Author: animeshjmathur

Financial Freedom – keep counting the gains – live your life

Abundance, Financial Independence, life

A lot of times we get obsessed with saving for investing because we are unsure of the actual amount we could need for the future. It becomes a moving target. If you get to 100K you think you need 500K to survive. When you hit 500K you think you 1M to survive. This way you are never happy with what you have. You never learn to live your life in the moment and value what you have.

Something which I have mentioned earlier also, which I learnt from reading Dan Sullivan’s books and watching his videos, is the concept of counting gains.

So I started writing the blog posts on financial independence and freedom not because I had become wealthy but because I saw that I could find systems of investment which can help me grow. As these investments started growing I could take up activities which enhanced and expanded my life. And I wanted to share these learnings with everyone , so that others need not go through the same challenges which I went through.

From a stage where I had zero investments and zero financial backup, I kept clawing upwards. Now I can decide to feel sad that my investments have still not made a dollar denominated millionaire or I can feel happy that I was at zero and today I have hit some value while also living through lovely experiences along the way. This gives me the feeling of abundance.

When you are driving down from Washington DC to NewYork City you see the milestones for the amount of distance pending to reach NYC. Since the destination is fixed, it makes sense to know how much time and distance is left to reach it. However if you were to change the destination en-route from NYC to Rochester, then to Albany, then to Toronto, you will go crazy trying to figure out when you will eventually hit your destination. It then makes sense to think in terms of how much distance you have already gained towards your destination rather than how much is pending.

With your finances also you need to keep counting your gains and feel happy that you have been able to achieve some intermediate targets. Tony Robbins also had this concept of creating buckets and making investments according to the buckets. Once the bucket is full you need to use it. Like if there’s a bucket for vacations, then once the bucket gets full based on the target you need to go out and have a vacation. This way you will actually live your life.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Financial freedom – expand your mind

Abundance, experiences, Financial Independence, Happiness

I have always had this opinion that you need to get new experiences and expand your mind. Once your mind expands, it does not go back to its old state.

Do you even remember that you used to crawl once upon a time. Today you will actually find it very difficult to crawl.  But there was a time when walking was a dream, but when you learnt how to balance on your two feet, you quickly forgot what it was to be on your  knees and hands crawling. That was because once your brain gets new experiences it expands its ability and tends to forget the old ones.

I got this ability to think for getting new experiences from my father. He was of the view that saving money for itself had no significance if you didn’t get new experiences. New experiences also make you happier and give you a feeling of abundance.

While some experiences you can get without spending too much money,  for most of them you need to have the financial backing. That’s where investing  helps. After a certain period of time, when the magic of compounding starts to come into play, you need to take out money to sponsor these experiences.

Once the mind starts expanding it also gets the ability to think better.  Then you are  also in a position to think how you can increase your income further and invest more to earn even more and expand your mind even further. This becomes a  virtuous cycle.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Doing a deep dive for Single Target Market

B2B, Marketing, Product Management, segmentation, single target market

I keep writing about the Single Target Market in many of my posts. I recently also wrote about how you can do a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) if your product is not doing as per expectations.

When you do a RCA, I have noticed most of the times in my case, the challenge has always been in identifying the Single Target Market and defining it clearly.

Since I deal primarily in B2B , its not just about the geography that I need to focus on. Its not just an industry. You have to learn to go deeper to identify to even the level of person you intend to target.

In a recent exercise that I was doing I realized that the level of person my team had to contact was based on the size of company we were targeting. However our services were not good for companies below a certain level of revenue

When we hit the higher level of revenue the level of people we were targeting were not the people looking for a solution to the problem we solve. It was a very tight line for us to figure out. But what came out of this was an even higher appreciation of the advantage of going deep for the Single Target Market.

This concept is like an onion, each layer that you peel, makes you realize what else is beneath the surface.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Relationships make a difference

books, life, relationships, Sales

When I was starting out in sales I read a book – What they don’t teach you in Harvard Business School. It was authored by Harvey McCormick. I was very impressed with the achievements that he mentioned in the book.

I have forgotten most of the book, but one sentence that has stayed with me has been – All things being equal people buy from friends, all things Not being equal they still still prefer to buy from friends.

That one statement keeps ringing in my mind from time to time. It has been a guiding statement whenever I interact with anyone.

I try to ensure that I make long term relationships by being straight and upfront in whatever interaction I have with people. Not only with prospects and customers but even with vendors and everyday people.

When you build these kind of relationships you can be sure that you can pick up the phone and call people when you want and they will also answer your phone. Also because you have dealt straight with these people you aren’t scared when connecting with them.

Its also similar to the philosophy of giving first that Joe Polish talks about. When people trust you and know that you will be transparent in your interactions, they are also open to interact

Does that mean that I have not been tricked and taken advantage of because of this philosophy, absolutely not. But the amount of times I have been duped is way smaller than the amount of times the relationships have helped.

My advice would always be to play the long game and build relationships which can last you a long long time.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!