Initially I wasn’t going to publish this article but then my gut feeling changed and here it is in front of you.
It’s going to be focused on two things, first- On Humbleness and second- On writing as I complete 2 years of my writing online today.
On Humbleness
If you have seen episodes of Shark Tank India you would have noticed the grilling part which each entrepreneur goes through. Even in my law school we face a lot of grilling on various things, for example Moot court, which helps the students to be prepared for the practical world.
This guy is good example to convey the message on humbleness:
He is Ashneer Grover founder of BharatPe. I feel he is the most brutal shark on the show and I do not mean brutal in a positive way.
This guy spills out whatever he thinks about the product as if he was giving out some judgement on a case.
I can think of only in two situations where a person can be outright honest and brutal about their opinion:
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When the situation is a matter of fact and backed by data (not experience) to claim that something is not going to work. This situation is very rare as most of the time we never know whether something will work or not. Prof.Sanjay Bakshi spoke on this topic and mentioned, citing Peter Thiel’s work, that to know whether Facebook would succeed in 2004, one would have to create thousand copies of the universe and try out each possibility, as statistics don’t work in a sample size of one.
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When you are the only person in this whole world who has done that thing and you know for sure that the person in front of you can’t do it. This situation is never possible as there will also be better and simpler solutions. Read the story of President McKinley who had proposed to close the patent office as he thought that “everything that could be invented has been invented”.
Especially if we apply the above situations to the startup world then this shark is totally wrong, in my opinion, to share his “opinion” as if it is a fact.
Being honest to the person who has come to you for advice is the right thing to do but one should have the skill to give constructive criticism and not show their supremacy by bashing them out.
Life is quite tough out there, you being harsh on someone just puts another knife into that person’s strength to keep grinding.
You pointing out bluntly what’s wrong and the dumb thing the other person is doing would make you feel superior but it would kill the energy of the person who has come with an ambition to learn.
Therefore, getting a mentor is not the only thing but getting the right mentor who doesn’t bash you up when you do dumb things rather shows you the way to learn and not commit the same mistake again is important.
You can become the best investor out there, but there will always be a better one than you. If you stay humble and do not get over confident about your knowledge, you would attract many intriguing people who would help you grow.
On Writing
I had shared my first post on 16 January 2020 which was about a heated discussion I had with someone. I wanted to let out my anger and it seems writing it on the blog worked.
Initially there was no plan to write about finance but it automatically got shifted towards it due to my obsession.
I have written 68 articles till date (including this article and the articles I write for SOIC). Some of them I feel were totally a waste of time, some decent, and some really helped people.
Started with writing one post per week to now writing to share as and when I have something to opine upon.
Writing one post per week was a good exercise at the start to keep me motivated to write. When you start any new activity (Stage 1- S1), the excitement is at its peak and you have a lot of things to share but once you are done with the initial basic learning and sharing, then the curve starts falling down.
(Source) (I have added the stages in red)
You soon fall into a zone where you reach a stage where most people quit their habit/interest and shift to something else(Stage 2-S2), because S1 is way more exciting than S2. One can just keep shifting from interests/hobbies to new ones to keep getting the kick out of it.
But if you want to be serious about something then S2 is the stage to stick around. Under this stage the incremental knowledge with the same efforts is substantially low, hence lesser interest than the start. Because at the start you were discovering new things everyday. But at this stage you would start to get annoyed by repeated content which you discovered in S1.
(Source)
But the good news is- if you surpass the second stage, we don’t know how long it is but it is quite long, then there is no looking back from the third stage (S3).
Only people with true passion reach S3. Here you don’t need motivation to keep working hard, rather you would feel uncomfortable if you don’t work on your passion.
You would get better in reading materials as you would understand what is important and what is not. You will be able to connect dots and recognize patterns and develop insights (this is really pro level and requires years of practice).
I have shared earlier via my articles (How to do long term and Why do we lose interest in things which once meant life to us) about my obsession with bodybuilding. I believe that obsession never crossed stage 2 because if it did then this blog would have never come into existence.
My obsession with bodybuilding could be because being in school where having a muscular body attracts a lot of attention and people start admiring you. But as you get older and go to college such things become less relevant and one has to start getting serious with life (I know some people might not agree with me and say even college is a place to have fun and chill out).
So far with writing I think I still might be in stage 1 because I use writing as a tool to convene my opinion about finance and general stuff which I experience in my life. If I would have been writing for making money or writing itself as my obsession then the graph explained above could apply to me. But as of now writing for me is being used as a tool to convey my message to the public at large.
In 2020, 3-5 people I know had started blogging around the time I started and today all of them have stopped writing. It’s very easy to write 10-20 articles on a specific topic which you like but that will only take you as far as 3-5 months (assuming you write 1 article per week).
The stage 2 starts when you are finished with the beginner’s energy and get hit by the wall which makes you realise that it is not going to be easy and you start appreciating the legends present in that field.
In stage one you would face beginner’s luck and start thinking about making a career in it because it would all look very simple and easy to you, until it doesn’t. It is about sticking in there and keep writing to fail. Hoping that one day one of your articles would reach a person which will unlock opportunities for you in life.
Writing is just my way of letting out my anger, thoughts, opinion, feelings, etc. from my heart or mind. 8 out of 10 times I might not add any value but there would be few articles which could really help someone which would cover up all the below average articles I publish.
Hope to keep writing and try adding value to people’s lives! :)