- 1 year ago
- #outlookmoney40after40
Entrepreneur, author and speaker Ankur Warikoo shared his insights on the ‘art of relying on yourself’ at the third edition of Outlook Money’s 40After40 Retirement Expo in Mumbai.
“While I create a lot of content around personal finance, I thought that the best thing that I can leave you with is, which is the topic of today, and that is the art of relying on yourself.
Very often in the chase of what we want to do with our life, whether it’s chasing money, whether it’s chasing fame or status or glory, we tend to lose the most important relationship that we ought to have, and that is with our own selves,” Warikoo said.
#OutlookMoney40after40
“While I create a lot of content around personal finance, I thought that the best thing that I can leave you with is, which is the topic of today, and that is the art of relying on yourself.
Very often in the chase of what we want to do with our life, whether it’s chasing money, whether it’s chasing fame or status or glory, we tend to lose the most important relationship that we ought to have, and that is with our own selves,” Warikoo said.
#OutlookMoney40after40
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LearningTranscript
00:00I thought that the best thing that I can do for today is to give you the list of seven mutual
00:09funds that you should invest in. No, I'm kidding. This will not be anything about personal finance.
00:14While I create a lot of content around personal finance, I thought that the best thing that I
00:18can leave you with, which is the topic of today as well, and that is the art of relying on yourself.
00:25Because very often in the chase of what we want to do with our lives, whether it's chasing money,
00:32whether it's chasing fame or status or glory, we tend to lose the most important relationship that
00:37we ought to have, and that is with our own selves. And the way that I will do that is I'll share a
00:43deeply personal story, which is not very old. It's only about five years old. And it's something
00:48that I've never shared on stage before. So all of you get to hear it for the first time. It's something
00:54that I'm immensely proud of because it shaped us up as a family and me as an individual in many
00:59meaningful ways. And through that, I will leave you with what, in my opinion, is the art of relying
01:05on yourself. Because it has three components, because everything in life that is important
01:09always has three things. So I'm going to very quickly tell you about myself to set that context.
01:16I grew up in Delhi. We belong to a very middle class family. My dad was a sales and marketing
01:21professional in the pharma industry. Mom was a primary school teacher in a local school.
01:26I have a younger sister who's six years younger to me. We grew up in, as most of us would have been,
01:31in a very middle class 1980s, 1990s India household. And the struggle was real, as you would all know.
01:39There was some sort of financial debt almost always on our head. We always wanted to break away from
01:44the curse of middle classness, whatever you may call that. And I had very strong ambitions for my life,
01:50which didn't pan out the way that I thought. I wanted to become a space scientist. And this is
01:56before Elon Musk made it really cool. I fell in love with sciences. How many engineers in the house?
02:04Yeah, I hated engineers. I was like, engineers sold their soul. They went on to make money. I wanted to
02:10devote myself to pure sciences. And I was like, I'll go to the US and do all of that. But I dropped out
02:15of my PhD program, came back to India. And at the age of 24, I had to reset my life all over again.
02:22And I navigated through that. I became an entrepreneur in 2009. I've been in the startup
02:28industry for nearly 16 years, seen how this country has completely transformed when it comes
02:33to entrepreneurship in general. When I started in 2009, people did not even know how to pronounce
02:38the word entrepreneur. Leave alone, spell it. Today, it's really cool. People are on shark tank. They
02:44are raising money. They think that it's supremely fashionable to start your own business. And frankly,
02:49it is, but it's also intensely hard. And in 2019, I was running the startup called Nearby.com.
02:57And it had been acquired by Paytm. We had become profitable. We were doing about 600 crores of sales
03:02a year. We were making money. It was generally a dream run. I'd devoted some eight or nine years of
03:09my life building that sector and that company. And I decided to step down as the CEO of my own startup,
03:18something which is very unnatural or unheard of in the Indian context, particularly. I was turning 40
03:24in 2020, very apt for the theme of the event as well. And I thought that at the age of 40, I want to see
03:31what else I could do with my life. So I stepped down as the CEO. And this was towards late 2019.
03:39And I decided to take a break for three to six months, figuring out what I wanted to do.
03:44And in those three to six months, March 2020 happened. And I don't know how many of you remember
03:49March 2020, but it was a very wild time. Everything that we thought of ourselves, every plan that we had
03:57for our life went out of the window. We had to reimagine ourselves. We were locked up. We were
04:04suddenly with our own personality, with our own thoughts, with our own minds. And we were spending
04:09time in a close quarter with our best or perhaps worst relationships. And we had no idea what is
04:15going to hit us. And in the middle of all of that, as all of us were reimagining their lives,
04:22I had to reimagine myself as well. But there's one thing that for no fault of yours, you would not
04:29know. And it always seems like when you are the startup founder, when you're running this really
04:35large company, you will be in the money. But that wasn't the case for me. I had a lot of savings
04:41because I'd been working for nearly 15, 20 years at that point of time. But all of my savings I had
04:46deployed back into my startup, which was nearby.com. So on paper, I was a millionaire. I owned what was
04:54the largest individual stock ownership in the startup, but I had no cash. And most of you who are
05:01financial advisors or who have been in the business of making money know that cash is the only real
05:06measurement of financial freedom or not. It's not what you own, which you may not even have access to
05:12and so on. So when the lockdown happened, I had no income stream. I had no money in the bank.
05:23And I had to reimagine myself from scratch. To give you pure context, I had five months of runway.
05:30And runway is like the startup term that we use to tell how long does the startup have before it has
05:37to wind up or shut down because that's the money in the bank. So I had five months of money in the bank
05:42for every expense that we had to bear, which was the school fees of the kids, our home EMI, our daily
05:49living expenses, support that I was providing for my parents, all of that. Five months. And we had no asset
05:57to speak of. I was a complete doofus when it came to investing, much different from who I am today.
06:04I actually thought that people who made investments in mutual funds and real estate and gold were the
06:11biggest losers in the world. Because what they didn't do is invest in the coolest thing ever,
06:17startups. Because I was living and dreaming startups every single day. I thought that that is actually
06:22the only place where one should invest. And I was so dumb and so foolish to not realize the fallacy
06:30of this cocoon that I had built around myself. So again, as I had ownership in my startup nearby,
06:37I had ownership in other startups as well, but it didn't amount to anything. I could not draw that
06:43money when I really needed it. So all of my net worth was deployed in illiquid assets that I could not
06:52at my own demand draw out. So I had actually no money. And the only asset we truly had, which could be sold
07:00if we could, was our house. So I remember having a conversation with Ruchi, my wife, saying, Ruchi,
07:07we have five months of money left in the bank. And we have to figure our shit out. Because this could very well
07:16be the end. And we could be bankrupt. We technically are already. So here's the plan that I've thought of
07:23and I want to share it with you, just to see whether you think it's a good plan or not.
07:29We'll give it three months. We'll try our best to figure out what we could do. We'll hustle. We'll
07:35rediscover, reimagine ourselves. And we'll try and see if we can create another income stream that could
07:40support us as a family. And we'll see where that goes. But if nothing happens in those three months,
07:48we will just have two months of money left in the bank. And at that point of time, we have no choice
07:53but to sell our house and see what happens. We'd made a down payment of about 50 lakhs for our house.
08:01So the hope was we'll at least get that money out. I wasn't expecting anything more.
08:06And what I proposed to her was if we get those 50 lakhs, we'll move to the mountains. We'll homeschool
08:13our kids. We will teach in some primary government school. And those 50 lakhs is far more money than
08:21we'll ever need to have that kind of life. And are you okay with that? And Ruchi being Ruchi,
08:27she was like, I'm really excited at that idea. Not that she was wishing that that would happen.
08:33But she was like, you know what, it's not such a bad life. But let's give it our best shot and see
08:40where it goes. At that point of time, I had started to actively be on stage. And I have loved public
08:50speaking for nearly 20 years. But I used to do it for schools and colleges mostly, because that's the
08:55kind of crowd I love spending time with. No offense to all of you. But please take offense. I love spending
09:01time with young minds. They're just so fresh. They're so challenging the status quo in so many
09:06ways. And I'm very hopeful that a lot of you have that same mindset as well. But I'd never seen that
09:12as something that could actually become a really big thing if it amounted to anything at all. And I
09:20remember having a conversation with a friend of mine. This is April 2020. And I was telling her
09:25that, you know what, the potential income stream of corporate talks is now zero, because nobody in
09:32their right mind is having any corporate talk in the middle of a lockdown. And she was like, you know
09:38what, corporates were paying you money. But what if people could pay you money to actually hear you
09:43speak? And I was like, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think that would happen. And she's
09:47like, well, you know what, there's only one way to find out. Why don't you find out?
09:50So I started to create these webinars. And I don't know if how many of you remember back in March,
09:59April, May, June, July of 2020, there was a webinar for anything that you wanted in life.
10:06People had so much of time on both sides, creation as well as consumption, that people are like joining
10:13these webinars, and they were completely free. And there was a webinar on financial planning, a webinar
10:18on retirement planning, a webinar on content creation, a webinar on this, a webinar on that.
10:23It was just insanely exploding. And I was like, you know what, let me just throw myself out into the
10:28universe as well, and see what happens. So for the next three months, I conducted 17 webinars.
10:36And those 17 webinars were on themes that I knew best, how to hire a team, how to raise money,
10:42how to speak effectively, how to manage your time, things that I had done for my life,
10:47I was in complete control of, and I knew that people would benefit from that. But what I didn't
10:53know was whether people were willing to pay for it or not. So I had this novel idea, why don't I let
11:00them decide if they want to pay or not? Why do I have to decide what should be the price of this?
11:06So I ran these 17 webinars on what I call pay what you want pricing model, which was, you join that
11:14webinar. And the only thing you have to do is pay at least one rupee. But beyond that, it's your
11:20choice, what you want to pay. Completely free, or freedom in that sense. And as you would imagine
11:29in India, 50% just paid one rupee. It's like, that's the best deal ever. But there were 50% who
11:35were surprisingly willing to pay more than one rupee. And the average came out to about 197 rupees per
11:41person, which frankly was more money than I thought somebody was willing to pay for a
11:45virtual delivery that they had no idea the content of beforehand, because they had to pay this to
11:52reserve their fee. This wasn't after the webinar was over. And that gave me a lot of confidence,
11:59because I realized that one, people were actually willing to pay for good quality content. Two,
12:04I was not doing half bad a job of delivering that content virtually. And three, there was enough
12:11market if it was priced in the right way for people to consume good quality curated content.
12:17And that then became the genesis of what became webveda.com, which is a startup that I run right
12:22now. This is not a promotion, it's more of a discovery that I did for nearly five, six months before I
12:29figured that there was a business case and a model for content creation in an affordable manner that
12:35could be dealt in a way that India could consume and hopefully the world at some point of time.
12:41But here's the bigger thing that I wanted to talk about. And that is, in those five months,
12:48I, at all points of time, knew that I was just one month away from selling the house that we had,
12:56the only asset that we had. And what gave me confidence was, of course,
13:02the alignment that I had with my partner that if that were to happen, it's okay. But more
13:07importantly, upon reflection, I realized that the biggest thing that helped me was just this insane
13:16confidence that I had in me that everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay.
13:24And that doesn't mean that everything is going to be okay in the sense that I will be one day
13:28at the outlook money, 40 after 40 stage in front of all of you. No, that's far, far away from the
13:35okay that I had in mind. My okay was that we're going to have a life where we will have our closest
13:40relationships together, where we will have enough financial money to take care of our daily needs.
13:46And if I know that I am not the one fighting anymore for the fanciest car and the biggest house
13:53and the biggest net worth, and to be on any social status game, we're going to be absolutely okay.
14:00We're going to absolutely have a wonderful life if we wish to or not. And that brings me to a
14:07really interesting story that you may have heard of. There is this famous classic novel called Catch-22.
14:14And you may or may not have heard of it, but if you haven't, that doesn't take away anything from
14:19the story. The author of Catch-22 and his friend are one day invited to a really fancy party,
14:30which is hosted by a gentleman who is the friend of the Catch-22 author.
14:35And they're at this massive gathering. Imagine a set-up like this, but on a private beach island,
14:44and it's fine liquor, it's the fanciest of food, it's the beautiful music and whatnot.
14:50And Catch-22 author's friend remarks,
14:54you know what? This guy who's invited us for this party,
14:58he earns in a day what your entire book has made through selling in its entire lifetime.
15:08He earns in a day what you have earned in a lifetime selling this best-selling book that you have.
15:16And the author replies,
15:20but I have something that he doesn't have.
15:24And the friend's like,
15:25what could possibly
15:26be that you have
15:29that this really cool, successful
15:31dude doesn't have?
15:32And the author replies,
15:34I have enough.
15:37And I love that.
15:39I love the fact that
15:41you at some point of time,
15:43irrespective of where you are in life,
15:45realize
15:46that you have enough.
15:49Enough to lead a certain life that you want to,
15:52enough for the way that you want to live that life.
15:56And the art of relying yourself
15:58is this discovery of realizing that you have enough.
16:02And it has these three components that I wanted to live you with,
16:05because those are frankly the things that helped me
16:07in my journey,
16:09and I'm sure will help you in yours as well.
16:12Number one,
16:13and perhaps the biggest thing
16:15when you acquire a certain age
16:17and a certain mindset
16:17and certainly a certain experience.
16:19And that is,
16:22go back to the day
16:23when you joined your current organization.
16:25Or for those who are,
16:26how many of you here are students?
16:28Anyone here who's a student?
16:29Some of you.
16:30Okay.
16:30How many of you are working professionals?
16:33All right.
16:34How many of you are running your own business or startup?
16:37Awesome.
16:38Perfect.
16:39Cool.
16:40Well, actually,
16:41yeah,
16:41one more interesting.
16:41How many of you in your 20s?
16:43In your 20s?
16:44All right.
16:4630s?
16:48Okay.
16:49And 40 plus?
16:52All right.
16:52Yeah.
16:53Good job with the target audience.
16:55Yeah.
16:56Bang on.
16:58I don't know what you're doing.
16:59People in your 20s?
17:00No.
17:00You're also invited.
17:01Of course you are.
17:04Go back to the first day of college
17:06for those in your 20s.
17:08Go back to the first day of your current work
17:10for those who are working.
17:11Go back to the first day
17:12when you were in your college,
17:14if you remember that day as well.
17:15And I'm sure it was an auditorium like this.
17:18You were surrounded by different sort of people,
17:20all from very different backgrounds.
17:22They look differently from you.
17:24They dress differently from you.
17:25They speak differently from you.
17:27They have very different mental makeup from you.
17:29They have had very different experience from you,
17:32a very different upbringing from you.
17:34And I don't know anyone of you personally,
17:36but I guarantee that
17:37within the first few hours of you spending time
17:40with these very different people,
17:41you began to look for people
17:44who were like you.
17:47You began to look for people
17:48who are from the same city as you.
17:50You began to look for people
17:51who are looking like you,
17:53speaking like you,
17:54dressed like you,
17:55feel like you're the same one,
17:57came from the same city or college,
17:59from the same department.
18:01We love hanging out with people
18:03who are like us.
18:04We love building this lovely cocoon,
18:09this lovely oasis of yours
18:11where we're surrounded by people
18:14who are like us.
18:15And I remember doing that
18:17or feeling that when I was at business school.
18:20First week of my business school
18:23and there were 3.30 of us on that batch
18:25and everyone had formed these groups.
18:28Everyone was just hanging out with each other.
18:30Engineers with engineers,
18:32chemical with chemical,
18:33mechanical with mechanical,
18:35IITNs with IITNs,
18:37NIT with NIT,
18:38the others with the others,
18:40Delhi with Delhi,
18:41Sarojni Nagar with Sarojni Nagar,
18:43Bombay with Bombay,
18:44South Bombay with South Bombay.
18:45This beautiful groups,
18:49communities that we love to hang out with.
18:52And in my head,
18:53I was like,
18:54isn't this the exact opposite
18:56of what you should be doing?
18:58Like somebody has painstakingly
19:00got 330 very different individuals
19:05from across the world
19:06on a single campus for the next one year
19:08and you're going to spend time
19:10with the five people who are like you?
19:13How does that make sense?
19:14And the older slash wiser you grow,
19:19you love these communities even more
19:22because in your head,
19:24there isn't anything outside of this
19:26that you want to learn from.
19:29Go back to the first day of college
19:31or your work
19:31and I assure you that there were,
19:34when you were scanning the room,
19:36some two or three people that you looked at
19:38and you were like,
19:39no,
19:41not my kinds.
19:44You were so judgmental
19:51that you refused to believe
19:53that there is anything new
19:54that you can learn from them.
19:55And surprisingly,
19:58the best way to discover yourself
20:00or to actually rely on yourself
20:01is to spend time with people
20:03who are nothing like you.
20:04Nothing like you.
20:06Because that's when you truly find out
20:08what exists in the world
20:10that you had no idea about.
20:12Which brings me one of my favorite questions.
20:15How many of you here are middle class?
20:17Yeah, I knew it.
20:20I love the fact that everyone in India is middle class.
20:23I love that fact.
20:25Irrespective of how big or small the forum is,
20:29this is one of my favorite questions in all times.
20:30But because this is also
20:32financial inclined exposition,
20:38let's ask something which is more specific.
20:41What is the definition of middle class in India?
20:43What is the definition of middle class in India?
20:46Anyone?
20:47Throw out an up.
20:47Or let me be very specific.
20:49What's the monthly salary of middle class Indians?
20:52What's the monthly salary of middle class Indians, sir?
20:56Sorry?
20:57Less than?
21:0020 lakhs a month?
21:02A year.
21:03Yeah.
21:04I was like,
21:05sir, it's middle class at a completely different level.
21:09Yeah, I was like,
21:10the ground floor on Nepentese Road is middle class.
21:13Yes, sir.
21:153 lakhs to 12 lakhs is middle class,
21:17which is per year,
21:19because it's easier to say per year.
21:20So, 3 to 12 lakhs,
21:22wide range.
21:23Almost all of our income tax budget is in that range.
21:2810 lakhs per annum is middle class, sir.
21:3330,000 per month is middle class.
21:35Anyone else?
21:36Let me ask from that crowd.
21:38Go ahead.
21:39Give me a number.
21:40Shout out.
21:4310,000 a month?
21:44Okay.
21:45Is that a wild guess or what?
21:46How do you know?
21:49Sorry?
21:49Oh.
21:55He's saying I've attended my session before, so...
21:57Hello?
21:58Yeah, Ankur.
21:59Yes?
21:59Roti kapra makan.
22:00Yes.
22:01Yes.
22:02Roti kapra makan.
22:03So basically for middle class,
22:04it's 25,000, I guess.
22:0625,000?
22:0725,000.
22:07And for definition of middle class,
22:09I guess,
22:09balancing the personal and professional life,
22:12so...
22:12Okay, so 35,000 a month, sir?
22:1425,000.
22:15Ankur, Ankur, one of the similar people like you,
22:19he's got a word called F-money.
22:21Yes, exactly.
22:22Anybody who doesn't have an F-money...
22:24Yes, it's middle class.
22:26It's middle class.
22:27The actual description, sir, is F-U-money.
22:29Yeah, F-Money.
22:30Because F-money could be very different.
22:33It could be like dismissing money.
22:35So, anyone who doesn't know there is middle class.
22:37Perfect.
22:37I get that.
22:38Awesome.
22:38What else?
22:4112,000 a month.
22:42Okay.
22:43How do you know that?
22:46We follow you.
22:47Oh, we follow you.
22:48Okay.
22:49Now, it is official 12 lakhs in a month.
22:52So...
22:53Because of income tax,
22:54exactly.
22:56Like, it's officially now...
22:57Ma'am has ensured that 12 lakhs per year is now middle class.
23:02Okay.
23:02Great.
23:03All answers.
23:03Wonderful.
23:04Sir.
23:05Yes, sir.
23:05According to me,
23:062 lakhs per month.
23:09He's a middle class person,
23:10but he doesn't have a flat.
23:11He's staying on rent.
23:13All right.
23:13Perfect.
23:14I love the nuance of it as well.
23:16Yes, final one.
23:18And we don't need more answers.
23:19Yes.
23:25No, look.
23:25Middle...
23:26So, middle means beach.
23:30Okay.
23:30We don't do two roads.
23:32So, it won't be like...
23:33No, we're upper middle class.
23:34These are our...
23:35...pure shrinks that we've made for ourselves.
23:38This is for showing us that we're actually middle class.
23:41But middle means middle.
23:42Average.
23:43What is the average of India?
23:45Simple.
23:45So, the average of India,
23:48if this was an economic discussion,
23:50where you had to actually give an accurate number,
23:53is between the ones who have actually attended,
23:56it's between 8 to 12,000 rupees a month.
23:59It's between 8 to 12,000 rupees a month.
24:01Which means about 6 to 700 million people in this country
24:04are earning more than 8 to 12,000 rupees a month.
24:07And 6 to 700 million people.
24:09This is per person, by the way.
24:10So, if you add, of course,
24:11a household income would be very different.
24:13But that would be about 8 to 12,000.
24:15Now, the reason I state that is because
24:17if you were to say,
24:19Hey, I am middle class,
24:22but I'm earning 2 lakhs a month and I'm on rent,
24:25you would have a very different impression
24:27of what middle class is
24:28from somebody who's perhaps sitting here and saying,
24:30I'm actually earning 12,000 rupees a month
24:32and I'm middle class.
24:33The middle class in India is the Uber and the Ola driver.
24:37Not you.
24:37You're all rich.
24:39You just don't know it.
24:41Just because you see Ambani's wedding at Jamnagar
24:44doesn't make you poor.
24:47You have to recognize this is no comparison.
24:49It's an absolute.
24:50All of you are rich.
24:51The fact that you came to this place makes you rich.
24:54The fact that you can even think of retirement
24:56as a concept makes you rich.
24:58Because that's a point of privilege
25:00that most people don't even have.
25:01What is retirement?
25:02I have to pay for my money and my food.
25:05So there is no concept of retirement.
25:07But here is like fire, FU money
25:08or F money or whatever money.
25:10The truth is,
25:11this is not middle class India.
25:14The point that I'm making is,
25:16please step out of your cocoon.
25:18Step out of the world that you're living in.
25:20Step out of the corners that you engulf yourself with.
25:23Step out of the social media content that you're consuming.
25:26Because that is never going to tell you anything
25:28that challenges your point of view.
25:29When you open up Instagram or LinkedIn or Twitter,
25:32it doesn't tell you,
25:33oh, you're wrong.
25:34No.
25:35It tells you,
25:35you're right, bro.
25:37You're absolutely right.
25:38Here is the video.
25:39Whatever you believe in,
25:41here it is.
25:42Everything that they believe in isn't wrong.
25:44Here is another video.
25:45It just convinces you
25:47that your point of view
25:48is the only point of view
25:49and the right point of view.
25:51So only when you step out,
25:53do you actually begin to see
25:55what the world has to offer.
25:57And that's the first step of relying on yourself.
25:59Because until you don't do that,
26:01you're just in love
26:02with the identity that you have.
26:05And you have to break that identity.
26:09If I ask you,
26:10what do you do?
26:11And you give me a designation at a company,
26:13that's the most pitiful existence you could have.
26:17Because that's the only construct in your mind
26:20that is worth talking about.
26:22If you ask me,
26:23what do I do?
26:24I'd be like,
26:24how much time do you have?
26:26Because I could go on and on
26:27about all the things that I do
26:28and that's nothing to do with just my career.
26:31It's to do with my hobbies.
26:32It's to do with what I do as a person,
26:34as a husband,
26:35as a father,
26:36as a son,
26:37as a brother,
26:37as a friend.
26:38And that all is where you need to be.
26:43Which brings me to the second point.
26:46A lot of us,
26:48as we get experience,
26:50start to become intellectually comfortable.
26:53We love getting comfortable.
26:55We love being in that spot
26:57where we can send the email,
26:58the work's done.
26:58Pick up the phone,
26:59the work's done.
27:00Walk up to someone,
27:01the work's done.
27:02My favorite question during an interview is,
27:05how many years of experience do you have?
27:06And people are like,
27:07I have five years of experience.
27:08I'm like,
27:09great.
27:09Is that five years of experience?
27:11Or is that one year of experience done five times?
27:14And that's a huge difference.
27:16And a lot of us just love,
27:18oh,
27:18I've been doing the same thing,
27:19but I'm just so good with it
27:20that I can do it in my sleep.
27:22I've been doing it for 12 plus years now.
27:24I have 12 years of experience.
27:26No,
27:26bro,
27:26one year of experience multiplied by 12.
27:28Very different.
27:29What happens then
27:31is
27:33you believe that the goal of life
27:35is to make life comfortable.
27:38What we begin to believe
27:39and the world endorses outside
27:41is
27:42that comfort is the only goal we're looking for.
27:45Because think about it.
27:46Everything around the world today
27:48is designed for our comfort.
27:49You need a book?
27:50Click.
27:51Clothes?
27:51Click.
27:52You need cabs?
27:53Click.
27:53Food?
27:54Click.
27:54Grocery?
27:55Click.
27:56Two minutes.
27:57Ding, ding.
27:58Blinket.
27:58Zeptoe.
27:59Just there at your dear step.
28:01So you're convinced
28:02that the purpose of life
28:03is to make life comfortable,
28:04which is great
28:05from a
28:06physical comfort perspective.
28:09Please make your life comfortable.
28:10Please get a good mattress.
28:12Please get a safe car.
28:13Please get lovely shoes.
28:15But
28:16we don't recognize
28:17when it begins to extend
28:19to our intellectual comfort.
28:21Where we're just not challenging ourselves.
28:23Where we're not thinking outside
28:24of what we could be doing
28:26because it scares us.
28:29It scares us
28:30because we're scared of losing.
28:32We're scared of falling
28:33and failing in front of a crowd
28:35and be embarrassed
28:36by what they would think of us.
28:38We're scared of losing
28:39the only identity
28:41that we know of
28:42because
28:43that's just so comfortable.
28:46It's wonderful
28:47to be in that identity.
28:49Don't get comfortable.
28:52Don't get comfortable.
28:53Because the day
28:54you get intellectually comfortable,
28:56you are numbing yourself
28:57to any level of growth
28:59that you could have witnessed
29:00in your life
29:01but will never experience.
29:04And then the third
29:05and the final point
29:05that makes that happen.
29:07How many of you here
29:08have kids
29:08between
29:0910 and 20?
29:1110 and 20 years.
29:12Yeah.
29:13So some of you do.
29:15And
29:15well,
29:16we had a show of hands
29:17of people
29:17who are in their 20s as well.
29:19It's a very,
29:20very different era
29:20that we are raising
29:21our kids in.
29:23And every single day,
29:25I don't think
29:25there is any hour
29:27that passes by
29:28where somebody
29:29of our generation
29:30is complaining
29:31about Gen Zs.
29:35Impatient,
29:37privileged,
29:38they have everything
29:39but yet
29:40they are so confused.
29:42In our times, we went to a paddle school
29:45We went to a paddle school
29:47We went to a river
29:48We went to a river
29:50Today, they are going to the AC bus
29:52And what they have to say
29:54I don't know
29:55What will happen
29:56What will happen
29:57How will they live
29:58How will they live
29:59Everything is on the phone
30:00I have never learned
30:02I have never learned
30:04I don't know
30:05What is happening
30:06What is happening
30:07What is happening
30:08Who is using words
30:10It is insane
30:12How we think
30:14That this generation is completely doomed
30:16What we have forgotten is
30:18How our parents used to think about us
30:20Because our parents were convinced
30:22That we are also doomed
30:24And here is
30:25A very important lesson
30:27Recognize why this difference is happening
30:31So that you get to the point that I am trying to make
30:34Most of us
30:35Who are
30:36In our 30s, 40s and beyond
30:38We grew up in an India where
30:40For everything
30:42We had to wait
30:43For everything
30:45We had to wait
30:46If you wanted to buy a watch
30:47You had to wait
30:48If you wanted to buy a phone connection
30:50You had to wait
30:51If you wanted to buy a scooter or a car
30:52You had to wait
30:53You had to stand in line to get milk
30:55You had to stand in line to get a bus pass
30:57You were basically standing in line for everything
31:00You wanted to hear your favourite Hindi songs
31:02Ah ah
31:03Wednesday 7pm Chitrahaar
31:05That's the only time you get it
31:07And most of you in Bombay are just pampered
31:09But in Delhi there was no electricity
31:11Mostly on Wednesday 7pm
31:13So if there was no electricity
31:15Sorry bro
31:16The next time you get to hear your favourite Hindi movie song is next week
31:19There was nothing on demand
31:21And suddenly
31:23This generation is born in a different India
31:26Where everything is available at the speed of thought
31:30As I said you need a book
31:32Click
31:33You need clothes
31:34Click
31:35They have no concept
31:36That there was a time in our lives
31:38Where to change the channel
31:41We had to get up
31:43Walk to the TV
31:45And turn the knob
31:47Like they don't understand
31:49What really?
31:50You were that poor?
31:51They don't understand that when there was white noise on the television
31:57Someone would then climb up to the roof
32:02And do some juggling which was almost acrobatic
32:06And then shout out the words
32:08Aageya!
32:11Because that was our way of getting television
32:14They're like
32:15Maan papa aap kis zwaan mein rah rahthe
32:18They have everything at their disposal right now
32:23So for no fault of this generation
32:26They believe that if they want something
32:31They can get it right now
32:33And it's not shocking then
32:35That I'm speaking to a 22 or a 23 year old
32:38And this by the way is a true story
32:40Happens almost every day again
32:42And I'll be like how's it going?
32:44And they'll be like
32:46I've just started this job
32:49And it's not fun
32:50I'm like why?
32:52I'm like
32:54I'm not able to create impact
32:56I'm like
32:59How much time do you work?
33:01I'm like
33:02I've been on this job for 6 months
33:04And I haven't been able to create any impact
33:06And I was like
33:07Who told you that impact in 6 months
33:10Because here people have been over 60 years
33:12They probably didn't create impact
33:14But in their head
33:17If they want to create impact
33:18It should happen
33:19It's on demand
33:20If they want to get promoted
33:22It should happen
33:23It's on demand
33:24If they want to become successful
33:26It's on demand
33:28And that is why the impatience
33:31It's not their fault
33:32It's not ours either
33:34But it's very important to recognize
33:36Why it happens
33:37And the only way that you will recognize
33:39Why something happens
33:40If you ask
33:42Why is this happening?
33:43Instead of dismissing it
33:44That it happens
33:45And it's not aligned with your point of view
33:47And the shortest way of ensuring
33:50That you ask questions of why things happen
33:52Is to become a student
33:53And unfortunately
33:55Particularly in our culture
33:57We stop being a student after college
33:59And we are now just a student
34:01Because we are told to do something
34:03We don't do things out of our will
34:06We are not students by will
34:09We are students by compulsion
34:11So if our bosses tell us
34:13Go and discover this new thing that you have to do
34:15Because that's the only way you will get promoted
34:17We will do that
34:18But we will never pick up something new
34:20Out of our own will
34:22And if we do
34:24The first thing that we do
34:27Is announce it to the world
34:28So go back to
34:32Any new thing that you were
34:34Learning in the last six months or something
34:36If you have at all
34:38And again I am very sure
34:40That after the first two or three classes
34:42Of you learning it
34:43You announce it to the world
34:44That I am learning this new thing
34:46It's so bizarre for me
34:48Like you have started learning
34:50Now you have started learning
34:52So what are you doing here
34:53What are you doing here
34:54That you are learning something new
34:56When you are learning
34:58Then do it
34:59We have never said
35:00In school we have never said
35:01Bro
35:02Physics Newton's law
35:04We have started
35:05Second law
35:07I am now
35:08I am learning
35:09No
35:10We were never proud about that
35:12But we are proud about these things
35:14Because
35:15We want to show to the world
35:17That we are learning
35:18We are not learning
35:19We are not learning
35:20We are learning
35:21We are learning
35:22And that is not
35:23In my opinion
35:24True learning
35:25True learning is
35:26When you are learning something
35:27And nobody in your world
35:28Knows that you are learning something
35:29That is when you are truly devoted
35:31To that art of learning
35:32So when you combine these three things
35:34Spending time with people
35:36Who are nothing like you
35:37So that it broadens your horizon
35:39Doing it in the manner
35:41That you are never intellectually comfortable
35:43That you are constantly challenging yourself
35:45And always remaining a student
35:48You basically have the mechanism
35:51For relying on yourself
35:53Forever and ever
35:54Nothing is going to destroy your life
35:57Because you will always know
35:58That I am enough
36:00That I have enough
36:01That I don't need more
36:03To prove to somebody else
36:05I can make do with what I have
36:07And this is the way that
36:11You should be convinced about it
36:13How many of you have been to a casino?
36:15Regularly?
36:17Okay
36:18Just checking
36:20Okay
36:21So I have started this new casino
36:24And I am happy that Outlook Money
36:26Has given me the platform
36:27To talk about this
36:28Thank you
36:29This is without paying any money
36:30This casino
36:32Doesn't matter where it is
36:33It's called Variko Casino
36:35Because I couldn't come up with another name
36:36It has only one game in it
36:38But it's a fascinating game
36:40Here's how you play it
36:41Irrespective of the amount you bet
36:45You will always lose 90% of the times
36:48You will always lose 90% of the times
36:51But the beauty is
36:53You will know
36:54The maximum that you will lose
36:56And never be all that
36:58There is a cap on the loss that you will have
37:01So it's never going to be the case
37:03That you will lose an infinite amount
37:05You will always know the amount that you will maximum lose
37:10It will be known before you play
37:13But you will lose 90% of the times
37:16However
37:18The 10% time that you win
37:20You can win any amount
37:22Any amount
37:24It could be a life changing amount
37:26It could be an amount that you will never have to ever work in your life again
37:30And that's the game
37:33You play
37:3590% of the times you lose
37:37But your losses are capped
37:3810% you win
37:40And your wins are not capped
37:42They could be infinite
37:43And my question to you
37:45Is how many times will you play that game?
37:48And I'll give you my answer
37:50If such a game existed
37:53I would play it every single day of my life
38:00I would play that every single day of my life
38:04And the beauty is
38:05This is exactly the game of life
38:07This is exactly the game that all of us are in the middle of
38:11All of you middle class people
38:14The truth is your losses are capped
38:17Because of your parents hard work and your own hard work
38:20You are never going to be ever on the streets
38:23You are never going to die of hunger or poverty
38:26You are never going to have a day when you don't even know where your next meal is going to come from
38:30You are never going to have a day where you don't know whether you will have clothes to wear or not
38:35Your losses are capped
38:36In fact, the only loss is notional in your head
38:39That people will say
38:40If my car is small, then I will fall in the eyes of people
38:45The loss is completely notional in your head
38:59It doesn't factually exist
39:01Because it is no threat to your life
39:03It's just a threat to your identity
39:05But
39:07If you were to win
39:09Any one of you here
39:12Could be anything you want
39:13If you were to win
39:15You could create a destiny for yourself
39:18That could change
39:20Not just your orbit
39:21But the orbit of the next seven generations to follow
39:24It's just that win
39:26That you have to wake up for everyday
39:28And that
39:30Will be
39:31That game of life
39:32That you should be willing to play
39:34Because if not
39:36Then you will just be caught up in
39:38The next corpus amount
39:40The next investment asset
39:42The next mutual fund
39:44The next crypto
39:45The next real estate boom
39:47And it's just so mindless
39:49That chase
39:50That you don't even realize
39:52It's taking away one day of your time
39:55Meaninglessly
39:56Without giving you anything in return
39:58So what I would love
40:00Is
40:01To bank on the
40:03Only
40:04Asset
40:05You truly have
40:07Yourself
40:10Irrespective of the day
40:12The time
40:13Irrespective of the difficulty
40:15Irrespective of how
40:17You feel that you're stuck
40:18And you have nowhere to move
40:20There's always one asset
40:22That can get you out of that
40:23And that is your belief in your own self
40:26And unless you don't believe that
40:28Nobody else is going to believe in you
40:30Unless you don't believe that
40:32You are enough to make shit happen
40:34And get you out of shit
40:36Nobody will believe in you
40:38Anupam Khair had this talk show
40:44We used to invite celebrities
40:47And the first one was Shah Rukh Khan
40:49I think so
40:51If not the first one
40:52The one of the first few
40:54And Anupam Khair asked Shah Rukh Khan
40:57How is Shah Rukh Khan so successful?
41:00And Shah Rukh Khan says
41:02Sir, I do a lot of work
41:04And you can see the look on Anupam Khair's face
41:08Because he's like
41:09Bro, you thought I was sick and I didn't work
41:12Like, you do a lot of work
41:14After a certain point of time
41:16That's not something that you say
41:17It's not like really cool
41:19But of course Anupam Khair ji is a
41:22Diggaj man so
41:23He was very respectful about it
41:25He's like Shah Rukh
41:26You do a lot of work
41:27So what's your work in your work?
41:30And he says something which I believe
41:34Is the best lesson one can have in life
41:37He says sir
41:38Everybody works hard to get an opportunity
41:48Nobody can work harder once I've got the opportunity
41:58And I love him for that
42:00He may be the world's
42:02And I'm sure he's listening at Mannat
42:05He may be whatever it is
42:09You may like him as an actor
42:10You may not
42:11But what I love about Shah Rukh Khan
42:14And this isn't about him
42:15But about his ideology
42:17Is that he is convinced that he is good
42:20And because he's convinced he is good
42:23He automatically draws a lot of people
42:25Who believe that he is good
42:27And I think that Shah Rukh Khan exists in all of us
42:30And should
42:31Because if we stand in front of the mirror everyday
42:34And we are convinced that we have it within us
42:37To make things happen
42:38Then you don't need the session
42:40You don't need me
42:41You don't need Outlook money
42:43You don't need any investment advice
42:45You'll figure your way out
42:46Because you're enough
42:48And you know that you have everything within your capacity and agency
42:52To make things happen
42:54And on that note
42:55I wish 2025 for that year to be for you
42:59Thank you
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