Biz Guru: Tension Not!

This article is dedicated to Dale Carnegie.

One of the impressive works of Dale Carnegie includes How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Pretty cool, huh? Well it is. This is because it is about many ways through which you can avoid the deadliest disease of all- WORRY. Don’t believe me? Well I didn’t either some time back, but believe me it works. A few examples of diseases caused by worry might help you understand how deadly this WORRYING habit can be. The list goes: pneumonia, lung cancer, brain cancer, serious depression leading to nervous breakdown, heart attack, insomnia, eating disorders (especially for those women who are weight conscious), anxiety, panic attacks, etc., etc., etc.

So what to do???

Well, of all the techniques of avoiding worry the most cited and commonly used by 19^th and 20^th century billionaires like Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller, JP Morgan is:

No.1: Ask yourself what is the WORST thing that can happen to me?

This is a pretty powerful thing. Especially when a person realizes that what he or she has lost is only money or a temporary relationship or some illness or any other thing. What is the worst thing that can happen to me? This question will most definitely solve half the problem as now our perspective toward the problem would change. What seemed like a world-ending catastrophe would sink into our minds and appear infinitesimal. Instead of thinking about the problem that “Oh my God, what am I going to do now?! I’ll die!” we will have a comfort in the form of,  e.g. “ Yea I’ve got an F in Calculus , what’s the worst? Well nothing.  I’ll take the course again next semester, will work hard and probably get a B- or a B. THAT’S IT! It’s not like my life’s ended or something. Now let’s move on! “

No.2: Evaluate the problem with the facts given

Now once you have the worst case scenario in your mind, you are at ease mentally. So what’s next? Dig out the facts (Don’t find the solution yet) and more facts and more facts. This is because when you are collecting information/facts 99% of the time the solution automatically comes to you. Ask yourself what caused the problem, what you could have done more, or any other question that would help you analyze the situation.

No. 3: Find a solution to a problem, if you can. If you cannot,  than ask others for help.

Now comes the part where you have to find a solution. Find a solution by which you and your problem/enemy have a win/win situation;  and if not possible, a solution that can minimize your losses or damages. Either think of it yourself or seek advice from others who you believe are in a good position to guide you.

These three points, if applied, will tame the worry beast in your mind, and leave it to be more productive in other matters!

(Biz Guru is an ordinary IBA student with extraordinary dreams and a penchant for reading business and success literature. The plethora of books he has read on the subject makes him an expert, capable of advising us lesser mortals on the intricacies in the world of money-making.)

Biz Guru: What Rich People Teach Their Kids and Poor Don’t

Imagine a lake near a village that is filled with water. The villagers use the lake’s water for farming and for their personal use. But the problem is that sooner or later the lake is going to dry up because even though water is being taken out from the lake no additional water is being poured into it, which is why the villagers might face a drought after some time. 

Now consider the same scenario, only that this time the lake is continuously being supplied by fresh water that flows into the lake 24/7 from the surrounding mountain valleys. This means villagers have a continuous supply of fresh water forever.

The second scenario is of Passive Income which is what Robert Kiyosaki is trying to explain in his book Rich Dad Poor Dad. The main crux of the book is that in order to get RICH, people should work for ASSETS rather than LIABILITIES. Assets include those things that put money in your pocket and liabilities, things that take money out of your pocket.

For example, many people consider their home sweet home an asset which it is not. Why? Because it is taking money out of your pocket as you have utility bills, property tax, maintenance expenses. But if you make it a cash generating asset like put it on rent no matter what happens, i.e. even if you work or not you are going to get a guaranteed income monthly. This concept of passive income that is measured in TIME and not in quantity is that “How many days or months or years can you survive if you just stop working today?” That is, if you have assets like real estate that give you monthly rent, stocks that give you quarterly dividends, bonds that give you semiannual interest payments, or even other business investments in which you are a sleeping partner and receive a fine cheque every month out from the sales (depending upon the profit/loss ratio decided between your partner and you), how many days can you survive without doing your job? 

The idea is that people should work for others at jobs, like in banks, MNCs, for government, but their aim should not be restricted to the point that some day the company or the government will throw a bone at them and they might be a CEO or in one of the top management positions of the company. Because, frankly speaking, employers don’t really care about people who work for them. People come and go but corporations remain for years and years. 

However, if you are a business owner or an investor (like Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates) you will have people work for you and make money for YOU even if you are not working, and the best part is that just like the villagers in the second case mentioned above, your lake of money will never be dried up since it is continuously being filled up with streams of income from other businesses and investments.

GK Question: Do you know who is a rich person according to Forbes?

Ans: According to Forbes a person is rich when he earns an annual passive income of $1 million i.e. 8.7 Crores in PKR annually…. :-)

 

Think about it. How on earth will you earn 8.7 Crores in Pakistan annually while working at a job?

An IBA Dean earns approx. 16 lacs a month (16 x 12 = 192) 1 crore and 92 lacs a year, but not 8.7 crores so even a super duper personality and an ex-state bank governor is NOT RICH by FORBES definition. :-)

(Biz Guru is an ordinary IBA student with extraordinary dreams and a penchant for reading business and success literature. The plethora of books he has read on the subject makes him an expert, capable of advising us lesser mortals on the intricacies in the world of money-making.)

Source of Image: http://static.bigstockphoto.com/thumbs/4/2/1/large/1246699.jpg