutions should now rise to the occasion and open their coffers and allow the vast quantum of wealth collected from the contributions of the very people who are in peril.

Governments through their powers must exercise their right to make these religious organisations responsible, in the national interest, for the greater good of humanity and nations. National treasures must be used and monetised to manage national and global calamities. The gold reserves of religious institutions that are off balance sheet items, off the reserves of the central banks of respective countries across the planet must be used to alleviate the suffering (financial and hunger and medical)

Why else are we all paying annual premiums (through our pilgrimages and offerings) to God if it’s not buying the mankind any insurance.

God isn’t represented by a place, person, shape or festival. God is and should be a way of life, conduct character and compassion towards the beautiful planet and its habitants, where we got a chance to 'BE'.

"Rise up Oh dear God and demonstrate Your benevolence and open up Your coffers, for You haven’t been on a more slippery slope in over 5000 years."

References

Vatican Roman Catholic Church

Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Kerala, India

Tirumala Tirupati Devastham

5 Richest Religious Organisations in the World

Shridi Sai Baba Trust

Difference between Akshay Kumar and Promoters of listed companies masquerading as Philanthropists

Corona Virus is a tragedy, the likes and intensity of which, this planet hasn’t seen in more than 100 years. While this will change the basic behaviour of us humans, in ways that we can’t fully fathom yet, everyone (esp the stalwarts of the industry and more specifically promoters of listed companies) getting sentimental and pouring their hearts and coffers out for the relief measures must remember a few things.

I speak in all humility and with the audacity of hope that this too shall pass and will pass soon enough because of the resilience and intelligence of the human race.

But……

This honest request is to the promoters of those listed companies who are collecting all brownie points and gloating by appearing with pictures/selfies of multi million dollar cheques on TV Channels contributing to the COVID relief funds – in a hope that MOCA (Ministry of Corp Affairs) and PM himself will pardon all their creative accounting jugglery and sins pertaining to corporate governance – spanning years.

The biggest joke was when Yes Bank recently contributed to COVID relief partially at the expense of taxpayers and partially the minority shareholders (lets call them muppets for the purpose of brevity)of SBI. And an amazing thing about all this is that no one calls out this hypocrisy - loud enough.

Some of the top/most respected business houses in India are trying to be the paragons of virtue during these trying times, committing thousands of crores and last drop of wealth etc – while conveniently forgetting that the share prices of their companies are at decadal lows, their business decisions have indebted companies to the extent of tens and tens of billions of dollars, are on verge of defaults on many fronts and have millions of muppets wiped out, and in private domain they are not blinking an eyelid while cutting salaries of staff members across board, of the very people who have stood by them for years/decades.

Yet……………….

It’s the saddest moment in the life of a promoter of a listed company when he fails to protect the capital of a muppet. - as ‘SIMPLE’ as that..

Give with heartful and handful to the cause – Nation needs it most currently than ever before – Nothing wrong in it.

But give whatever - from Your personal net-worth that’s accumulated over years and drawn salaries and perks over long periods of time / ownership – mostly at the cost of the muppet. 
Try not to screw Your own company twice-over.

Because................

• Most of the listed companies have destroyed wealth over long periods of time
• Capital markets are financed by muppets/retail shareholders  with a belief that between the capital gains and dividend yields, an investor will earn a significantly larger returns compared to the treasury yields of the country of investment
• Promoters have no right to treat the company as their piggy bank for personal PR when the muppets are bleeding
• If a company has even a single penny of debt on its books and the promoters are still desirous of philanthropy, don’t do this at the cost of a muppet as he gets ripped both ways.
• Have the courage to sell Your wife’s jewellery, or one house in south of France, or a Lamborghini, or a farmhouse in Alibaug / Mahabaleshwar for these noble causes - not the diminishing cash on the Balance Sheet
• It’s the muppet that services the debt and leakage owing to promoter’s empire building initiatives and efficiency of wealth destruction – as life and lifestyle of the promoter continues to go on as usual irrespective of the global difficulties.
• In most cases promoters with just a small shareholding control corporations and keep bleeding these thru exorbitant salaries and perks and leakages of gargantuan proportions.
• Each time promoters use the company coffers for any expense other than enhancement of ROE or ROCE, they are taking away from the muppets to the extent of their share-holdings.

Remember if you give 100 Cr to philanthropy while owning just 50% of the company all of your 'mis'-decisions are being financed by 'ME' and I am paying the balance 50 Cr – ‘THE MINORITY SHAREHOLDER’.

In most of the cases the over-leveraged companies just vanish over  time while leaving a trail of destruction for Shareholders and Financial Institutions.

A law must be put in place where salaries and perks of the promoters of listed companies are a function of ROCE, ROE, Leverage, Dividend Yield and these are the only metrics that will align the interest of the alleged manager with that of the shareholder.

AND

On the other hand its just so profound and Godly what people like Akshay Kumar and many such individuals like him are doing and continue to do for humanitarian causes. These individuals are citizens that make our nation proud and we will forever be in their debt of gratitude. What Akshay does for armed forces, their families and being almost always there to help selflessly is the stuff of the movies – literally. And his latest act of this large contribution to COVID relief is truly remarkable. What he said to his wife moved me “I had nothing when I started and now that I am in this position, how can I hold back from doing whatever I can for those who have nothing”

Look at the life of actors. They are the 100% owners of their enterprise of talent, have limited shelf life, could be out of favor/flavor with just one movie flopping at the Box, are entirely responsible for their personal balance sheets and profitability, carry a 100% Key Person Risk, Yet are among the highest tax payers in the country – as they can’t hide behind the circuitous veils of tax evading corporations and behave like the promoters of these. And inspite of so many risks they truly demonstrate in action and spirit what being a Good Human Being is all about.

Hats off Brother Akshay – More power, steely resolve and long life to You.

And in the meanwhile, can the muppets get their voice and their act together and create a movement against us all being ripped off.

God bless You all and God bless this planet

manu on @twitter
manu on huffingtonpost

7 pounds at birth to 7 pounds at death - lessons in my Granny's death

Just recently as I was sifting thru the ashes of my grandmother trying to find the last few solid pieces of the bone (to be taken to Haridwar to be immersed in the Ganges – a hindu tradition), I reflected on the purpose of life, on the way human beings are judged and how life is really so short. When we are born we are about 7 pounds and the lifeless pieces of bone that get left behind in a small sac are also about 7 pounds.

Some gut feel encouraged me to visit her during the last week of her life and I spent a few precious hours with Biji (as we fondly addressed her). Her rhetoric hadn’t changed in years. Worrying about the unmarried, the unwell and the childless in the family. At 88 She had an elephants memory and a sharp mind. The welfare of her 6 brothers, 4 daughters, their kids, and about 100 souls on her direct radar seemed to be her sole responsibility that she felt God had bestowed on her.

The futility of her worries almost always irked all her grandchildren till we laughed and made fun and she would get annoyed. But what a towering personality she had. Everyone was scared of her out of respect and then one day she didn’t wake up. Passed away peacefully. And emotionally orphaned so many of us.

At the funeral I was overwhelmed to see over 350 people who travelled from significant distances for this 88 year old woman and that’s when I got a rather significant lesson of life.

In this short and insignificant life (on which I wrote a piece in my earlier blog) and on your last day on earth, no one will judge you for the car you have driven, or the size of the house you had built or the money you made in your life. For ‘some small time’ people will remember you for the love and affection that you left behind and the respect you garnered through your deeds.

Lesson

We fretter way too much about updating our career resumes and LinkedIn profiles. All of this is important as a small means to an end and in the 80 year runway that a human being has, - Yes do give importance to the career resume. But don’t leave the sight for a second of Your life resume.

The only thing that matters (as David Brook says) is the obituary/eulogy resume.

This 88 year old partially educated woman who had weathered the partition of India – lost her husband at 44, a son when he was 38, and always had a bare hand to mouth existence had an almost perfect eulogy resume – and that I figured out when I saw the moist eyes of some 350 odd people.

Does anyone remember Babur in 1526 and how the Mughal Empire was established. In years between 1526 and 1857 (merely 331 years) art, architecture, language, textile, shipbuilding and steel-making was so evolved that by 1750, India produced 25% of the world’s industrial output. No mean feat by any stretch of imagination. No one on this planet has been able to replicate Shahjahan’s Taj Mahal built in 1632 despite all the architectural advancements. Pertinent to note that Shahjahan died a prisoner – not able to fully appreciate his creation.

Bahadur Shah Zafar  the last Mughal died in 1862, a despondent, in Exile, a prisoner and with no control over the legacy of 4 centuries marking the end of one of the greatest Empires.

Lesson

You will be remembered if you create a Taj Mahal (symbolic). Else you are just wiling away time in a futile hope to leave a mark. Bill and Melinda Gates will be remembered for having eradicated so many diseases on a major part of this planet but God-No – not as much for Microsoft. Anyone who judges you on a so called QOQ or YOY and anyone who feels pressured by the same is a just an inconsequential organism in the spectrum of humanity and evolution.

Would anyone remember the stock price of Amazon or Apple, 50 years from now. The infinite powers of evolution would have made present innovations and technologies obsolete in less than 50 years and most of the companies and human beings alive today - would be dead.

It amuses me when I hear of jargon such as ‘wealth creation’ ‘competitive advantage’ ‘barriers to entry’ ‘sustainability’ etc etc. It’s all so shallow and meaningless.

Endeavor to do something remarkable that will last beyond a quarter or a year or 10 years. When collectively each one on this planet endeavours to create a symbolic Taj Mahal, many Taj Mahals will eventually come up.

Grandmother operated her life in a binary manner. Pass/Fail, Good/Bad, Right/Wrong. It surprises me that everything in the present world is grey nowadays. He is good – but, he is right – but, we should do this – but, I agree with you but letme come back to you …….

Lesson

In this short life have the courage to stand by your values and convictions. Love and befriend humans and do it with all heart and unconditionally. Hate – and do it with grace and enough vengeance that only the fittest survive in the interest of humanity. People who compromise on principles and values die every single day in an already short life.

I will miss you Biji – you led a simple and graceful life and your death taught me the life resume I would want to build.

Manu also writes on Huffington Post

Twitter @manurishiguptha

The only one thing that matters in a Blissful Life

Lets start with a few numbers first to understand the significance of our existence on this planet. If life has been in existence for about 4 billion years, every 80 years there is a complete refresh of entire ‘human’ population and during these 80 years we are one among 7 billion, so by a simple calculation the significance of our existence in relation to life and humanity is about 1.142*10^(-17). Now all the serious mathematicians reading this – pls understand the sentiment and don’t start finding holes in the calculation.

If we don’t express this number in this scientific manner the simple representation is ZERO. Lets call it the state of ‘zeroness’

While each one of us gets his/her dose of philosophy wrt the conduct of life encompassing advice ranging from great health, selflessness, philanthropy, family time, wellbeing, wellness, simplicity, lessons on leadership, I have for the 40 years of my life and 25 years of fully conscious life strived to search for one thing that matters the most in life. That one catalyst that’s profoundly empowering.

That – in my hypothesis is ‘fearlessness’.

I am no Guru or saint or any philosopher. I am just a simple executive who works hard and tries to make two ends meet and make a difference to my small insignificant ecosystem on a daily basis but have come to conclude that fearlessness is THE most empowering  trait of life. A lot of gurus tell us about meditation, breathing, yoga, karma – but have you ever reflected that, that too is to fight the fear of something such as bad health, fear of failure, fear of something or the other. Every advice, every direction is to counter a fear. Become fearful and then take the medicine to counter it.

Why don’t we only work towards becoming fearless and this one thing, one trait, one goal is simply the solution to everything if one keeps the above mentioned math of inconsequentiality/zeroness in mind.

I believe life has 3 facets – Work, Family and External Ecosystem. Come to think of it our life revolves around just these facets. The biggest question is how do we empower ourselves to rise in fearlessness rather than die everyday in some form of fear. 

Lets address each one separately:

Work

In the backdrop of what’s happening in the IT industry and the expected downsizing, I write about work first, as this takes the largest timeshare of our life. At approx. 11 hrs a day this is 45% of our time.

As I walk into office each day I am excited and am keen to achieve more than what the system expects. Ability to deliver more than what people expect and become an outlier in each small way/deliverable is amazing. But what if you aren’t able achieve the best or aren’t able to demonstrate expected performance inspite of doing your best. The worst that can happen is loss of job. And really that’s all. When we give more importance to the employment rather than the result that we are paid to achieve we become fearful.

No job will last forever, No Annual Operating plan/budget will be achieved perpetually and not every month or quarter will be that of the expected growth. It didn’t happen with Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon and it wont happen in your company. So just chill and simply do your best.

No boss will be perpetually happy with you. But if you do the best that you humanly can in your job then God will orchestrate your success. And this belief is empowering. But if you lie, shun ownership and steal or indulge in corruption you will always live in a state of fear. In this above-mentioned state of zeroness what is it that you are trying to achieve or prove. You cant achieve anything or prove anything that will last forever. But if you do the best that you can you feel empowered and empowered human beings achieve extraordinary results.

Corruption debilitates and good character empowers. Corruption isn’t only hardcore financial corruption. Corruption is wrong/diluted intent. Intent has a smell, intent has a feel and its clearly visible. And if your intent is honourable then stop being fearless.

Human beings with great intent are guided by that invisible hand. Momentary failures are stepping stones to success. If your intent is good then don’t fear failure because failure is sometimes orchestrated for you by God to push you to a higher better state.

Your acknowledgement of your state of zeroness should empower you to carry that proverbial resignation letter in your pocket but don’t die everyday in the fear of being fired. That’s the worst that can happen and in the cycle of life its  meaningless. No one can fire you except your own self. And when this fear of being fired is out of the window you feel empowered and as said above - empowered human being achieve extraordinary results.

Family

For a major part of our life we ignore and take our families for granted only to make them secure for a rainy day and slog our life out because of some fear of an unknown chilly winter.

And we live in fear.

When we live life by the principle of different strokes for different folks life gets complicated. If we try and lead a life and treat our families as we would like to be treated life becomes less-complicated.

Agree or not we are constantly trying to prove a point. A point by buying/striving for a bigger better house / car / exotic holidays / clothes / gadgets. Nothing lasts a lifetime. Everything depreciates and eventually vanishes. But if – we lead a simple life where material things stop bothering us and we just strive for all necessary comforts without a pressure to demonstrate or win a race – you become fearless.

You become fearless when you lead a minimalistic life and there is little to lose. When there is nothing to lose you respect the relationships more than the material things of life. You find better joy in eating at home with family and laughing with them rather than suffering in the pressure of eating in a Michelin star restaurant, that you reach after negotiating in traffic and investing time on travel and then worrying about spending too much. How often have you celebrated a simple meal with the entire family and a good wine and just enjoyed each others company without proving anything to anyone and felt empowered because your need isn’t the need to spend and feel pressured but your need is the need to feel empowered in the joy of togetherness.

Wife, parents and children is all there is to a family. If you treat your parents as you would like to be treated when old, if you treat your wife as you would like your sister to be treated life cannot be simpler. Uncomplicated lives empower you. Complicated lives make you fearful.

When you gracefully accept life and the cards that it deals for you, You feel empowered. You are fearful when you cheat and when you lie and strive to acquire things that aren’t destined for you. We make much lesser effort to work on our immediate relationships but invest a far greater time catching up with inconsequential acquaintances – why – to further our social circle. And no one in the social circle matters except the immediate family.

Its surprising that divorce rates and instances of spouses cheating on each other are at a historic (evolution to date) high. And this is because we are striving for something that doesn’t belong to us or is meant for us. And that creeps in fear. Fearlessness is when you can look in each others eyes and smile with the greatest degree of confidence without even the need of saying – I Love You.

Live within your means, eat like a pauper and live like a king, don’t buy/spend to prove something but only spend on what you need and You and Your family will feel empowered and fearless forever.

  

External Ecosystem

This comprises of your friends and relatives. I have realised that there are only going to be 4-6 truly reliable people in this realm. And your true friends aren’t ever going to judge you by your possessions or by your lifestyle. Whether you live in a 500 sq ft house or 50000 sq ft house their behaviour and blessings for you will remain the same. The trick in life is to quickly identify these handful of people and ignore (get rid of) the rest.

People who judge you by your car / home / holidays / liquor that you serve are just pests (assimilatory) in your ecosystem. Keeping up with the Joneses is the most fear inducing and debilitating exercise. You feel empowered when you live within your means and give away to someone in need. Giving away brings joy and brings a sense of satisfaction. There is no need to talk about poverty eradication and global inequality in Davos. Just try and behave well with your maid, driver, security guards and try and make some difference to their life. It will empower you.

If you fund the deficit of these people who bring in the daily comfort to your life, its far more joyful than the momentary satisfaction that you get by spending a similar amount of money on an expensive meal that could be equal to your driver’s monthly salary. And when you make an effort to tune your thoughts in this direction you become fearless for there is nothing to lose but only to gain.

Live a comfortable life but spend on what you need and not what you want and you will live fearlessly for the rest of your life.

And lastly human beings are but a figment of their thoughts and character. As Thatcher said, Good thoughts lead to good words, Good words become good deeds, Good deeds become good habits and good habits become great character and character is everything.

Isnt it??

Manu also writes for Huffington Post

Twitter @manurishiguptha

The Futile Rant About Stress and Work-life Balance

Every Sunday newspaper supplement invariably carries an interview of some CEO or a leader with an opinion on work-life balance and how the same has become so vital in today's busy industrious metro 'something' lifestyles. 

Advice is freely available that ranges from ideas such as 'Ways of switching off from work', 'The power of saying no', 'Taking regular holiday breaks' to 'Finding specific time out for hobbies' and 'stress management'. 

The misanthropist in me gets amused. Work-life balance is not a verb or a task that's actionable. It's a state of mind. 

Any conscientious manager who has a sense of responsibility to achieve something for his employer (read the one who signs cheques that feeds your family), for his own comforts, for his family, his community - for the desire to make a difference to the society, and for all those who look up to him - how can work and life require a mentionable balancing act? 

For any well meaning person, work should be life and life should be work. 

While I do come across people who work strictly by the watch all their life, there is a certain breed of these people who can cause a traffic jam at the office exit gate at 17:29:55 hours if the official time is 0900 to 1730 hours. I wonder how can tasks-for-the-day suddenly be completed with such alarming precision. 

Ratan Tata during a Jaguar and Land Rover meeting in the UK expressed his disgust about the attitude of UK managers in the garb of work life balance and their intent to work by the watch. The itch to leave and switch off from work on Friday afternoon at 1500 hrs through Monday morning, almost everywhere westwards of India is surprising. 

If a senior manager was made the owner of his company (where he is employed) overnight, would he switch off or allow anyone to switch off or even fathom switching off for two and a half days? 

And then there are people who can plan their holidays months and sometimes years in advance. Again I wonder - how can there be a guarantee that the organisation wouldn't require you at a future moment or a project may not require your attention. How can one plan a committed holiday ahead of time? 

If you need to travel with your family you just plan and travel whenever you feel that you can be away from work. If there is a family compulsion just inform your team and leave without any question or doubt.

But if you don't NEED leave why do you want to be away from work - that used to be allegedly 'Worship' in our childhood books - just because you have a few leaves pending?! 

I am inspired by Netflix and the culture that company has managed to implement. Amongst many game changing initiatives, one amongst them is that there is no leave policy at all. And the study proved that liberty to take a need based leave actually improved the efficiency and profitability of Netflix. And employees were happier even though they were taking 30% lesser leaves.

'Act in Netflix's best interest' - That's it. Culture cannot be simpler. 

Stress is another topic of discussion thats commonplace these days. Everyone is seemingly stressed. Everyone is talking about stress management. So does that mean that life is giving you stress? But yes stress is a way of life - if stress is an issue at all. 

But why should your work, your family, your job, your children, your time commitments give you stress? You need to manage all this, smilingly - if you love all of the above. Anything that you don't love or don't respect will give you stress. 

....and if God wanted the need for human beings to switch off, he would have designed a switch in the body....

I believe, no balance or stress management is required for efficient managers. God gave you a body with a mind and a heart that never switches off. And if God wanted the need for human beings to switch off, he would have designed a switch in the body. 

If a person has the ability to think - how can a person switch off and what's the need to switch off. An average person sleeps for 8 hours , has an average 2-hour commute, works for 10 hours and does everything else in the remaining 4 hours including eating, socialising, family time etc. Being alive is a balance in itself. 

So what's the point......! 

We allow our mind and body to be shackled in the assumed burden of work and then seek balance. If you love what you do, why do u need unshackling. If you are responsible enough to hold the position that you are holding why do you need to switch off. 

Even though you are away from work, you are still thinking about it all the time. But can thinking kill anyone? After all, psychologists ask you to regularly play Sudoku to prevent Alzheimer's. Why can't people consider their work - a game of Sudoku? 

Work is life. Work is party.... 

Evolved beings are always partying and enjoying and working simultaneously. There can be no distinction between work, party and life. 

Clichedly enough, if you love what you do and consider your work as a hobby, you will think about that hobby all the time. For instance, I don't find it strange that sometimes in the middle of the night when I think of a new idea or thought, I instantly WhatsApp it to the leaders of my team so that that flash of idea is not lost and sparks imagination in my team who will translate the vision to organisational reality. In my opinion, no hour or place is odd. You could be having an absolutely unproductive day at work with only lacklustre ideas and yet while lying down at home think of an idea that may make a huge difference to the organisation. 

I think about my work all the time. I love golf, economics and stock markets and I think about them all the time as well. Thats how I find my balance. 

Anyone who is seeking work-life balance or feels that it can be sought or achieved won't ever find it and anyone who needs to switch off - isn't switched on enough and won't ever be either. 

L. P. Jacks beautifully cites, "The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both".

manu also writes on Huffington Post