Of romantic winds, memories and a lazy Sunday!!

This is the time in Pune when everything seems romantic, from lush green trees on the roads to the sweet smell of post-rain earth. When all the romantics unite, this is the city's monsoon time. Alone in my apartment on a lazy Sunday, my thoughts wandering everywhere in the mash of memories, fantasies and imagination .. I ended up writing this peace, a poem if you might call it that. So roll up your sleeves and bear with me, my fellows -

The last time we met, cool wind blew through your hair

You wore black, shining like a diamond in the night sky

Your eyes twinkled just the right way, and you told me something I was waiting for someone to say

In the midst of confusion, you showed me the way!

The last time I saw you, while standing at your gate

Your pretty face dazzled, the breeze lighting you up like a candle

Your shine percolated through my veins

I saw you smiling, your hair flowing on your face .. and Ghosh I said, it would never be the same again!

Last thing I remember , it was the wind, the gaze and the beautiful you ..

Time to leave I thought, but it wasn’t easy to get through

That night was the one I would remember for the times to come

Little did I know, it was less of Roses and more of Guns!

Life moved on, the wind was gone

But the rains are again here, people say love is in the air

It always works in cycles, and the wind is here to stay

This time to touch another face, in the same or even better way ;-)

If it’s not on your own terms, Success is Defeat!

From some time now, I have been doing a number of things which I don’t like. And as always, in such times I turn to the people who I love the most and people whose thoughts and advice have an effect on me. Some of them have said ‘you’ll get over this, it’s just a matter of time’ and some ‘you needed this, you have to get out of your own little shell and do things which you don’t like’. The second one I actually find really amusing as I never thought this about myself :D. Some of my loved ones have tried to motivate me trying to remind me of my biggest achievements, my highest times and the person I am when I am at my best. Seriously, to all of you, I owe a lot and thanks for being there, to motivate me, to scold me, and to pump me up in your own unique ways.

But today while coming back from an official visit when I had some good time to think freely, sitting relaxed in the back seat of the cab, I finally found some words and ideas to communicate, to explain what I have been trying to say all this time. To make sense to all the people who matter. The title of this post is the gist of what the feeling is and that is what this post is going to talk more about.

As we all know that when we go through troubled times all of our core value systems, our philosophies, everything you have believed in comes right crashing all around on you. Especially when your troublesome situation is caused by your own actions which were based on exact same philosophies and beliefs. But what needs to be remembered is that these are also the exact things which will take you out of the ‘situation’ and into happiness again. Let me explain how.

I think all of us remember the amazing movie '3 Idiots' with all of its wonderful learnings. One message which stands out int his movie is to do what you like, be excellent in that and success will follow. I want to take it up a notch further. It's not that you can't be successful by doing what you don't really want to. In fact, you might be exceptionally successful in doing something which you hate and you might achieve a lot of name & fame in that. Pats on the back from your bosses and claps from the outsiders. But the feeling that success would give you and the repercussions are worth pondering over. You can make a lot of money doing a job which you hate, selling a product which you think is full of crap or running a business which you don't feel connected to. You can be all comfortable being with the wrong partner, the one that looks great, who is there for you ever time, who may even be the reason of all your successes in the other spheres of your life, but is also the one who you don't love and don't feel high being with. The one with whom you don't feel all the confidence and pride you always knew that you deserve to feel. But both the job and the partner are working out just fine for you. Until one night you are driving home in your BMW with your girl along with you and you see a young couple on a bike just outside your window. They look happy, cheerful and in bliss being with each other. You suddenly want to go back in time. You think that the time was better when you were not this rich, not driving the BMW but used to think of the day when you will get one and you will be the happiest man in this world. The day when you were out there alone but were in peace with the fact that the day will come when you will be with the one who will make your life even more amazing. Now if getting this feeling while sitting in your super comfy car along with the chick beside you is called “Success”, then it will also be the same feeling that will make you feel  too crippled to just break the chains and do something to be happy again.

Now I am all for success. I even wrote a whole blog post about it when I first started writing (http://mayankuppal.blogspot.in/2011/03/comfortable-word-to-avoid-for-being.html). But Success has to be on your own terms. If it’s not then you are going to feel more and more miserable with every achievement it brings along. It’s so because with every new achievement what you’ll feel is that I could have done it in my own field of endeavor, in my own way and there too I could have been successful. Real success would be sitting in that BMW and feeling pumped up and proud about it, feeling happy with what you have achieved but also enthusiastic and impatient to get to the next success, to buy your own “Ferrari”. This feeling of getting to the next step you could never get by sulking in your present achievements and successes as they came to you by doing things you never wanted to do.

That’s the reason Vin Diesel in The Fast & The Furious says “Nothing matters unless you have a code”. That’s also the reason that you should not get overwhelmed by other’s life stories, advises (if they can be called so) and reasoning. You got to have your own philosophy, your own code for your life. It has to be something you can live by and die by. Nobody knows you better than you do. And all the success you wish to achieve is all there, only if you move along the path which you decide for yourself and not let ‘unwanted’ people & situations make you do any other way. This is the only way you will feel elated even at the smallest of your successes and calm even at the mind-blowing ones. It will happen because you will know that every decision, every action that you took was the one which was meant to be, decided by yourself, and the success which is being bestowed on you is yours to bask in.

A lot of people I have met want to be super rich but given a choice between working for the Government or the Corporates, they are ready to slog day and night and make money in a company rather than be a Govt. Servant and make even more hell lot of money. This again has a lot to do with your life philosophy, your code. It might not make any sense to someone whose code is to make money by any which way, which is fine given that is his personal choice. But for someone who wants  to make it big doing what he likes and feeling proud about it, the idea of getting money, gifts & sundries just in turn of doing what one’s anyway supposed to do doesn't seem exciting enough. The first guy might end up with the whole bunch of goods in a very short time, but the spark will wither and the spirit will die. No more will the face be full of charm and voice full of enthusiasm which is when you succeed at what you like.

Similarly your current situation (job/love life/fill in the blank) might be the one which looks ideal to other people. People around you might say how good it is, how much growth is there, how much comforts & luxuries you are getting but if you’re not happy, change it. Change it coz you’re not a tree, so don’t just keep standing. If you keep on doing something just because you are talented at it or it makes you good money, you are no more than a slave to your talents and comforts. Fight for what you want, go for it and be successful in what you and only you choose for your life. Chris Gardener, the legend himself once said – Find out what you like, what makes you excited each morning and then work hard to be the best in it. And while doing it, never forget your roots. Trust me, this advice works.

Ultimately, what I understand is that we as humans don’t run after material things like money, cars, big houses, a certain partner, per se. What we chase are FEELINGS. We pursue all of the above things in order to make us feel a certain way. In order to make us feel more happy, more powerful, more content, more ambitious, more giving, more loving and ready to be more receiving. Money inherently has no value, it’s valuable because of the dreams it lets us fulfill. And that’s how it’s supposed to be. Chase the feeling. Do what you think is going to make you feel better, feel happier being alive doing what you are doing. If something has a lot of niceties to offer but doesn't make you feel  that certain way you know you ought to be feeling, believe me you are better off letting it go away ….!!

To a new journey towards personal goals and 

self-fulfillment ….. CHEERS !!!

To have started and travelled everywhere, to come back at the place from where you started and knowing it for the first time, that will be the journey of your life...!

* I dedicate this post to the one whom I lost to in an argument recently, but who made me realize a whole new part of me.

So folks, long time since I wrote, eh. Actually there’s a lot that have been going on in my life and I am truly, honestly experiencing one of the most productive and happiest phase of my life. I along with my amazing friends and team am back with the pride and euphoria of having organized one of the biggest finance summits in Mumbai, have won a scholarship in my b-school and my personal life is at an all time high. Still I didn’t write about any of it, and I haven’t found a convincing enough reason yet for why I didn’t. These are all stories in themselves, must be told, each deserving their own space. May be their time hasn’t come yet. May be it is coming soon. But today something happened. As always I was sleeping till afternoon on a lazy Sunday but since I had my lunch, some thoughts, some light was beckoning me.

It had something to do with the quote I started this post with. When I came to do my MBA I had a clear outcome in my mind – I wanted to be an equity analyst. But it was not an end in itself. It was a stepping stone towards what I thought I would ultimately like to be – a portfolio manager (of which whatever limited knowledge I had at that time). And the process started – classes, interactions, research, videos and talking to as many people as possible from the industry and academia to know about it. Sometime during the first year may be the ultimate goal of portfolio management got faded away in the background, in pursuit of something I was chasing. And then came the turning point – INTERNSHIP.  I was getting something which was not close to being an analyst – Business Development in financial services. I knew this is not what I was looking for, but something somewhere was nudging me that I must go ahead with it. And there came my mentors – who advised me to do so. And during the period of my internship I realized something. I was exposed – to Myself. It came as clear as a lightning bolt, right in my face telling me that this is what I enjoy, which I have always enjoyed – being with people, talking & discussing about wealth creation, financial matters. By the end of it I was sure enough of myself, of what I wanted to do now. The realization that I am a finance guy who would like to be around people more than to sit in front of the laptop from day to night staring at financial statements. Meeting people, sales came naturally to me during the internship as I was right in the world which I loved the most – financial products and services and I was doing what came to me naturally – interacting with clients, trying to know their needs, trying to grow my business. Something which I read earlier was now manifesting in my life, that you don’t chase the things and people you need, you don’t chase success, you attract! Be attractive enough and you will attract the right kind of people, things, and opportunities.

But this too was not meant to be the end of it as the journey wasn’t to be completed yet. This too was a step towards something else, something bigger and something more meaningful. People oriented financial sales – yes, but as to what end. And the answer was right there in front of me, in everything I was reading, watching and what I wanted to be in the first instance. When I thought about being a Portfolio Manager before joining MBA, what deep inside I was looking towards was making people realize their goals through financial freedom, making help people generate, preserve and grow wealth, to make them live the life they have always wanted. Wealth Management was indeed the answer. Starting with getting clients for the business, making them realize what they actually want out of their lives and helping them live that kind of a life through financial plans, I know it all!! And I am sure somehow I am going to work my way up there.

The feeling and clarity by which I am proceeding towards it now was not as powerful and strong before I came to my b-school. As I was going through the list of my goals today, trying to figure and refigure what I am doing and actually want to do, this one thought came striking towards me.

I want to be known as the greatest wealth manager and motivational speaker in the world, who uses not just the laws of finance but Natural Laws of love and attraction to create wealth. I want to change the face of the wealth management industry which is right now totally focused on Ultra HNIs and HNIs. These are already great people who know the secret of wealth creation, who have achieved a lot in their life and just need some guidance on how to further grow and preserve it. Working with such people in itself is a great learning experience for wealth managers. Still I want to take it to people who deserve to live a great, outstanding life like the super rich but do not have a clue to what is going wrong and where. Creating and managing wealth is no rocket science, as the ones who have already created it in abundance would tell you, but just the application of natural laws, disciplines and common sense. Wealth is a mindset; it’s all about how you think. Every person has the capability to change the way their inner relationship and conversation with money happens.

The most important aspect of wealth creation is your “attitude” towards wealth. Whether you feel rich or poor? Do you love wealth and the thought of creating it or do you abhor the people who have enough of it? This is what matters more than the financial acumen per se. I am going to set up an organization which will redefine, or actually rediscover the process of wealth creation all over the world. A process which has always been there, the ancient Greeks knew it, it’s there in all the religions, all the Masters, and alchemists knew it. It is the philosophy of choosing LOVE over FEAR. The philosophy of joy, abundance and truth and focussing, believing and feeling about the outstanding life you are designed to have and nothing less than that. Combine it with the financial knowledge and techniques to make money in the present world, and you have an organization that could change the world, the fate of its people, forever. Great ideas come when you are trying to achieve something great. Tie ups can be made with likeminded organizations and people associated with them like Rhonda Byrne, Neale Donald Walsch, David Schirmer, Loral Langemeier, Robert Kiyosaki, Jack Canfield and the likes who are living examples of this approach of wealth creation. And who knows who all are there waiting to be tapped. There have been masters in the past like Dale Carnegie, John Earl Shoaff and Jim Rohn who changed the wealth discipline forever, who made it simple for people to understand and attract wealth. This needs to be done again, at an even larger scale. And in this information era where so much is available about the thoughts and works of these great minds, the impact that will be achieved by adding to it will be nothing short of a miracle. There was a time when India proved to be a melting pot for the religions and cultures of the world. There will be a time when an Indian organization will change the mindset of the world about wealth. It will make the people all over the globe empowered to attract and create wealth, and live the outstanding lives they so desire.

I started the journey before my MBA commenced, with a thought in mind, and now to come back here and again think about it, indeed I am knowing the place from where I started better than ever. Hope the beautiful journeys of life continue like this.

God Bless and Godspeed!

THE JAMES BOND THEORY OF CAREER CHOICE

Alert: The ideas that I mention in the post below are peculiar to Financial Services industry but can be applied to any other industry as well.

So this time it’s Bond, James Bond. An action hero has found a place in my blog which by now you know I write on life’s philosophies, finance & economics and motivational stuff. All of us have seen Bond movies at one time or the other but if we take a closer look, there are two parallel but complementary sides moving along in the same direction in the film which ultimately leads the Bond & Team winning and punishing the bad guys. Firstly there is Bond’s team, which includes M - the boss of Bond and very motivated and efficient team-mates who apply their minds sitting in the high-tech office to the best of their ability, and then there is Bond – who does it on the field. This is what this post is about – to be a Bond or to be an M.

Let’s start with the second idea, for most of the people I know want to get into this vertical. Here you will be using your domain knowledge & skills to the maximum, like the guys you see on the silver screen who are working incessantly with newer ideas & technologies to be ahead of the curve, you will earn well and lead a plush and comfortable inside-the-office life. In this vertical in our real industry, these people are known as Equity Research Analysts, Treasury guys, Head of Research and who go on to become the Fund/Portfolio Managers or the Chief Financial Officer (CFOs).  These are the guys who work from the Intelligence Headquarters aka Corporate Office (in our cases, mostly Mumbai).This is the Technical side of the industry.

Now while the people above use their special education & training (which we know as MBA+CFA/FE) in doing their respective job, there is another dimension involved to the work of Bonds.  Like James Bond in his movies uses his domain knowledge combined with his physical skills to win, here being a Bond, you have to use along with your domain knowledge, the skills known as People Skills. Business skills come along with it. The technical knowledge will be used not to do research but to develop the business, to bring more clients whose funds are then managed by the Fund Managers. These Bonds in the real industry are known as Relationship Managers, Business Development Executives which move on the ladder of Area, Country Managers and become the CEO of the fund/company. These are the guys who are not stationary. They could be in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai or any other city and even in different countries later on plying around the globe looking for business relationships. This is the Business side of the industry.

But unlike the Reel world, in the Real world it’s not only the Bond’s role that is glamorous. The other side is loved as much. So it all boils down to where you see yourself, which kind of role do you see doing for the rest of your life, comfortably and most importantly, where you see yourself having fun and growing personally. Both require different advanced skills, one of technicals and the other of handling people and business, but basics are all the same as you need the same basics to do the research and manage funds as you need to convince clients and make them invest to manage the corpus.

One important thing here is that it’s not what you are currently but where you want to be. The Bond in the movie wins every time because of one thing, Training, which M is very proud of, always. Same way in life with training you can do well in either of the above fields. But there is a spark added when you know which are your dominant skills and your calling, and then everything you touch turns into gold. You will get the answers to this in your day-to-day life by seeing how you behave in certain situations, like when you are working in a team on projects, which are the preferable roles you want to take. Pay attention. Or otherwise, you can know it the best way, which is by Doing It. Internships or small work assignments with corporations are a great way to know about yourself and your calling.

Whether a 007 Agent or an M, be the best in whatever you do. GODSPEED!

“COMFORTABLE” – A word to avoid for being Successful

Now why would I start this post by making a statement that has got two beautiful words, comfortable and successful, but not in a complementing way but by juxtaposing them! Well, that’s the way it is. This morning I was remembering an incident which happened way back when I was a child but somehow struck me today while I was just... let’s say relaxing. About of age 8 or 9, I was in car with my mom & dad in my home town and there on our way came a big store – which was closed permanently now. Dad told me that he used to know the guy who opened this store and that he belonged to a well-to do family, a standard that guy achieved on his own not having any kind of pedigree with him. Dad added that this is what happens when you take unnecessary risks or be too ambitious. Now this is what most of our parents would have said coming across such a story, called it a “failure”.

And here it was, a failure that should have been celebrated, for the sheer entrepreneurial spirit and unborrowed vision of a store that has never existed in the city, being called a failure and looked down upon. But why did it happen so? The answer lies in having a sense of comfort in your life. That day my parents, or most times most of the people in life want to live in a false sense of being comfortable. To them, being comfortable is more important than to win. They do not want to take risks, partly because they are scared of winning, of the mind boggling success that could blow their minds off, but most of the times to continue being comfortable, not to come out of the shell and feel the pulse of the world because that little shell is “good enough” to carry on rest of the life. And so by looking down upon and enjoying such failures of others, everyone gains a false sense of complacency that their way of life, of not taking risks and being comfortable is after all the right way to live. May be this is a kind of thinking which happens as a  result of the collectivist and socialist culture our Indian society has been through for a long time. But whatever may be the reasons; this needs to change for good.

I see young people, teenagers in schools, and I see a spark in them. The same spark that Chetan Bhagat referred to in his famous Symbiosis speech. The same spark that Kareena Kapoor had in Jab We Met in its first half. Those teenagers are passionate about their lives, about what they want to do in the days ahead and they are not scared of taking risks. But as soon as they are about to end their graduations and post-graduations, move into jobs, the spark starts withering away. The first big decision is the kind of job people take. Many of them while very excited in the school and college days, end up taking just a comfortable job, good enough to live on, then get married, and slowly getting entrapped in the day to day fights of the life, completely forgetting the whole excitement life was about. Another poor soul gets trapped in another shell. This story continues till death.

If in the same life the focus is on winning and feeling the exhilaration and not on being just comfortable, the entire life will be different. The spark, the excitement you have during your school and graduation will be always inside you, you will do things that really make you excited, you will work to learn new things and not just to earn and sustain yourselves and your dependents, you will come across spectacular successes and shattering failures, but in the end your life will be one big achievement, A BIG WIN, which will be much richer than a comfortable life. Now this is a fete not everyone is able to get and this is also the only way that life can come full circle and anyone can complete the journey of learning and living, of having experiences. Otherwise life becomes like the second-half of Jab We Met, living a comfortable life without the spark and excitement of being alive.

Living life like this is way too much fun but also you will have days when you will feel down and beaten and that is the time when your support systems come into place. I recommend having a list of 10-15 people whom you can always bank upon, who will stand by you no matter what, with whom you have always shared your life, your true friends and well-wishers. And whenever you feel lost, take a look at the list and as you go along, you will remember the times spent with those people, the amazing moments shared, you will remember how beautiful life actually is and slowly you will start coming back to what you are supposed to be, bouncing back with full confidence and enthusiasm.

And on the guy on whose story I started this post, I don’t know him personally, maybe he went broke for some time after that store, but one thing I am sure of – This kind of a man can go broke, but can never go poor (to use the words of Robert Kiyosaki) and there is a big difference between both. These are the people who make themselves rich and stay rich because being excited and ready to go out of comfort zones is the way they make up life, not scared to lose and be humiliated, but always excited about being happy and winning!

Want to win, Stop Caring!

As I write this post, some personal experiences with people in my past life are running in my mind and I can’t help but stop and notice how those people were so successful in whatever they were doing. Be it their professional life or personal, business or job, relationship or just having fun, I can’t help but recognize a subtle and common charm in all of them, whatever they do. So what’s the rub here? They are all good people, successful, some self made and some enjoying the pedigree (you still have to be good enough to do that) but what makes them so?

NOT CARING – is the answer I got. Not caring about the results, about the outcome whether it’s going to be in your favour or not. Not caring about failures. Because the only thing those successful people are concerned with is – Winning. They don’t mind losing in order to win. They hate losing, but they don’t fear losing - which is a big differentiator. Experience makes you learn and lose, don’t take it to heart. A Punjabi phrase I learnt quite early on in my life from one such man is – “Parwaah Ni Karni”. These three words essentially mean that do what you like, be fearless, follow your heart and don’t care about anything else, be it people (saying things about you which don’t matter anyways), failures (make you ready for the next win) and even the result of what you are doing.

Let’s take a little example at this point. Say you are a Porsche enthusiast. You really, badly want a Porsche Carrere GT you would drive all over the city and make people crazy. Now if you are working to get it, every night you think of whether the other day you will be able to lay your hands on it, drive it, own it. But would it be the same case if you already owned the same Porsche. Would you think every night after parking it in your home whether you will be able to enjoy it the next day or not. Simply no, because you know it’s yours. You will be able to enjoy it as long as you want it. You don’t burden yourself then with unnecessary doubts and questions.

So if there are two rules I want to end this post on those are -

1.  ACT AS IF

Act as if you already own what you want, you already are what you want to be, you already have what you think should be yours. Acting in this way only will take you closer to where you belong and desire to be, to get the things which you want to attract into your life.

As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, either way you are right”!

2. BURY THE FEAR

Stop Caring about the result, about the humiliation, about the defeat because it’s not worth it, act to win. As you win, all the negativities, the criticisms, the bitter people fade away and what is left is just the happiness and excitement of winning and the company of people who stood by you to enjoy your success with. Always make the Excitement of Winning take over the Fear of Losing. 

To say it in business terms, learn to be a great Salesman. Learn to sell ice to an Eskimo. Learn to sell what you have in order to get what you want. Learning to Sell is one of the biggest contributions you can make to yourself – professionally as well as personally – because it gives a new perspective to achieving things without caring.

These things helped people successfully achieve what they wanted and they still keep doing it, I am learning the same ropes and results do show themselves. Hope you gain some benefit out of it too. Customize it, and make it work for yourself in whatever way you want, just go out and – WIN.

Of Naxalism, Global Financial Crisis and the myriad Indian corruption shows we have just witnessed – Is there a Connection?

Disclaimer: You will need a little background of the topics involved here; otherwise you won’t be able to appreciate the ideas much.

Recently, I have been inundated by news all over every form of media – Internet, Newspapers, Blogs and TV – about things which otherwise look anything like “connected” but I somehow can’t help but see a pattern in it.

The latest case of Dr. Binayak Sen being given life imprisonment by our court of law for supposedly “seditious” behaviour raises too many questions. A very big one of who is ruling our country, the right or the left. I don’t see the leaders talking on having further economic reforms, making Right to Property again  a Constitutional Right, and our party at the Centre and the main opposition, Congress and BJP can’t ever agree on any issue. But when it comes to Naxalism, both agree on one solution – KILL THE POOR.  OLIGARCHIC DEMOCRACY! Another question of how the state can act against an individual in a manner which is “horrific” to say. Binayak Sen’s trial was not covered by media, but the judgements were slapped on our face by each newspaper, but now as it is coming up, there was very little or no proof of the kind of involvement which qualifies as sedition.

Another article I just read explained How a Handful of Merill Lynch Bankers Helped Blow Up Their Own Firm. It was a case of incentives perverse and unaligned with the long-term financial health of their own bank. Ultimately, the bank was sold to Bank of America.(For full story refer: http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/wall-st-financial-crisis-cdo-mortgage/12/23/2010/id/31869). The punchline of the case – What do you do when no one – not even your own traders—wants to buy supposedly safe mortgage backed securities. Till date, no one has been arrested for the wrongdoings of the crisis, and no one can be, because everything they did was totally lawful. Their “regulators” wanted them to go this way. What to say of govt. sponsored agencies doing the same thing!

Third case, Putin’s Palace by the Sea. Sergey Kolesnikov in Russia has written an open letter to the Russian President Dimitry Medvedev stating how a palace is being built on the Black Sea for the personal use of Vladimir Putin – Prime Minister of Russia. To this date the palace costs around 1billion US Dollars, mainly through a combination of corruption, bribery and theft (http://corruptionfreerussia.com).  -“Communism or Crony Capitalism, the elites live it on the up & up.”

And finally, our homegrown scandals – CWG, 2G Scam, IPL,  Adarsh Housing Society, Money Matters and recently the price hike of onions – which is not a “scandal” in itself, but has a link with all of the problems and causes here.

When I see all these issues connected, I see that most of what is wrong in world is the wrongdoing of two parties – The Government and the Elites. Naxalism is a problem out and out created by the state in two ways - the state itself was unable to perform on its basic requirements, and its regulations and huge bureaucratic structure prevent people from performing. And now to correct the wrongdoings – they are ready to kill people, whether naxals or people like Dr. Binayak who the state wants to wither off in jail. I don’t support naxalites, but I do support the idea that the state can’t get away by its own wrongdoing in this way.

Financial Crisis taught us one thing – how potent is the partnership between businesses and govt, and when the state comes and not just interferes but participates in the market, it creates havoc. The havoc which in this case threw the world economy in a pit from which it has still not recovered fully. We find all the same industry-state connections in all the scams in our motherland like IPL.

CWG and other scams – the people who benefitted are either the bureaucrats or their known ones in the industry. A palace is being built for private use of Prime Minister of a country synonymous with Communism.

The link which I mention in the title of this post between all the crisis is The Big State – with its supposedly unlimited powers – which is creating perverse incentives everywhere. Here in India, we pay international market price of steel, but we cry when onion prices go up. Are farmers not entitled to the gains if the price of their product increases in the market! Why a subsidy here? State distorts all the market efficiencies by entering into it with policies to appease one set of the people or the other.

My Verdict – You can call me a utopian, an optimist or a realist, but I see a system which can change the world for better. It is not a new one, but it is something that the governments so much rotten in corruption and the misuse of their power don’t want to go towards.

The system of a limited government, a free-market (i.e. Laissez Faire capitalism and not corporatism) but with checks and balances.

Firstly, countries like India, where the state is huge and over & above the individual citizens, its powers need to be curbed. As they say – Power Corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our bureaucrats need to realize that we, the individual citizens, are the Principal, State our agent and they (the Baabus) are the service providers. The Indian State needs to come out of the thought that it is our “mai baap” and needs to provide for our livelihood. Let the people work and create wealth.

Checks and Balances – This directs me to another issue, MFIs in Hyderabad. Never were poor people able to start businesses before the presence of MFIs. But now when some “sharks” have entered in the business, the state govt. has got an excuse to strangulate the industry because in our country , the Politicians and the Baabus are supposed to provide for poor – they can’t work for themselves, right!

Now to protect innocent villagers from sharks, some checks from regulators are needed, but that doesn’t mean that the business and industry should work according to whims and fancies of State/Regulators.

I propose a system wherein each individual gets a basic monetary amount if he/she is unemployed (no subsidies just because an individual produces potatoes instead of steel). Whatever the profession, if you are good at it – good for you, if you can’t earn bread for yourself – we, as citizens of a civilized society have a responsibility – and the unemployed should get a basic amount to live. It ends there. Every other help can be done through Private Charity.

Free Market – when every one of us is entitled to an amount which we can sustain our lives with – we are free to do thereafter whatever we want to come out of poverty and create wealth for ourselves and others. The market (that is the society) will decide whether our products or services are liked by our peers, and we can create our own destiny with our own decisions.

I am hopeful that we will see the day when the world comes out of utter confusion and our once great country becomes great again. There is even an outfit working on the same ideas – Freedom Team of India. Those who liked this post and subscribe to the ideas, do google about this Team and join/help in anyway you can.