In a departure from the how-to-invest series, I want to talk about something else today. Doing the how-to-invest series was harder than I thought, in terms of crystalizing my thoughts and doing so in an orderly manner - I know understand why i sometimes take 2 highways home when I can do without one hmm.
Anyway, I want to talk about being open with how I invest - specifically, the things that say to me don't do it, don't expose myself in public. I mean, expose myself to the public, if there is a difference nowadays.
Well, I was really half and half about starting this blog for a couple of reasons:
1. I was afraid of judgement and being told I don't know my stuff, and I should go back to where I came from (wait scrap the last part - that's just me reliving some random moments in australia hehe)
2. I was afraid that I might actually not know what I am doing and as a corollary to the above, I would be exposed as a dumbass with only sublime writing (or was it sublime writing dumbass)
3. I was afraid people who have difference viewpoints, will say their way of investing or trading is superior and value investing is dead, which again, is something like a judgment that I am wrong and should stick to playing video games. and sublime writing.
Well, thanks to a bit (actually, a lot) of Gary Vee, I realised it doesn't pay to care what the internet thinks of whatever I put out as long as I believe, am interested in, and care for it. The judgment of others - from people in my primary, secondary, tertiary, and workplace environments - don't matter as much as what I think of myself.
It might be obvious to you, but it is only obvious and powerfully true to me now that: as long as I strive to create value or give or help other people with the intention to see that they become better off, I should not give a damn if I am praised for this or condemned for that, only that I receive input into what people need from me.
To expand on this point, there are billions of people on this planet and I am but one person - if I can help someone else on this planet and made a difference in his/her life, to get them one step close to financial freedom - which I define as being able to choose to work because you want to, not because you need to - then that will make it worthwhile for me to know I have helped to improve someone's life, and in turn they could have improved their family's life. If I kept all this inside me, I would have missed out on potentially touching millions if not billions of people's lives - no matter how small - and all because I worry about what some stranger on the internet says about my not so sublime writing.
So, I guess my sharing today is the Internet is a great enabler for all of us. It has enabled us to get information, services, goods, people, at scale and at speed. It can connect you and I across the globe, and across time (you can read this anytime after I posted this - long into the future!). With this enabler, it is a worthwhile effort for anyone wanting to make a difference in people's lives, to just contribute whatever knowledge, skills, know-how, opinion because you never know how much of an impact you can make in someone else's life.
Like Arnold Schwarzenegger said as one of his rules,
"Tear down that mirror. Tear down that mirror that makes you always look at yourself, and you will be able to look beyond that mirror and you will see the millions of people that need your help."
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