MONTHLY MULLING 💡
Two Monks And A Lesson, Time Is Now, and CBM #50
Hi👋,
Tapan here.
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Happy Sunday y’all!
As London has opened up and I am going out almost every weekend, I am struggling with my reading habit. I haven’t picked up a book in over two weeks now. However, when home, I have been catching up on some TV shows. I think I have found a new favorite show - His Dark Materials. For some reason, feels like this show is massively underrated but has a cast, script, and cinematography similar to GoT! Worth the watch, if sci-fi/fantasy is your genre.
Moving on🚀
💭MULLING
✨ The Right Time Is Now by Shane Parrish
Waiting for the right time is seductive. Our mind tricks us into thinking that waiting is actually doing something.
It's easy to land in a state where you're always waiting ... for the right moment, for things to be perfect, for everything to feel just right. It's easy to convince yourself that you're not ready and if you wait for just a little longer then things will be easier.
Waiting rarely makes things easier. Most of the time, waiting makes things harder.
The right time is now.
🧘🏼♂️ Two Monks and One Lesson by Safal Niveshak (Article - 4 minutes)
Two Buddhist monks, a senior and a junior were walking through the forest. They came across a river flowing through their path. To continue their journey, they had to swim through the river and cross to the other side.
There was a woman who was sitting at the bank of the river. She did not know how to swim and requested the monks to carry her to the other side.
Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy. They are not supposed to even look at women, let alone carry them. The junior monk politely refused. But the senior monk put the woman on his back, swam across the river, and dropped her safely to the other side – without saying a word.
The junior monk was aghast that the older monk had broken his vow but did not say anything. An hour passed as they traveled on. Then two hours. Then three. Finally, the agitated junior monk could stand it no longer, and asked, “Why did you carry that woman when we took a vow as monks not to touch women?”
The senior monk smiled, and said, “Brother, I dropped the woman on the bank of the river a long time ago. However, it seems that you are still carrying her around in your head.”
Loss aversion and regret aversion – our attempt to avert losses and regrets in the future, because we do not drive pleasure from them. So, these cause us to carry that baggage from the past.
Sunk cost fallacy is also at play here. We avoid changing our original decisions just because we have spent too much time, money, or energy on them. Remember that a sunk cost is nothing but baggage and must be dropped if you realize it is not worth carrying.
The image by Tim Urban perfect encapsulates the idea. Drop the baggage from the past – loss, guilt, sunk cost, regret, expectations not met – and stop looking at the door that closed behind. Instead, shrug yourself and step through the door in front.
Like the senior monk, let go of the past with its baggage. Leave what is not worth holding on to. Press forward.
🏃🏼♂️ The Real Truth About Chasing Your Dreams by Matt D’Avella (Video - 12 mins)
The untold behind-the-scenes for content creators. The truth about chasing your dreams. In my last issue, I talked about how content creation is difficult. Matt in this video tells his own story. And how much consistency and motivation are required to chase your dreams.
Here are my takeaways from the video.
Most people fail because they don’t stick to chasing their dreams for long enough
Always start something with the plan of sticking to it for 3 years - my friend Atit has a great way to test if something is worth chasing for 3 years. You do it for 3 months. If you enjoy it, continue doing it!
Not everyone will be a Michael Jordan in their field and play in the NBA. But you can aim to be the best in your suburbs. That is still a lot of people to impact
Do it for the curiosity
Don’t think about the project being successful or not - think about what you’ll learn, people you’ll meet, and experiences
Do you have a project you’re working on or a dream you’re chasing? Share it by commenting below!
🎙PODCASTS
💰 COLD BREW MONEY
😲 #47 - What are the billionaires and guru investors buying?: We discuss 13F and how to find out what your favorite investor is buying | Episode Page
📃 #48 – Investment Checklist - Atit walks us through his investment checklist and explains the narrative you should be looking for in your investments | Episode Page
🔢 #49 – Important metrics to include in the checklist - We continue discussing the investment checklist and cover the key metrics you should be looking for | Episode Page
😇 #50 – How Tapan Paid Off $10,000 Of Credit Card Debt - Episode 50 for CBM(!) captures my debt story in the US | Episode Page
🧠 #51 – In Conversation with Dinesh Sairam on Financial Analysis and Valuation - we discuss a lot of key topics like valuation models, fundamentals with Dinesh | Episode Page
Finally, we have released our first CBM TOOL! It’s a Discounted Cash Flow calculator that allows you to value any asset. We have made it simple enough for anyone to follow it. Check it out and let us know what y’all think!
Good talk. Bye.
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