The Financial Ignorance !

In my career of five years, I had switched my job almost every year in the early period. There are many reasons. Having started my career in a start-up company, I could spend only a year there as it was shut down eventually. Before landing at the firm I am currently working with, I had to switch my job two more times. Though I have been sailing smoothly over the past two years in the current job, of late I have been bothered by the thoughts of uncertainty about my future.

The simple question is "how long I am going to work as a Software Engineer ?". Till 35 ? 40 ?. I don't think I can continue in this industry beyond 35. That means another 9 years. By then, all my skills might have become outdated and my enery levels would have come down for sure. But will I have enough assets to generate the money flow needed for the rest of my life. Definitely not If I just limit myself with the current job. I could understand that there is a obvious need to get in to other avenues, be it Business or Investments. My poor knowledge about these topics scares me a lot. I see myself in a very risky situation due to the lack of knowledge about these basic essentials in life.

Having been brought up in a family - background with more inclination towards Self-Business, I have a natural interest to start and run a business successfully. I feel its high time for me to proceed further with the baby steps without making excuses about the external factors that are never in my control.

Just last year, I started investing in Mutual funds/equities and I would be first person to admit that I did them blindly as suggested by my friends / Investment agents. Anyways I had just made a start. I should slowly start evaluating the real estate opportunities and try my hand there. I know there are many surprises waiting for me. I have decided to enjoy the fun.

In the past few months, I have been reading some good books... To name them, "The seven habits of highly effective people" by Steven Covey and "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "Cashflow Quadrant" by Robert Kiyosaki. These books have sent a wakeup call to the stagnated dormant cells that once had the burning desire to chase my long standing dreams. Hope those cells will turn active and help me in exploring all the opportunities I could see.

Should I fall in Love ???

Of late I have been getting suggestions to find a person whom I can "fall" in love with. I often hear words like 'Love some one.. You are just 26.. Your caring attitude will attract girls easily.. You need not work hard to find someone close to your heart.. Your week ends will be more entertaining and more.. '.

I am not sure what makes people to offer such "suggestions" to a person like me. Having heard these words repeatedly I too once thought "Hmm... why not ? Should I give a try ?. Am I missing something in this world ? "..

But I am not a kind of person who can "wait" for someone for hours, "accept" all the excuses, present gifts very often (for no reason) and meet all those common & unrealistic expectations one has on the other when both are in the so called "Love". I do enjoy watching the "Love" being depicted in movies / novels though its more illusionary. I could not imagine myself telling someone that I am in love with her; can't survive without that person and more non-sense like them.

If at all I do that, my conscience would never allow me to digest my own words and the peace of mind would be lost forever with me asking more questions to myself. I strongly believe in being honest to myself.

In my dictionary, I see "Love" as a verb and not as a Noun. I simply don't agree with Love as a feeling. Love as a feeling is merely a illusion created by poets/writers. One can just read, watch and enjoy the feeling of Love as a means of mind relaxation. It doesn't have any practical significance. Its pathetic that many educated people often fail to realise this.

For me, Love is to serve people unconditionally.... i repeat "unconditionally"... showing genuine care and concern for those around me and make them feel more confident about themselves, leaving them to live their life the way they want; expecting "nothing" in return from them.

I have been observing people who often run in to relationship problems because of false expectations they have on each other. In the name of love/ friendship, people often try to dominate over each other, trying to dictate things that the other should/ shouldn't do. They often expect the other person to "understand" him/her and *change* his/her likes/dislikes to match her/him. Isn't a good relationship possible without the above stupid practices ?. Its becoming very rare to see a friendship / relationship where the people involved have respect for other's views and interests, allowing others to live their life the way they want.

Even in this information era with access to so much of books / magazines on better human relationships, its disgusting to see people being reluctant to learn about sustaining the relationships.

But there is always a battle between brain and the heart !!! Often people succumb to their emotions.

Stephen Covey's Seven Habits !

Few days back, I was reading "The Seven Habits of Most Effective People" by Stephen Covey. Soon I realised it needs a lot of inner strength to read the book as it exposes a person as he is. :-)
The quote I liked the most is "No one can hurt you without your consent" by Roosevelt.
How true this statement this !!!!!

On most occasions, its how we respond hurts us more than what that happens to us. And we always regret for the way we responded without giving much thought on its implications. I could see many continue to live with the problems just because they were not interested in understanding the actual root cause / reasons from where the problems arise. Mostly people just get satisfied with the temporary fixes for the problems.. The more we ignore to understand the problems, more would be the trouble we are inviting.. We often live with "escape" tendency celebrating short term successes with big treats by simply ignoring the past and the problems that kept haunting us. By continuing to do so, we loose the "peace of mind" and it becomes more and more difficult to gain it back...

My FIRST Blog !

Well... For the past few months, I have been going through a phase of thinking a lot on leadership and management, people relationships, its survival, the most common mistakes that detroy the relationships, etc..etc..

Dunno how it all started.. is this because I started living alone without any room mate ?
Or is it because I started caring for people around me, a lot (quite unnecessarily ?!).
Or something else ?? anyways nothing wrong in using the brain for better reasons !!!!

And I ended up speaking to myself looking at the mirror, sometimes at the wall.. ;-) Hence finally decided to start blogging where I can communicate with the whole world. :-)... discuss and share my thoughts, ask questions and do more. Atleast I would feel that someone is listening to me rather !!!

So keep looking for my posts and do pour in your thoughts.. Let us make the world a better place to live and add some meaning to our own lives !!!!