Be Inspired – Inspire Others

Can you recall a moment in life where you were motivated or inspired by someone? Do you recall feeling ecstatic by seeing something that brought you immense joy and which brought incremental learning to your existing knowledge.  Did someone, even your school or college teacher or an elderly person from the family, pat you on the back and appreciated you on your achievements.  Was this the defining moment of your life?

The world is round and symbolically, what comes to you from somewhere, ultimately, passes on to others.  This happens in two ways.  You encourage others or pass on the inspiration at a conscious level or people get inspired by you without your knowledge.

Sometimes, mere encouragement of others can be the defining moment in someone’s life.  When people meet and interact, there is some exchange of information, and those seeking knowledge actively, will be the wiser, no matter how short the interaction is.  It is important that in all our interactions, we exude a positive attitude, especially when you find that the other person is going through a lean time in his/her life.  Ensure that you have positive words not directly targeted at him but all your communication and messages must carry messages that convey enthusiasm and that lifts up his/her spirit.  You never know how it will inspire him and give him that source of encouragement that he is looking out for.  Offer help and direction to help him sort out his/her problems.  It is not always money that helps resolve issues.  Sometimes, mere guidance helps him clear his mind.  Ask any person and he will tell you that he was inspired, encouraged and motivated by someone at some point of time in their life.

You don’t have to be a parent, teacher, coach or guide to encourage others.  You do not have to be a subject matter expert to do so.  You need not have attended the top B-School somewhere in the world and a wealth of experience to guide others.  Life teaches us a lot of things during our daily interactions.  Social media has been a great avenue for learning.  Everyday, you receive messages that someone sends to inspire you.  It is your life’s experiences, your own learning's and own failures which leave a lot of learning for you.  Bring those to the fore and lend a piece of knowledge at the most opportune moment.

You do not lose anything by staying motivated.  It actually rubs on you. You will feel charged and see things in positive live.  You only share knowledge and that knowledge will go further down from generation to generation.  No one will remember you for a specific act or advice given but it will have a multiplier effect on the betterment of this world.

Therefore, always stay motivated, look at the positives and the moment you see someone at the edge of life, help him cross over to the better side. 

Is craziness the template?

I have been thinking a lot on the recent success of new age entrepreneurs and that process took me back down to the industrial age when the real development of technology started happening.

There are numerous instances of people with ideas who converted them into products and services for the public good.  Amongst those that can be included are Graham Bell, Edison, Henry Ford, Johannes Gutenberg who invented the first printing press right upto Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg and a long list of individuals who have to their credit some invention or a creation that has help public lead a quality of life.  I do not want to exclude from list this, people who have help revolutionise the service industry as well and that includes the McDonalds, the KFC, PizzaHut, Dunking Donuts, Cafe Coffee Day, Uber, Ola, etc. because they have made good quality food and quality services accessible to us, in the vicinity of our homes.  I include every entrepreneur, every risk taker who has either failed or succeeded.  It is a different thing that a failed person never stood up again to rise like never before but they also deserve a mention.

Come to think of it, what were the top qualities that they possessed.  Yes, they definitely had a vision and a zeal to achieve it. But... Did they have the resources to achieve the success? Did they have the knowledge to acheive what they did? Did they have mentors to guide them in the process? Did they see it growing to where it is today? Did they have knowledge of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats like it is now taught in B-Schools)? Did they have Financial Planning skills? Did they have knowledge of goal settings and factors that should be considered whilst goal setting? Did they fear failure or have any other types of fears? Were they confident of their success? Were were they ready to bear the scorn of their family and closed relatives?

I imagine that they all had these shortcomings.  They all feared, every moment, every day.  Yes, they learnt something everyday and persevered with their goals.  Two things can happen to you every day.  You meet failures everyday and you get success everyday.  When you meet with one success, it eggs you on to do better.  But not all days are the same.  Sometimes, a small failure pulls you down relatively faster than a major success because we are trained to think like that.  However, successful people know that they have two options – either to learn from the failures and keep going or to give up completely.  Those that give up at a few obstacles are weak hearted.  That alone is not the factor that deters them from going further.  There are constraints like staring at complete bankruptcy after having invested everything that they had.  They stare at the sad fate of hunger, poverty, shame, having to live with that past and so many other aspects. Very rarely you have friends that support you during such times.  No body supports you with their money during your downward spiral.  Everyone wants to be with the winner.

When we analyse how people overcame their miseries to emerge successful, there is just one trait that tops the chart and that is craziness.  When you have that crazy streak of mind that is full of self-confidence and belief in their work that they are able to see beyond the immediate shortcoming.  Bring the “Law of Attraction” into the picture and you have the complete image of a success that pulls all the universe’s resources and help at your disposal.  Craziness is not something that is short-lived.  It is a sustaied effort that keeps you going ahead, no matter the size of the hurdles.  Craziness is the ability that allows the person so see, even at the begining of the tune, the light that is far ahead in the tunnel.  It is an imaginary process and not everybody is able to relate it.  Not everyone is blessed to visualise that.  We all are equally gifted with such abilities but not all people are able to invoke them at the right time to become great.  The same logic applies to eternal lovers like Romeo and Juliet, Laila and Majnu, Shreen & Farhat and so many others who had vision for their love.  Everyone has a foresight about something or the other.  Not may are themselves convinced about them.  Only a handful of people have a strong conviction about their vision and the road-map that leads them to success.

Can you develop this streak of craziness?  Do you aleady have this streak of craziness? Can anybody help you identify this attribute? I am not too sure if there are any ready made answers to the above.

Can you learn this from others? – Yes and No.  No matter how much classroom theory lectures you attend to learn this, you will probably not learn unless you have a strong conviction about a story or an idea or a vision.  But yes, if you have an idea, however, small and you mentally prepare yourself by observing their behavioural pattern, then surely, you can imbibe those habits and maybe even do better.  But this calls for a dedicated pursuit, close study, investment of time and resources. 

And lastly, do not aim to copy but seek inspiration.

Sarfaraz Lakhani

Free Your Hands to Succeed

You have been gifted a pair of hands.  Not all people are lucky.  Some are born without it.  Some lose it in their life time due to accidents or health reasons.  We take them and all our other natural gifts for granted ever so often because we did not pay or it and were given without having asked for it.  It was a natural progression.

Take a flashback to your childhood early years and remember that you used your hands to crawl and started moving forward.  Have you ever seen a child that has used his hands to move backwards?  Why don’t we take inspiration from this little but such an important milestone of our lives that we must move ahead by making use of our hands.  Internally, our brain works and externally, it is the hand that translates that thought into action.

If you wish to succeed in life, you have to make the best use of your hands like how I am doing now.  In this mobile generation, we have limited that use of hand to our left and right hand thumb.  We are using these gifted these resoures but to a far limited extent.  The thumbs enable us to make use of mobile phones to communicate, send mails, further our business communication but imagine how little we are putting them to use.

If you dwelve deeper, you will realise that each hand has been gifted with five fingers each.  The lesson that we learn here is that as we stretch our resources, God has multiplied them so that we can achieve more.  The power in our arms, translates that power into our fingers enabling us to achieve action orientation.

We have never seen a sprinter being able to run with his hands in his pocket.  Try climbing a steep mountain or a flight stairs with your hands in your pocket.  Possible but probably very difficult.  Similary, if you want to succeed in life, make good use of your hands.  All the power is in the hands.  Use them to write down your plans, to shake hands with people, to buiild new relationships, to accomplishing something, to design or create something, to maintain something and so on.  Success in business is very much like climbing the stairs or going up a steep mountain.  You can only go higher if you make effective use of your hands.

Having your physical hands free but they are mentally tied also does not help.  It is as good as having none.  Find creative uses of your hand and achieve success.

Sarfaraz Lakhani

Interview of Ms. Tania Rajabally, who scored 96.46% in Science in HSC, Pune Board, May 2017

Interview of Miss Tania Rajabally, from K.C. College  scored 96.46% in Science in HSC, Pune Board  May 2017. 

Tania resides in Mumbai.

Tania, First of all many many heartiest congratulations on achieving the most difficult task of 96.46% in Science in your HSC Examination!

CCLL: You secured 97.2 % in the ICSE exam (Xth Standard) and now this. Tell us, how you do feel now with these two accomplishments in your bag?

Tania: I feel very happy and elated.

CCLL: Did you ever dream or visualise that you will score so high?

Tania: The aim is to do your best. Once you know that you have given your 100% you should leave the rest in the hands of God.

CCLL: Support of Parents, siblings and family is always special.  We also know that your family is very academically inclined, with your father being a Chartered Accountant as well as a Ph.D. and your elder now pursuing medicine.  Was that kind of atmosphere in the house supportive or did it add to your stress?

Tania: My elder sister is doing medicine. My family was very supportive. It was definitely an advantage having educated parents. Along with motivating me to do my best, they also helped me to maintain a balance.

CCLL: We know that you did join a coaching class but how much of credit do you give to yourself and how much to the College, coaching class teachers/facilitators?

Tania: My teachers at college and classes were very supportive and helpful. They always motivated me to do my best. Solving a number of practice papers and getting all my doubts cleared benefitted me a lot. After my college and classes I dedicated a lot of time to self study.

CCLL: Were you ever stressed about your impending examinations and more about the passing scores?

Tania: I was simultaneously preparing for my HSC as well as entrance exams. This can be sometimes stressful but thanks to my parents and teachers I was able to deal with it.

CCLL: You mentioned that you gave extra-curricular activities a miss. Didn’t you ever feel the need to relax and divert your mind from studies and examinations?

Tania: Giving a miss to extra curricular activities meant that I did not indulge in activities that would require me to give more time to it. Relaxation is definitely necessary to de-stress. I used to watch television or listen to music.

CCLL: You have expressed desire to pursue engineering.  Which field specialization are you planning to focus upon?

Tania: I would like to do Computer Engineering.

CCLL: Where do you see yourself 5 years and 25 years from now?

Tania: In 5 years I see myself having successfully completed my degree in computer engineering. 

In 25 years I see myself well settled in my professional field and working towards contributing back to society.

CCLL: Tell us about your dreams and aspirations.

Tania: My dream is to successfully complete my degree and use this education to help people around me.

Tania, we thank you for your time and leave you with our best wishes and those of our readers.

Interview - Ms. Sapna Tiwari, Certified Financial Planner (CFP) : A Calibre Creators Exclusive

Sapna Tiwari is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER with about a decade's experience into training industry. Apart from holding CFP certification, she is a post graduate in Economic Administration and Financial Management, Certified Personal Financial Advisor and Licentiate member (LIII) of Insurance Institute of India. She is holding NSE's certifications in equity market, derivatives market and mutual funds as well. 

She has been associated with financial markets and has extensive expertise in stock market and financial instruments such as mutual funds, insurance, equities, derivatives. 

Sapna is the founder of RUPIYAPAISA FINANCIAL SERVICES and seek to plan the future of Indian citizens by providing Financial Planning and Retirement Services. At rupaiyapaisa.net, they strive to save single penny of the investors by safeguarding the interest of Indian people in planning finances for every step of one’s life and secure a Smooth Retirement transition.

Its Affiliation to Financial Planning Standards Board India ensure Certified Financial Planners to propagate the above message on how essential it is to plan one’s Finances Now and for the Future in a very cost effective way. Financial Planning Standards Board India is marks licensing authority for the CFP marks in India, through an Affiliate Agreement with FPSB Ltd. Financial Planning Standards Board India is a non-profit organisation that develops Certification and Education in Financial Planning.

1. CCLL: So Sapna, tell us briefly about yourself and RP.com?  What is your vision and why did you establish it?

Sapna: By profession, I would introduce myself as a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), though it’s not just a profession for me. Making a positive change in people’s financial life is something, I really am passionate about. I have been into finance industry for over a decade now and the fact is that even today a basic product such as Mutual Fund is mystery for majority among common man.

Rupiya Paisa Financial Services was established to make every single Indian realize that they do need a proper financial plan in place as much as they need any basic thing for living a fulfilling life. The concept of financial planning in India is misunderstood massively.

Making an individual invest his/her financial resources in a product with high return is not financial planning at all. With launch of Rupiya Paisa Financial Services, we intend to change this scenario in our country.

2. CCLL: Why is it important to plan one’s finances for life’s uncertainties and family’s needs?

Sapna: Today, the most common issue faced by any person is relationship based issues and stress. Everyone sees that, though have you ever realized that a lot of it is caused because your finances are out of place?

Don’t you meet one person daily who is not sure where all his/her earned money goes every month and nothing is left for saving?  The concern is about his/her future and they are all linked to the insecurity about the future.

In my opinion if your money is well placed to meet your requirements efficiently, other aspects of life go smooth as well in most of the cases.

Also making a provision to meet uncertainties of life is critical. None of us, I am sure would want our beloved one’s to struggle to meet even basic living expenses if something goes wrong.

3. CCLL: How can an individual in his early-career, mid-career and top-end career professionals, businessmen and entrepreneurs plan their future?

Sapna: Starting financial planning at early age gives you an edge as you can maximize the benefits of compounding. It is most advantageous when you start investing for future prior to your marriage, when you don’t have many responsibilities and expenses to take care of.  You can evaluate your irrelevant expenditure (on irrelevant gadgets like mobile phones, fashion accessories, clothing, footwear, etc.)You would be amazed to see the impact of compounding makes on your money if I show you the calculations.

4.  CCLL: How does RP.com help an individual do so?

Experience tells us that individuals have a faint idea about the financial needs for the future but they don’t have the slightest idea of how to go about creating wealth and parking it for future.  They tend to get confused by what is marketed aggressively on various media, what is advised by “ignorant” friends acting as “advisors”.  On the other hand, we at RP.com, follow a step wise approach with complete involvement of client himself/herself, helping in identifying his specific needs, factoring in various parameters like family size, income and future aspirations. We start with helping them build an emergency fund and gradually take them towards their financial goals step by step.

We have tried to take a very simple approach rather than a complex one so that any common man, even without any technical knowledge of finance can relate to it.

5. CCLL: That’s amazing.  How different is RP.com from other service providers in doing so?

Sapna: Our vision is to make financial planning affordable and approachable for every Indian in the simplest steps.

I am not saying financial planning in itself is a new concept in India, though sometimes it’s not followed in its real form or sometimes it’s too complex and expensive for a normal middle class person. We plan to change that.

6. CCLL: What is the difference between an ordinary LIC agent, a Mutual Fund Advisor or a Bank’s Sales Executive selling insurance, mutual funds and everything and a CFP?

Sapna: It’s very simple. The difference is similar as between a chemist and a practicing doctor.

Though here, many chemists pretend to be doctors themselves and dispense medicines. The parties named here focus on selling products, though unfortunately only to earn high commissions in most of the cases because they push products with high commissions and achieve targets. Often, in that process, the interest of client is lost.

A CFP on other hand, focuses on client, and evaluates all possible options as per best of his knowledge, and recommends a strategy on how to go investing in sound products giving guaranteed high financial benefits for his hard earned money.

7. CCLL: How has the feedback been of your client’s who have got their financial planning done from you? Any instances without naming anyone in particular?

Sapna: In most of the cases, it has been an eye opener.

At RP.com, we don’t just target to merely prepare a plan and hand that over to client.  We strive to educate the client by actually involving him/her with the process. And that actually is the start point of change in their lives.

8. With limited means of income and high expectations of material needs in today’s time, how should one manage to save money for future planning without compromising on any of them?

Sapna: Well, from what I have experienced and seen, income in never sufficient. How you manage that limited income, makes all the difference.

Most of us are financially lazy, we know subconsciously the importance of sitting down and working on our monthly budget, but somehow we become negligent when it comes to actually doing it. We expect our money to work for it but we fail to take out the time and effort to give it a direction for that work.

My request to all readers is that take charge today. Income is never limited or sufficient. It all depends on your approach towards effectively managing it.

9. CCLL: Of course, there is no limit to maximum, but what minimum one must save that can take care of child’s education, marriage, old age & retirement and health care problems.

Sapna: There is no limit to minimum as well. It is important to remember that every drop counts while making an ocean. A small amount saved today will multiply with years into a big amount and going forward, one regrets not saving more while one could. We are talking about humans here; every single person is unique and hence has different needs physically, emotionally and even financially.

10.CCLL:Now, money is strongly linked to Inflation.  Give us an example of the cost of money, say 20 or 30 years from now?

Sapna: I assume, we all are familiar with the kind of impact inflation makes on our money. If I have to show you in figures then, If today you are spending INR.50,000/- to meet your living expenses, then after 25 years assuming a minimum of 6% compounded annual inflation, you would need a minimum of INR 2,14,000/- to maintain the same standard of living.  By this yardstick, you may do a back of the envelope calculation if the rate of inflation is higher, which certainly is going to be the case.

11.CCLL: Any parting words of advice from you for our readers?

Sapna: Educate yourself. Don’t rely on what your agent/advisor tells you blindly. They will aggressively push you to invest in a product, which according to them, will give high returns. Trust me, come out of your mental block and you will find your life a lot easier.  Planning plays an important role, be it your personal life, career, sports, business or any other aspects of your life.  Therefore, financial planning is also crucial.  Investments made after proper planning, in proper tools, will give you’re the peace and satisfaction that you have a sound future ahead of you and that most of your financial worries have been taken care of.

CCLL: Sapna, on behalf of Calibre Creators and our readers, we thank you for your valuable time and inputs.  We send you our best wishes in bringing about financial awareness.

 

RUPIYAPAISA FINANCIAL SERVICES

56A Level 2, Dewan Centre SV Road.
Jogeshwari West,  Mumbai - 400102

Phone:+91 8879523507
Email Address: info@rupiyapaisa.net

Website: www.rupiyapaisa.net