It’s mind-boggling to know that about
15% of the world’s population lives with
a disability of some kind; that’s staggering 1 billion people!!! Surely they can’t be ignored…She argues
further that inclusion and acceptance are important because it’s right thing to
do. I couldn’t agree more. But in my personal experience, inclusion and
acceptance is GOOD; not just for the specific individual but for everyone in
the given ecosystem. Of course, every person and every situation is different,
but by and large, inclusion and diversity should be way of life…at the very
least that’s what we should learn from NATURE….
Couple of years ago, I had penned down an article on what has SHLOK meant to me. Shlok is my 13-yr son with Down's Syndrome who has changed my world for good. Shlok has surely expanded my world-view with –Sense of purpose, Hope, Love, Objectivity and most importantly, Kindness (https://shlokabiity.blogspot.com/2020/03/what-does-shlok-mean-to-me.html). When I pondered more, I realized, those are all in-tangible aspects and that’s all great. But in reality, Shlok has also helped me make more money in financial world :)
Parenting and investing are very similar in many ways. Most of the things we do fall somewhere in the spectrum between extremes of self-less love and selfish love …and where we choose to stay/progress on this spectrum decides how good parents or investors we can be; of course in long run :)…Let’s look at some quotes by the investing greats like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Charlie Munger, Warran Buffet and read it in the context of parenting instead of investing…
- “Respect the market (read as parenthood). Have an open mind. Know what to stake. Know when to take a loss. Be responsible.”
- The big money (or Prize) is not in the buying and selling ....but in the waitinng.
- The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect
Some time back I was reading Jack
Schwager’s best-selling book – “The Market Wizard’s: Interviews with Top
Traders”. In the same book, Dr Van Tharp mentioned about 5 psychological
factors that decide success in trading/investment – a well-rounded personal
life, a positive attitude, lack of conflict, responsibility for the results and
finally, the motivation to make money ( read as bring positive impact in child’s life! ).
I believe all these factors are very much relevant for parenting as well…Actually,
my investment journey in financial world had started few years after Shlok’s
birth and that’s why I can look back over last 10 years and relate how caring
for Shlok has made me a better investor. Here are 4Ps of my investment journey...
It’s a Process…Duh – like in parenting, there are NO short-cuts .. One has to devise a system / process that suits oneself and stick to it. With Shlok, we learnt to inculcate positive habits in his routine and that seems to yield fantastic results in his behaviour. Another interesting situation I have experienced recently. We have been trying to train him with riding a bicycle for past so many years. Of course he was doing it with side support-wheels; but never achieved balance to do it independently. Couple of months ago at a Down’s syndrome conference in Raipur, I got trained myself with the process to train him. Since then, I followed the process for 30 mins every day. To our surprise, Shlok can ride bicycle now…hurray… Same way, I have started monthly review of all my investments for last few years consistently which has helped me get fantastic results with my portfolio.
Planning: As Ben Franklin said rightly – “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. It is the most important aspect in anything we pursue. After Shlok’s birth, I was clueless on what and how I am going to manage this special child. I was absolutely anxious / stressed out for first year… But after that I started to gather more information from various sources and planning my next moves carefully. “Returning to India” was first step in the journey I had envisioned for my family. After staying at my native place for couple of years and experiencing difficulties in getting special educators, we decided to move to Pune ….So every few years, we had to review our plan and make the course correction as well… Same applies in investing and that’s called periodic re-balancing!!!
Patience: Not that all is rosy and nice. With Down syndrome’s happy faces comes its share of challenges. By nature, most of the Down syndrome kids are obstinate. At times Shlok becomes impulsive and difficult to manage. At times we feel very frustrated... Sameway, market is NOT easy to manage. As traders, any strategy could have only 30-40% success rate. We have to be patient when we get failures…We have to maintain our emotional balance. At times, learn to say- “it’s ok” and move on… No wonder Buffet say – “Stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to patient”.
Priorities: I have always been a positional trader. Recently I have done a course in "Futures & Options" so as to learn hedging my positions. The instructor stressed that the first and foremost priority as a trader is NOT to chase the profit but to minimize the losses and survive in the markets for long-term. Parental Burnouts and Trading Fatigue are quite common these days. Survivorship for long-term takes precedence over quick profits in markets. That's why it is worth to have ways to make our journey enjoyable... I have experienced this with my kids that their growth happens in due course as long as, being a parent I avoid being too harsh/overly disciplining etc and rather create fun environment... For instance, we have started ‘family-time” for 15-20 minutes post-dinner since last one year playing games, puzzles etc. This has created a fun environment and each one of us looks forward to the family time now…
Anyway kids’ life is full of struggles in the hyper-competitive world around us...As parents, our job is to develop “continuous learning” and “smell the roses” mind-set along the way and also develop healthy attitudes towards any “special”/"different" individuals in our ecosystems ( in a way, let's make our world a tad more inclusive!)….I guess, for me that's the way leading to pursuit of happiness (and perhaps profits too!!!)
For Comments & Suggestion, Please Contact - Sachin Jakhotia /C.+91 83088 79900/ sachinjakhotia@gmail.com
You can find me at:
Blog: https://shlokabiity.blogspot.com/2022/
Linked-in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachin-jakhotia-4602711/
*** This post is a part of “International Day of Disabled Persons” blog hop hosted by Sakshi Varma – Tripleamommy in collaboration with Bookosmia. #IDPD2022Bloghop.
*** Access all posts of this bloghop at https://tripleamommy.com/2022/12/02/idpd2022-lets-make-this-world-a-more-inclusive-space/
