Then I’ll Do It Myself

Financial freedom sounds great. Talking about financial freedom gives us a great feeling. A life full of abundance with no financial stress and money worries. Who doesn’t want more time to enjoy wealth, more power and prosperity? But despite wanting it, why do only few people achieve it?

This is because of 3 reasons:

1. Lack of intent (or true desire)
2. Ego (I know everything attitude)
3. Fear (or lack of confidence to make things happen)

The most common is the lack of true desire. Because wanting and committing are two different things.

“Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.”

T. Harv Eker

Then I’ll Do It Myself

I see people complaining and cribbing that education system is broken. It’s good because it calls for improvement and future generations will benefit. But the problem starts when they just blame everything on others and sit there with no action. When you blame others, you feel great for sometime (because you were right and they were wrong) and it removes the burden from your shoulders to fix it. The burden shifts to the other person whom you blamed.

The biggest problem with blaming other is that you end up giving the whole responsibility along with the blame. Never confuse mistakes with responsibility. Mistake can be made by others and you can blame it on them but your life is your responsibility. If others have responsibility over things happening in your life, then what control do you have over your life?

Almost all those who complain and blame have completed their schooling and are past 20s or 30s. So after blaming, what do they expect? Do they expect schools to reopen and the teachers to conduct a class again?

Lessons of life cannot be taught in few years (especially when vast majority are immature and unwilling to learn). Very few people join college to actually learn. While majority joins to get a degree, to pass the exam or to get that title. It’ll help them secure a good job.

Vast majority of people do not even have the patience to sit for a few hours and read but they can easily spend hours on social media everyday without realizing it. That clearly indicates what they truly desire. They can definitely wish or dream of becoming rich but that wish becoming true is highly unlikely.

“It’s perfectly clear that if Warren Buffett had never learned anything new after graduating from the Columbia Business School, Berkshire would be a pale shadow of its present self.”

– Charlie Munger

If something is really important, you have to learn it yourself. If your teacher didn’t teach you. Then you have to say what the little red hen says:

“Then I’ll Do It Myself”

The Story of The Little Red Hen

Once upon a time, a little red hen lived in a small cottage. She worked hard to keep her family
fed. One day, when the little red hen was out walking with her friends, the goose, the cat, and the
pig, she found a few grains of wheat.
“Who will help me plant this wheat?” asked the little red hen.
“Not I,” said the goose, “I’d rather swim in the pond.”
“Not I,” said the cat, “I’d rather sleep on the hay.”
“Not I,” said the pig, “I’d rather lie in the mud.”
“Then I’ll do it myself,” said the little red hen. And she did.
Time went by and the wheat grew, but so did the weeds.
“Who will help me pull the weeds?” asked the little red hen.
“Not I,” said the goose, “I’d rather swim in the pond.”
“Not I,” said the cat, “I’d rather sleep on the hay.”
“Not I,” said the pig, “I’d rather lie in the mud.”
“Then I’ll do it myself ”, said the little red hen. And she did.
All summer the wheat grew taller and taller. It turned from brown to golden amber. And, at
last, it was time to harvest the wheat.
“Who will help me harvest the wheat?” asked the little red hen.
“Not I,” said the goose, “I’d rather swim in the pond.”
“Not I,” said the cat, “I’d rather sleep on the hay.”
“Not I,” said the pig, “I’d rather lie in the mud.”
“Then I’ll do it myself,” said the little red hen. And she did.
At last, the wheat was harvested and put into a large sack, ready to be taken to the mill to be
ground into flour.
“Who will help me take the wheat to the mill?” asked the little red hen.
“Not I,” said the goose, “I’d rather swim in the pond.”
“Not I,” said the cat, “I’d rather sleep on the hay.”
“Not I,” said the pig, “I’d rather lie in the mud.”
“Then I’ll do it myself,” said the little red hen. And she did.
The next day came and the little red hen was hungry.
“Who will help me bake this flour into bread?” asked the little red hen.
“Not I,” said the goose, “I’d rather swim in the pond.”
“Not I,” said the cat, “I’d rather sleep on the hay.”
“Not I,” said the pig, “I’d rather lie in the mud.”
“Then I’ll do it myself,” said the little red hen. And she did.
At last, the bread was baked and the little red hen called to her friends once more.
“Who will help me eat this bread?” asked the little red hen.
“I will,” said the goose.
“I will,” said the cat.
“I will,” said the pig.
“Oh, no you won’t!” said the little red hen. “I found the wheat, I planted it, I weeded it,
and when it was time to harvest it, I did that too. I took it to the mill to be ground into
flour and at last, I baked it into bread.
“Now,” said the little red hen, “I’m going to eat it with my family.” And she did.

When I did it myself

During my schooling days, I was bad in maths but I realized it is a much needed skill in investing (which I love). I did not blame anyone or gave myself a label that I’m born bad at math, I just worked for it. In other words, “then I did it myself”.

What did I do? I just started and eventually ended up spending few years practicing and understanding the concepts. This helped me build a strong foundation for my investing career and great confidence. I know this concepts are now going to stick in my head forever and help me in my investing journey. I still aim to read atleast about 4 hours everyday, because I follow a rule that I’ll mention in the next article. How do I get so much time? Because I don’t use social media.

The reason why I was able to put in effort to learn was because I wanted to achieve true financial independence. Even if you make a lot of money with the help of someone else, say, through someone’s advise, then I call it financial dependence. You have to forever depend on that person to get tips, suggestion and advice on important financial matters. That definitely doesn’t sound like a good way to retire.

The whole governmental, economic and media system is designed in such a way that it only help experts. Average and common middle-class people get gamed. The more knowledge you gain, the more power you hold on how to spot when someone’s trying to fool you and use your knowledge to your benefit. Banks fixed deposits are advertised as safe investments and a majority of people invest in it thinking it’ll build their wealth. Mutual funds are advertised as best investment. Nobody talks about Index funds or buying good quality stocks and holding for long period.

The world is designed to make our lives comfortable. Science, technology, eCommerce and all advancement works to bring more comfort for us. Whenever a CEO or top level management of a company aim at bringing any improvement to their product, the first thing they focus is how to bring more comfort to customers (or more professionally, “how can we improve their experience”). Because they know that is what people want. Why work, when you can Netflix and chill?

That comfort comes at the cost of your growth. No one has ever become rich living in their comfort zone. Avoiding the comfort trap is the difference between who you are and who you could have been. Blaming someone gives you the comfort but never the growth. You don’t get something without giving something.

Do it yourself

Next time when you come across a bad incident or something wrong happening in your life, simply blame it on yourself. It won’t be a good feeling at start but you’ll be surprised at how much control you get with it.

The reason why vast majority of the people don’t make it big is because they want all good things to happen automatically.

But by the time they reach a certain age (usually in their mid 30s and 40s), they realize they’ve lost a lot of time dreaming and hoping that a magic will happen in their life that will change things for good but nothing of that sort happened.

Success is not a function of dreaming and hoping, everybody does that. Winners and losers have the same goals. It’s a function of gaining wisdom and taking action. The earlier you understand this, the better.

Some people are taught that life is a race, while some philosopher’s say life is not a race and there’s no competition. I say, there is a competition and there is a race. It’s a race between you and time. If you gain wisdom and understand something at age 45, you’ve lost (25 years of life) it.

“I made my first investment at age eleven. I was wasting my life up until then.”

– Warren Buffett

I see people saying they’re in their 30s/40s right now and have wasted important years of their lives. What could’ve been the reason for it?

The answer is simple, lack of true desire. We all get 24 hours in a day and we definitely do something during the whole day. What you do during that period determines what you truly desire. If you’re on social media all day, it clearly indicates you desire instant gratification.

Youngsters take credit cards and buy stuffs on EMI thinking they’re going to “earn it” or they have “earned it”. What these people don’t realize is that they’re eating their “CAPITAL”.

Consider this simple example.

If you start a new company with a great idea – a start up and when you start making small profits,

What do you think is the next best step?

Answer: You reinvest those profits back and grow your business.

What’s the next average step?

You don’t reinvest because you fear of losing it and just keep the profits under mattress. You definitely save the money here. But by doing this, you loose the opportunity to earn more profits and take advantage of compounding.

Inflation is going to eat away your profits and by the time you grow old, this is going to be a losing bet.

What’s the next worse step?

Spending that money in luxury because you “earned it”. Oh yes, you definitely did. Or returning home from your work and consuming Netflix because you worked really hard in office.

But do you plan to work until you die?

This clearly indicates that you desire instant gratification more than financial freedom.

Conclusion

Ask yourself, what do you truly desire?

Lot of people complaint that they aren’t getting satisfaction from their stock market investments because the investment is so small. If you got a million dollars some day, would you get the courage automatically to invest it all in the stocks? Or would you go back and find a mattress to hide it in fear?

Would you sharpen your sword after entering the battlefield?

You don’t know the power you have until its gone. Right now, starting small is a power you hold to sharpen your sword.

What’s worse than being poor? It’s becoming rich only to become poor all over again. People who think they can’t build enough wealth are already out of the league. But those who think they can. Then this question is for you. How much of your time and resources are you giving to invest in yourself? Are you blaming it on others or are you saying “Then I’ll do it myself”?

“We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.”

– Eric Hoffer

What you truly desire is what you work for and that’s what you get.

Stop fooling yourself for dreaming something and not doing it. You either do it, or you don’t.

Now that you’ve read this far, this clearly indicates you have the time, internet and the ability to read. That’s all you really need. So you have no excuse whatsoever to blame on others for not making it.

“If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice.”

Next post will be on I know everything attitude.

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