Who is an entrepreneur?

Recently I wrote this post. And since yesterday, I have been reading Capt. Gopinath’s “Simply fly”.

Its a good book, though it could have been written better I felt.

While reading, Ct.G quotes Peter Drucker’s definition of an entrepreneur.

A true entrepreneur is one who creates wealth where it did not exist earlier by creating a new market and a new customer. They create something new, something different; they change and transmute values;

I liked the definition, but dont adhere to it 100%. This is fringing on Blue Ocean kinda strategy.. creating new markets. But not every innovator can manage to be successful and I believe sometimes being early is bad. Early birds get cooked many a time! Many a time, the first player is not the one who makes a business out of it, but the subsequent player who is a better executor of the same idea.

I am a firm believer that the team and its execution capability is far more important than the idea itself. It is nice and great to innovate, but it is far more important to execute it better.

Now, keeping the above opinion aside, I re-read my own post mentioned above. What would I do if I had a million $?

I had written things like “Start an online book store like flipkart.com”. Now, now…when I read it now.. I feel stupid!

Why would I want to be another flipkart.com? Or the next amazon.com?

Thinking within a box!!! How often we think of doing things the same way.. same style..

Capt. Gopi thought out of the box. He started a helicopter company when none existed. He built a low cost airline when the idea was considered unviable.

We need to think out of the box… for heavens sake, atleast while creating a wishlist.

I need to revisit my wishlist again!!

Why do you work?

I read this post today by Simple Dollar’s Trent.

This is an age old thingy! Why should you work? What would you do if you had a million dollars? Or if you had unlimited resources?

I know its old, its cliched.. yet, let me try to answer that one for myself.

• Start an online library chain (I love books!). Start an online book store like flipkart.com
• Travel all around the world and indulge in photography
• Run a mountain side farm with a stream running through it
• Develop a cutting-edge data integration / data quality tool and release it under open source
• Find and fund at least 10 diversified startups in areas within my circle-of-competence
• Manage my investment portfolio myself based on Ben Graham’s / Warren Buffett’s principles
• Develop a personal finance tool that is easy to use, flexible, reconciles with investment and bank accounts, calculates tax on the fly, has online and offline data entry…. and has flexibility to create meaningful / useful reports and dashboards. (I use GNUcash today. I love it. But its reporting features are not that great.. and its a lot of work to keep data updated)
• Write a book on Nilgiris (www.Neilgherries.com is a domain that I own)
• ……………… the list goes on

Things I want to do in life

Most of you might already know 43 things, a site for sharing your wish-list. Things that you want to do in life. It’s fun!

I created my list there.. and enjoyed it fully. It also made me think and re-think! I suddenly realized that I wanted to do so much in life!! Huh.. whoever designed a 24 hour day… just not enough.. damn!!

My list is not as eccentric as the one Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman create in “The bucket list“… (if you like ‘meaningful’ movies, watch it) but interesting nevertheless.

I urge you to create yours today and have it public! If you got stuck, use these tips.

Also, take the quiz they have. It’s more fun than true. By the way, the result of my quiz was not surprising. It said

You are a Self-Knowing Creative Money Manager

IMHO, this result is true only in retrospect and maybe it fails from a futuristic view.

And there is a small book they sell. It doesn’t have a great review on Amazon, at least yet. But I will be nice (I like their site, after all) to promote it here. (I dont get any commissions, mister!)

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I’m a

Self-Knowing Creative Money Manager

3 main steps to create wealth

If creation of wealth could be oversimplified to 3 minimal steps, I would simply say (in order of priority, in my view)

1. Focus on your income. Try to increase it every year.
2. Invest your money using common sense.
3. Focus on reducing expenses.

Well, for these 3 steps there are 1001 things that you can do. A few are listed below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Books an investor should read

“Which are the best books that any investor should read?”

Many people have this question.

I have attempted to answer that question in this post. I have read almost all the books listed here. But have included a few which I haven’t read too, because the reviews of those were very good and from very reliable sources. I have indicated the ones I haven’t read yet. Okay, here we go!

Basics
Any investor who has a strong hold on the basics is leaps and bounds ahead of the one who doesn’t. I would say every single book in this basic section is a must!

1. One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch. An amazingly well written book, one of the best for both the novice and the expert.
2. The Intelligent investor by Benjamin Graham. The bible! Miss this and you can’t be an intelligent investor.
3. Common stocks and uncommon profits by Philip A Fisher. Great book on long term growth and focus oriented investing
4. The essays of Warren Buffett. The master at his very best!
5. The interpretation of financial statements by Benjamin Graham. A simple book on balance sheet basics.
6. Richest man in Babylon by George Clason. A timeless classic on personal finance.

Further reading
Once you have completed the basic books and are thirsty for more, please choose from this list. Read the rest of this entry »

A cheerful story amidst gloomy global news

Source : An email from a friend. Author unknown.

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Cheers and hee-haw to you all!!!