Monkeys can teach you a lot about reading and investing.
You don’t believe me?
Ok. Let me tell you the story of a Buddhist monk, Milarepa in Tibet.
I believe this story will change your mind.
Let’s go!
A man came to Milarepa one day.
And this is how the story goes.
I read the above story here.
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The biggest learning for me from the above story is this:
To forbid is to attract, to refuse is to invite; to prevent is to tempt.
It is unnatural for our minds to stop thinking. It is unnatural for our minds to stop wandering.
Do you know, there is a simpler way to handle this situation?
Divert your mind to something enjoyable and yet effective. That’s when you are at peace.
Now, let’s come to investing.
Talk to any seasoned investor. She would tell you that most of her investing success came not from finding great ideas consistently but from having a good calm and peaceful mind at most times.
If you go back to the monkey story, you would realize that the more effort you put in avoiding panic and being calm, the more restless you become.
So, what’s the solution?
The same I discussed above. Rather than training our minds to do unnatural things, why not divert it to something that’s enjoyable and effective too?
And here comes the importance of reading.
And you may pair the above quote with the below one by Benjamin Graham, the father of investing.
So, the crux is that rather than fighting hard with your monkey mind over the emotions of greed and fear, you are better off spending some time wandering in your own thoughts with a simple book.
I read 30 minutes a day first thing in the morning. Some days a little more. I wish to read more but due to personal and professional commitments, I can manage only 30 minutes. But that’s ok. And we at Smart Sync Services, believe in sharing our learnings from these classic books on business, investing, and everything else with our investment community on Twitter & WhatsApp.
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Happy Reading!
Happy Investing!