Dear Money!
It was a plain Sunday morning and I had no clue what brilliance of inspiration I was going to witness in the coming hours. I woke up at 12...I was living at my pace...My cousin had come over with his wife for breakfast. "Intruders", I thought devastated. I'm quite fond of both of them, if truth be told, but I just love my peace beyond everything else. I changed hurriedly and went out of the shelter of my room to meet them. Like every postponed reunion, this too was a cliché. "Kitni badi ho gayi!" (She's grown up so much!), "Bilkul Mummy jaisi pyaari hai." (She's sweet like her mother), etc. Same old robotic phrases ringed irritably through my ears. But yet I felt a rush of warm family blood stain my cheeks.
We talked. After a whole trail of pleasantries and formal conversations...that is about 2 full hours later, my cousin and I seated ourselves in my living room. His wife was speaking to my Mom very seriously about something. I don’t know how it happened...perhaps it started with the locality I live in...Or the fact that my OTHER cousin had bought a BMW recently...or that my balcony was so huge...or that the air was so fresh in this area...Never mind! The topic of money came up. In words of this rich cousin of mine, money is nothing but pieces of paper printed by Government...true. But I'd like to make an addition to that. Money is nothing but pieces of paper printed by Government....having value. "Having value"...So much difference it makes, doesn't it? Sometimes when I think of what my cousin says, he may sound like a privileged little monster of this society. But sometimes, he makes sense. His logic answers so many unanswered questions. The conversation went from money to law; to pleasure to religion...He also speaks like some messenger of Rhonda Byrne (author of The Secret). He said that if you dream of money, you’ll get it. But dream. Dream with all you have. And dreaming BIG is the most difficult part.
I live in south Mumbai, Malabar Hills, near marine Drive. It all sounds good because this is the Beverly Hills of Mumbai, the most expensive city of India, and Arabian Sea is a delight... But trust me, I’m not that rich. My father is a Government officer and so he has been allotted a really good apartment in this area. It’s not because of money that this IS! That is what he explained. Money is no big deal...but one must prioritize. You can go for power and enjoy luxury; you can go for money and enjoy luxury. Choice is yours. You can even go for education and enjoy luxury. But all three things are very different. Education leads to work...and that leads to money-money that you DESERVE. And money leads to luxury if you wish. Power plainly leads to luxury, sycophancy...it’s nice for your ego. But money! Money is that sin which makes you a clever parasite, feeding upon your country host. Money is against equity...Money is imbalance. Money is the monster which makes you Satan. He truly said, “Those who work are poor, and those who make people work are rich...”
It sounded so unfair to me! I’d always heard things so contrary from my parents and teachers. But this struck oil. It made sense. He said that education was for fools. If money is what I seek, then I should just go and register in Bombay Stock Exchange, take classes and invest. I should become a share holder, a stock holder, whatever! I should invest in Mutual funds for starters...I should look for ways to make money. There is NO right age to make money. Anyone can make money. And beyond 15, ANYONE CAN! You can sell chutneys, you can sing, you can play, you can babysit, you can write...there’s no end. My imagination shall parch if I start to count. If money is the priority, I should give up studies and be on my laptop all the time-checking when the stock prices are at their peaks so that I can sell them or providing online services, or whatever.
No matter how much I love money, that idea didn’t sit well on my palette. Give up studies for money? Why, then, if you love someone-should you give up everything for that someone? “Obviously no”, said my cousin. That’s why we don’t always get what we love. However, if you do make your love your priority, no force in this Universe can stop you from getting it. It’s all so plain and simple. But priority is no joke. Everything you do must be to reach that goal, to get that love! I asked foolishly whether he can place a wager on my future. If I become rich and if it’s my PRIORITY as he means it, then he wins. But if I don’t become rich even if it’s my PRIORITY as he means it, I win. He agreed. And just 5 seconds later, he said that the wager was dissolved. I was puzzled, though what else did I expect from this eccentricity personified brother? He said that if my victory is in me not becoming rich, then how becoming rich is even a priority...I understood. To make money my top most priority I should consider or place NO loss in the odds against IT. I should have placed a wager FOR my future wealth, not my future poverty....And of course, what victory is the victory by loss? How ironical.
There’s a lot to learn for me. I realized that money cannot be a priority. Nothing can be, in fact...I never knew that prioritizing would be so tough. That’s when Mooney (my cousin) told me that to achieve anything....dreaming was the first step, and the most difficult step. The next was prioritizing. And third and most surprisingly, the easiest step was acting. That is why such few people succeed...Arguendo, my priority is money. My dream is luxury, pomp, splendour. My way to my dream is money, let’s suppose. Then what’s my next step? You’ll be shocked at how literal this gets...My next step is how much money am I going to make in a specific period? Deciding the figure...the EXACT figure! The next step is to draw a blue print to achieve the figure. Now, posting the action plan on few very visible places where you always look is the next step. Then, keep thinking of the goal...goal you’re going to achieve, goal you’ve achieved. Keep talking about your goal. Say that you are rich. And work. Then, you get it. And this is the way you succeed. And let us just ASSUME if this whole plausible, systematic and logical theory is wrong, then....well then, I’m screwed because I’m so sticking to it. Answer lies years away....and now you know why.
We talked. After a whole trail of pleasantries and formal conversations...that is about 2 full hours later, my cousin and I seated ourselves in my living room. His wife was speaking to my Mom very seriously about something. I don’t know how it happened...perhaps it started with the locality I live in...Or the fact that my OTHER cousin had bought a BMW recently...or that my balcony was so huge...or that the air was so fresh in this area...Never mind! The topic of money came up. In words of this rich cousin of mine, money is nothing but pieces of paper printed by Government...true. But I'd like to make an addition to that. Money is nothing but pieces of paper printed by Government....having value. "Having value"...So much difference it makes, doesn't it? Sometimes when I think of what my cousin says, he may sound like a privileged little monster of this society. But sometimes, he makes sense. His logic answers so many unanswered questions. The conversation went from money to law; to pleasure to religion...He also speaks like some messenger of Rhonda Byrne (author of The Secret). He said that if you dream of money, you’ll get it. But dream. Dream with all you have. And dreaming BIG is the most difficult part.
I live in south Mumbai, Malabar Hills, near marine Drive. It all sounds good because this is the Beverly Hills of Mumbai, the most expensive city of India, and Arabian Sea is a delight... But trust me, I’m not that rich. My father is a Government officer and so he has been allotted a really good apartment in this area. It’s not because of money that this IS! That is what he explained. Money is no big deal...but one must prioritize. You can go for power and enjoy luxury; you can go for money and enjoy luxury. Choice is yours. You can even go for education and enjoy luxury. But all three things are very different. Education leads to work...and that leads to money-money that you DESERVE. And money leads to luxury if you wish. Power plainly leads to luxury, sycophancy...it’s nice for your ego. But money! Money is that sin which makes you a clever parasite, feeding upon your country host. Money is against equity...Money is imbalance. Money is the monster which makes you Satan. He truly said, “Those who work are poor, and those who make people work are rich...”
It sounded so unfair to me! I’d always heard things so contrary from my parents and teachers. But this struck oil. It made sense. He said that education was for fools. If money is what I seek, then I should just go and register in Bombay Stock Exchange, take classes and invest. I should become a share holder, a stock holder, whatever! I should invest in Mutual funds for starters...I should look for ways to make money. There is NO right age to make money. Anyone can make money. And beyond 15, ANYONE CAN! You can sell chutneys, you can sing, you can play, you can babysit, you can write...there’s no end. My imagination shall parch if I start to count. If money is the priority, I should give up studies and be on my laptop all the time-checking when the stock prices are at their peaks so that I can sell them or providing online services, or whatever.
No matter how much I love money, that idea didn’t sit well on my palette. Give up studies for money? Why, then, if you love someone-should you give up everything for that someone? “Obviously no”, said my cousin. That’s why we don’t always get what we love. However, if you do make your love your priority, no force in this Universe can stop you from getting it. It’s all so plain and simple. But priority is no joke. Everything you do must be to reach that goal, to get that love! I asked foolishly whether he can place a wager on my future. If I become rich and if it’s my PRIORITY as he means it, then he wins. But if I don’t become rich even if it’s my PRIORITY as he means it, I win. He agreed. And just 5 seconds later, he said that the wager was dissolved. I was puzzled, though what else did I expect from this eccentricity personified brother? He said that if my victory is in me not becoming rich, then how becoming rich is even a priority...I understood. To make money my top most priority I should consider or place NO loss in the odds against IT. I should have placed a wager FOR my future wealth, not my future poverty....And of course, what victory is the victory by loss? How ironical.
There’s a lot to learn for me. I realized that money cannot be a priority. Nothing can be, in fact...I never knew that prioritizing would be so tough. That’s when Mooney (my cousin) told me that to achieve anything....dreaming was the first step, and the most difficult step. The next was prioritizing. And third and most surprisingly, the easiest step was acting. That is why such few people succeed...Arguendo, my priority is money. My dream is luxury, pomp, splendour. My way to my dream is money, let’s suppose. Then what’s my next step? You’ll be shocked at how literal this gets...My next step is how much money am I going to make in a specific period? Deciding the figure...the EXACT figure! The next step is to draw a blue print to achieve the figure. Now, posting the action plan on few very visible places where you always look is the next step. Then, keep thinking of the goal...goal you’re going to achieve, goal you’ve achieved. Keep talking about your goal. Say that you are rich. And work. Then, you get it. And this is the way you succeed. And let us just ASSUME if this whole plausible, systematic and logical theory is wrong, then....well then, I’m screwed because I’m so sticking to it. Answer lies years away....and now you know why.
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