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.
Read more: https://www.outlookmoney.com/retirement/news/outlook-money-40after40-ankur-warikooss-3-lessons-to-master-the-art-of-relying-on-yourself
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“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.
Read more: https://www.outlookmoney.com/retirement/news/outlook-money-40after40-ankur-warikooss-3-lessons-to-master-the-art-of-relying-on-yourself
#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
00:54something that I'm immensely proud of because it shaped us up as a family and me as an individual
00:59in many meaningful ways. And through that, I will leave you with what, in my opinion,
01:04is the art of relying on yourself. Because it has three components, because everything in life that
01:08is important always has three things. So I'm going to very quickly tell you about myself to set that
01:16context. I 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 was 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 the
01:45curse 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. This is before
01:56Elon 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.
02:44They are raising money. They think that it's supremely fashionable to start your own business.
02:49And frankly, it is, but it's also intensely hard. And in 2019, I was running the startup called
02:56nearby.com. And it had been acquired by Paytm. We had become profitable. We were doing about 600
03:02crores of sales a year. We were making money. It was generally a dream run. I'd devoted some eight
03:09or nine years of my life building that sector and that company. And I decided to step down as the CEO
03:17of my own startup, something which is very unnatural or unheard of in the Indian context, particularly.
03:23I was turning 40 in 2020, very apt for the theme of the event as well. And I thought that at the age
03:30of 40, I want to see what else I could do with my life. So I stepped down as a CEO. And this was
03:37towards late 2019. And I decided to take a break for three to six months, figuring out what I wanted
03:43to do. And in those three to six months, March 2020 happened. And I don't know how many of you
03:49remember March 2020, but it was a very wild time. Everything that we thought of ourselves, every plan
03:56that we had for our life went out of the window. We had to reimagine ourselves. We were locked up.
04:03We were suddenly with our own personality, with our own thoughts, with our own minds. And we were
04:09spending time in a close quarter with our best or perhaps worst relationships. And we had no idea
04:15what is going 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
05:00are financial advisors or who have been in the business of making money know that cash is the
05:05only real measurement of financial freedom or not. It's not what you own, which you may not even have
05:11access to and so on. So when the lockdown happened, I had no income stream. I had no money in the bank
05:22and I had to reimagine myself from scratch. To give you pure context, I had five months of runway. And
05:30runway is like the startup term that we use to tell how long does the startup have before it has to wind
05:37up 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
05:57asset to 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 of
06:30this 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
07:00be sold if we could, was our house. So I remember having a conversation with Ruchi, my wife, saying,
07:07Ruchi, we have five months of money left in the bank. And we have to figure our shit out. Because this could
07:15very well be 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. We'll give it three
07:29months. We'll try our best to figure out what we could do. We'll hustle. We'll rediscover, re-imagine ourselves.
07:37And we'll try and see if we can create another income stream that could support us as a family. And we'll see where
07:43that goes. But if nothing happens in those three months, we will just have two months of money left
07:50in the bank. And at that point of time, we have no choice but to sell our house and see what happens.
07:58We'd made a down payment of about 50 lakhs for our house. So the hope was we'll at least get that money
08:04out. I wasn't expecting anything more. And what I proposed to her was if we get those 50 lakhs, we'll move
08:11to the mountains. We'll homeschool our kids. We will teach in some primary government school.
08:18And those 50 lakhs is far more money than we'll ever need to have that kind of life.
08:24And are you okay with that? And Ruchi being Ruchi, she was like, I'm really excited at that idea.
08:31Not that she was wishing that that would happen, but she was like, you know what? It's not such a bad
08:37life, but let's give it our best shot and see where it goes. At that point of time, I had started
08:46to actively be on stage. And I have loved public speaking for nearly 20 years, but I used to do
08:53it for schools and colleges mostly because that's the kind of crowd I love spending time with. No
08:57offense to all of you, but please take offense. I love spending time with young minds. They're just
09:03so fresh. They're challenging the status quo in so many ways. And I'm very hopeful that a lot of you
09:09have that same mindset as well. But I'd never seen that as something that could actually become a really
09:16big thing if it amounted to anything at all. And I remember having a conversation with a friend of
09:21mine. This is April 2020. And I was telling her that, you know what? The potential income stream of
09:29corporate talks is now zero because nobody in their right mind is having any corporate talk in the middle of a
09:35lockdown. And she was like, you know what? Corporates were paying you money, but what if people could pay you
09:41money to actually hear you speak? And I was like, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think that would
09:46happen. And she's like, well, you know what? There's only one way to find out. Why don't you find out? So I
09:52started to create these webinars. And I don't know if how many of you remember back in March, April,
09:59May, June, July of 2020, there was a webinar for anything that you wanted in life. People had so
10:08much of time on both sides, creation as well as consumption, that people are like joining these
10:13webinars and they were completely free. And there was a webinar on financial planning, a webinar on
10:18retirement planning, a webinar on content creation, a webinar on this, a webinar on that. It was just
10:24insanely exploding. And I was like, you know what? Let me just throw myself out into the universe as
10:29well and see what happens. So for the next three months, I conducted 17 webinars. And those 17 webinars
10:37were on themes that I knew best, how to hire a team, how to raise money, how to speak effectively,
10:43how to manage your time, things that I had done for my life, I was in complete control of. And I knew
10:50that people would benefit from that. But what I didn't know was whether people were willing to pay
10:55for it or not. So I had this novel idea. Why don't I let them decide if they want to pay or not? Why do
11:03I have to decide what should be the price of this? So I ran these 17 webinars on what I call pay what
11:10you want pricing model, which was you join that webinar. And the only thing you have to do is pay
11:16at least one rupee. But beyond that, it's your choice what you want to pay completely free or freedom
11:24in that sense. And as you would imagine in India, 50% just paid one rupee. It's like, that's the best deal
11:33ever. But there were 50% who were surprisingly willing to pay more than one rupee. And the average came
11:39out to about 197 rupees per person, which frankly, was more money than I thought somebody was willing
11:45to pay for a virtual delivery that they had no idea the content of beforehand, because they had to pay
11:52this to reserve 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, I was not
12:05doing half bad a job of delivering that content virtually. And three, there was enough market if
12:11it was priced in the right way for people to consume good quality curated content. And that then became
12:18the genesis of what became webveda.com, which is a startup that I run right now. This is not a promotion,
12:24it's more of a discovery that I did for nearly five, six months before I figured that there was a business
12:31case and a model for content creation in an affordable manner that could be dealt in a way
12:37that India could consume and hopefully the world at some point of time. But here's the bigger thing
12:42that I wanted to talk about. And that is, in those five months, I, at all points of time, knew
12:51that I was just one month away from selling the house that we had, the only asset that we had.
12:58And what gave me confidence was, of course, the alignment that I had with my partner that
13:04if that were to happen, it's okay. But more importantly, upon reflection, I realized that
13:11the biggest thing that helped me was just this insane confidence that I had in me
13:18that everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay. And that doesn't mean that
13:26everything is going to be okay in the sense that I will be one day at the outlook money,
13:3040 after 40 stage in front of all of you. No, that's far, far away from the okay that I had in
13:35mind. My okay was that we're going to have a life where we will have our closest relationships
13:41together, where we will have enough financial money to take care of our daily needs. And if I
13:47know 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
13:59okay. We're going to absolutely have a wonderful life if we wish to or not. And that brings me
14:07to a really interesting story that you may have heard of. There is this famous classic novel
14:13called Catch-22. And you may or may not have heard of it, but if you haven't, that doesn't take away
14:19anything from the story. The author of Catch-22 and his friend are one day invited to a really fancy
14:29party, which is hosted by a gentleman who is the friend of the Catch-22 author. And they're at this
14:38massive gathering. Imagine a setup like this, but on a private beach island. And it's fine liquor.
14:45It's the fanciest of food. It's the beautiful music and whatnot. And Catch-22 author's friend
14:52remarks, you know what? This guy who's invited us for this party, he earns in a day what your entire
15:02book has made through selling in its entire lifetime. He earns in a day what you have earned in a lifetime
15:13selling this best-selling book that you have. And the author replies, but I have something that he doesn't
15:23have. And the friend's like, what could possibly be that you have that this really cool successful dude
15:31doesn't have? And the author replies, I have enough. And I love that. I love the fact that you at some
15:42point of time, irrespective of where you are in life, realize that you have enough. Enough to lead a
15:50certain life that you want to, enough for the way that you want to live that life. And the art of
15:57relying yourself is this discovery of realizing that you have enough. And it has these three
16:03components that I wanted to live you with, because those are frankly the things that helped me
16:07in my journey, and I'm sure will help you in yours as well. Number one, and perhaps the biggest thing
16:15when you acquire a certain age and a certain mindset and certainly a certain experience.
16:19And that is, go back to the day when you joined your current organization. Or for those who are,
16:26how many of you here are students? Anyone here who's a student? Some of you. Okay. How many of
16:31you are working professionals? All right. How many of you are running your own business or startup?
16:37Awesome. Perfect. Cool. Well, actually, yeah, one more interesting. How many of you in your 20s?
16:43In your 20s? All right. 30s? Okay. And 40 plus? All right. Yeah. Good job with the target audience.
16:55Yeah. Bang on. I don't know what you're doing. People in your 20s? No. You're also invited. Of
17:01course you are. Go back to the first day of college for those in your 20s. Go back to the first day of
17:09your current work for those who are working. Go back to the first day when you were in your college,
17:14if you remember that day as well. And I'm sure it was an auditorium like this. You were surrounded by
17:19different sort of people, all from very different backgrounds. They look differently from you. They
17:24dress differently from you. They speak differently from you. They have very different mental makeup from
17:29you. They have had very different experience from you, a very different upbringing from you.
17:33And I don't know any of you personally, but I guarantee that within the first few hours of
17:39you spending time with these very different people, you began to look for people who were like
17:45you. You began to look for people who are from the same city as you. You began to look for people who
17:51are looking like you, speaking like you, dress like you, feel like you're the same one, came from the
17:58same city or college, from the same department. We love hanging out with people who are like us.
18:04We love building this lovely cushion, this lovely cocoon, this lovely oasis of yours where we're
18:13surrounded by people who are like us. And I remember doing that or feeling that when I was at business
18:20school. First week of my business school and there were 330 of us on that batch and everyone had formed
18:27these groups. Everyone was just hanging out with each other. Engineers with engineers, chemical with
18:32chemical, mechanical with mechanical, IITNs with IITNs, NIT with NIT, the others with the others,
18:40Delhi with Delhi, Sarojni Nagar with Sarojni Nagar, Bombay with Bombay, South Bombay with South Bombay.
18:46This beautiful groups, communities that we love to hang out with. And in my head, I was like,
18:53isn't this the exact opposite of what you should be doing? Like somebody has painstakingly
19:00got 330 very different individuals from across the world on a single campus for the next one year,
19:08and you're going to spend time with the five people who are like you?
19:11How does that make sense? And the older slash wiser you grow, you love these communities even more.
19:22Because in your head, there isn't anything outside of this that you want to learn from.
19:29Go back to the first day of college or your work. And I assure you that there were, when you were
19:35scanning the room, some two or three people that you looked at, and you were like,
19:39uh, nahin, not my kinds. Inke saath hangout nahin oppayega. I won't be able to be friends with them.
19:49You were so judgmental that you refused to believe that there is anything new that you can learn from
19:55them. And surprisingly, the best way to discover yourself or to actually rely on yourself is to
20:02spend time with people who are nothing like you. Nothing like you! Because that's when you truly
20:08find out what exists in the world that you had no idea about. Which brings me one of my favorite
20:14questions. How many of you here are middle class? Yeah, I knew it. I love the fact that everyone in
20:22India is middle class. I love that fact. Irrespective of how big or small the forum is, this is one of my
20:29favorite questions at all times. But because this is also a financial-inclined exposition,
20:38let's ask something which is more specific. What is the definition of middle class in India?
20:43What is the definition of middle class in India? Anyone? Throw out an app. Or let me be very specific.
20:49What's the monthly salary of middle class Indians? What's the monthly salary of middle class Indians,
20:54sir? Sorry? Less than? 20 lakhs a month? A year? Yeah. I was like, sir is middle class at a completely
21:07different level. Yeah, I was like, the ground floor on Nepentese Road is middle class. Yes, sir.
21:143 lakhs to 12 lakhs is middle class, which is per year, because it's easier to say per year. So,
21:203 lakhs to 12 lakhs, wide range. Almost all of our income tax budget is in that range.
21:2810 lakhs per annum is middle class, sir? Hello?
21:3330,000 per month is middle class. Anyone else? Let me ask from that crowd. Go ahead.
21:39Give me a number. Shout out.
21:4310,000 a month? Okay. Is that a wild guess or what? How do you know?
21:47Sorry? Oh, he's saying I've attended my session before, so…
21:57Hello? Yeah, Ankur.
21:59Yes?
21:59Roti kapra makan.
22:00Yeah, Sivangi's side.
22:02Roti kapra makan.
22:03So basically for middle class, it's 25,000, I guess.
22:0625,000?
22:0725,000. And for definition of middle class, I guess,
22:09balancing the personal and professional life, so…
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.
22:25It's middle class.
22:26It's middle class.
22:27The actual description, sir, is F-U-money.
22:29Yeah, absolutely.
22:30Because F-money could be very different.
22:33It would be like dismissing money.
22:35So anyone who knows now that is middle class.
22:37Perfect, I get that. Awesome.
22:38What else?
22:3912,000 a month.
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…
22:53Yes, because we don't have income tax, yeah, exactly.
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 happen that we're upper middle class.
23:34This is our whole shrinkage that we've made for ourselves.
23:38This is to show that we're actually middle class.
23:41But middle means middle.
23:42Average.
23:43What is the average of India?
23:45Simple.
23:46So, 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.
23:58It'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,
24:11household 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,
24:20hey, I am middle class,
24:22but I'm earning 2 lakhs a month,
24:24and 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 doesn't make you poor.
24:44You 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 as a concept makes you rich.
24:58Because that's a point of privilege that 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, or F money, or whatever money.
25:10The truth is, this 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.
25:30When you open up Instagram, or LinkedIn, or Twitter,
25:32it doesn't tell you, oh, you're wrong.
25:34No.
25:35It tells you, you're right, bro.
25:37You're absolutely right.
25:38Here is the video.
25:38Whatever you believe in, here it is.
25:42Everything that they believe in isn't wrong.
25:44Here is another video.
25:46It just convinces you that your point of view
25:48is the only point of view and the right point of view.
25:51So, only when you step out,
25:53do you actually begin to see what 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 with the identity that you have.
26:04And you have to break that identity.
26:09If I ask you, what 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, what do I do?
26:24I'd be like, how much time do you have?
26:26Because I could go on and on about 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, as a father, as a son,
26:37as a brother, as 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, as we get experience,
26:50start to become intellectually comfortable.
26:53We love getting comfortable.
26:55We love being in that spot where we can send the email,
26:58the work's done.
26:58Pick up the phone, the work's done.
27:00Walk up to someone, the 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, I have five years of experience.
27:08I'm like, great.
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, I've been doing the same thing,
27:19but I'm just so good with it that 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, bro.
27:26One year of experience multiplied by 12.
27:28Very different.
27:30What happens then is,
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 that 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.
28:00So you're convinced
28:02that the purpose of life
28:03is to make life comfortable,
28:04which is great
28:05from a physical 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 we 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 10 and 20?
29:1110 and 20 years.
29:12Yeah.
29:13So some of you do.
29:15And we had a show of hands
29:17of people who are in their 20s as well.
29:19It's a very, very different era
29:20that we are raising our kids in.
29:23And every single day
29:24I don't think there is
29:25any hour that passes by
29:28where somebody of our generation
29:30is complaining about Gen Zs.
29:35Impatient.
29:37Privileged.
29:38They have everything
29:39but yet they are so confused.
29:42In our time,
29:43we went to pedal school.
29:45We went to the road
29:46and we went to the roads
29:46and rode
29:47and went with the fish
29:48and went to the fish
29:48and went to the fish
29:50and went to the fish
29:50and went to the car.
29:51And now they are going
29:52and they are just going to the bus
29:53and what they have a friend
29:53we don't know.
29:55What will happen with them?
29:57How will they live?
29:59Everything is on the phone
30:00It's just insane how we think that this generation is completely doomed.
30:16What we've forgotten is how our parents used to think about us.
30:20Because our parents were convinced that we are also doomed.
30:24And here is a very important lesson.
30:26Recognize why this difference is happening so that you get to the point that I'm trying to make.
30:34Most of us who are in our 30s, 40s and beyond, we grew up in an India where for everything, we had to wait.
30:44For everything, we had to wait.
30:46If you wanted to buy a watch, you had to wait.
30:48If you wanted to buy a phone connection, you had to wait.
30:50If you wanted to buy a scooter or a car, you 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.
30:58You were basically standing in line for everything.
31:00You wanted to hear your favorite Hindi songs.
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, mostly on Wednesday, 7pm.
31:13So if there was no electricity, sorry bro, the next time you get to hear your favorite Hindi movie song is next week.
31:20There's nothing on demand.
31:21And suddenly, this generation is born in a different India, where everything is available at the speed of thought.
31:31As I said, you need a book, click.
31:33You need clothes, click.
31:34They have no concept that there was a time in our lives where to change the channel, we had to get up, walk to the TV, and turn the knob.
31:47Like, they don't understand.
31:50What, really?
31:50You were that poor?
31:51They don't understand that when there was white noise on the television, someone would then climb up to the roof, and do some juggling, which was almost acrobatic, and then shout out the words,
32:08A GIA!
32:09Because that was our way of getting television.
32:14They're like, Ma, Papa, you were living in which time?
32:19They have everything at their disposal right now.
32:23So for no fault of this generation, they believe that if they want something, they can get it right now.
32:32And it's not shocking then, that I'm speaking to a 22 or a 23-year-old, and this, by the way, is a true story, happens almost every day again.
32:42And I'll be like, how's it going?
32:45And they'll be like, I've just started this job, and I'm not going to get the fun.
32:49And I'll be like, I'm like, I'm not able to create impact.
32:58And I'll be like, how much time are you working on this job for six months, and I haven't been able to create any impact.
33:07And I'll be like, who has told you that impact in six months is created?
33:10Because here people have been working for about 60 years, and they can't create impact.
33:13But in their head, if they want to create impact, it should happen.
33:19It's on demand.
33:20If they want to get promoted, it should happen.
33:23It's on demand.
33:24If they want to become successful, it'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 why it happens.
33:37And the only way that you will recognize why something happens, if you ask, why is this happening?
33:43Instead of dismissing it, that it happens, and it's not aligned with your point of view.
33:48And the shortest way of ensuring that you ask questions of why things happen, is to become a student.
33:54And unfortunately, particularly in our culture, we stop being a student after college.
34:00And we are now just a student because we are told to do something.
34:03We don't do things out of our will.
34:06We're not students by will.
34:09We're students by compulsion.
34:11So if our bosses tell us, go and discover this new thing that you have to do, because that's the only way you'll get promoted, we will do that.
34:19But we will never pick up something new out of our own will.
34:22And if we do, the first thing that we do is announce it to the world.
34:28So go back to any new thing that you were learning in the last six months or something, if you have at all.
34:38And again, I'm very sure that after the first two or three classes of you learning it, you announce it to the world that I'm learning this new thing.
34:45It's so bizarre for me.
34:49Like, you have started learning now.
34:52So what are you doing here that you're learning something new?
34:56When you go to the world, you have to do it.
34:59We haven't even said, bro, physics, newtons, law, we have started on the second law now.
35:08I'm learning now.
35:09No.
35:10We were never proud about that.
35:12But we're proud about these things because we want to show to the world that we're learning something.
35:18We're not learning something.
35:19We're learning something.
35:20We're learning something.
35:21And that is not, in my opinion, true learning.
35:24True learning is when you're learning something and nobody in your world knows that you're learning something.
35:29That is when you're truly devoted to that art of learning.
35:32So when you combine these three things, spending time with people who are nothing like you,
35:37so that it broadens your horizon, doing it in the manner that you are never intellectually comfortable,
35:43that you're constantly challenging yourself, and always remaining a student,
35:48you basically have the mechanism for relying on yourself forever and ever.
35:54Nothing is going to destroy your life because you will always know that I'm enough,
36:00that I have enough, that I don't need more to prove to somebody else I can make do with what I have.
36:07And this is the way that you should be convinced about it.
36:14How many of you have been to a casino?
36:17Regularly?
36:18Okay.
36:20Just checking.
36:21Okay.
36:23So I've started this new casino,
36:25and I'm happy that Outlook Money has given me the platform to talk about this.
36:29This is without paying any money.
36:31This casino, doesn't matter where it is,
36:34it's called Variko Casino because I couldn't come up with another name.
36:37It has only one game in it.
36:39But it's a fascinating game.
36:40Here's how you play it.
36:43Irrespective of the amount you bet,
36:46you will always lose 90% of the times.
36:49You'll always lose 90% of the times.
36:52But the beauty is,
36:53you will know
36:54the maximum that you will lose.
36:57And 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 that 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.
37:17However,
37:18the 10% time that you win,
37:20you can win any amount.
37:23Any 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.
37:31And 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?
37:49And I'll give you my answer.
37:52If such a game existed,
37:54I would play it every single day of my life.
37:59I would play that every single day of my life.
38:02And the beauty is,
38:04this 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,
38:13the 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're never going to die of hunger or poverty.
38:26You're never going to have a day
38:27when you don't even know
38:29where your next meal is going to come from.
38:30You're never going to have a day
38:32where you don't know
38:33whether you'll have clothes to wear or not.
38:35Your losses are capped.
38:37In fact, the only loss is notional in your head
38:39that people will say what they will say.
38:41If my car is small,
38:43then I'll fall into the eyes of people.
38:45If I don't have that
38:47sun and jowarat,
38:50then what will people think about me about it?
38:52If I don't have this designation,
38:54then people will laugh at me.
38:55The 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.
39:06But if you were to win,
39:10any one of you here
39:11could be anything you want.
39:13If you were to win,
39:15you could create a destiny for yourself
39:18that could change
39:19not just your orbit
39:21but the orbit of the next seven generations to follow.
39:23It's just that win
39:26that you have to wake up for every day.
39:28And that will be
39:30that game of life
39:32that you should be willing to play.
39:33Because if not,
39:35then you will just be caught up in
39:37the 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
39:51it's taking away
39:52one day of your time
39:54meaninglessly
39:56without giving you anything in return.
39:58So what I would love
40:00is to bank on the only asset
40:04you truly have
40:06yourself.
40:10Irrespective of the day,
40:12the time,
40:13irrespective of the difficulty,
40:15irrespective of how
40:16you 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
40:24your belief in your own self.
40:27And unless you don't believe that,
40:29nobody else is going to believe in you.
40:31Unless you don't believe
40:32that you are enough
40:33to make shit happen
40:34and get you out of shit,
40:37nobody will believe in you.
40:38Anupam Kher
40:43had this talk show
40:45where you used to invite celebrities
40:48and the first one
40:49was Shah Rukh Khan.
40:51I think so,
40:51if not the first one,
40:52one of the first few.
40:55And Anupam Kher
40:56asked Shah Rukh Khan,
40:58Shah Rukh Khan
40:59is so successful.
41:02And Shah Rukh Khan says,
41:03I do a lot of work.
41:06And you can see
41:07the look on Anupam Kher's face
41:08because he's like,
41:09bro,
41:10you thought I was sick
41:11and I didn't do this.
41:13Like,
41:13you do all the work.
41:15After a certain point of time,
41:16that's not something
41:17that you say.
41:17It's not like really cool.
41:20But of course,
41:20Anupam Kher is a
41:22Diggaj person,
41:23so he was very
41:24respectful about it.
41:25He's like,
41:25Shah Rukh,
41:26you do all the work.
41:28So what is your work?
41:31And he says something
41:33which I believe
41:33is the best lesson
41:35one can have in life.
41:37He says,
41:38everybody works hard
41:46to get an opportunity.
41:49Nobody can work harder
41:55once I've got
41:56the opportunity.
41:58And I love him
41:59for that.
42:01He may be the world's,
42:02and I'm sure
42:04he's listening at Mannat.
42:07He may be whatever it is,
42:09you may like him
42:10as an actor,
42:10you may not.
42:12But what I love
42:13about Shah Rukh Khan,
42:14and this isn't about him,
42:15but about his ideology,
42:17is that he is convinced
42:19that he is good.
42:21And because he's convinced
42:22he is good,
42:23he automatically draws
42:24a lot of people
42:25who believe
42:26that he is good.
42:28And I think that
42:29that Shah Rukh Khan
42:29exists in all of us
42:31and should.
42:32Because if we stand
42:33in front of the mirror
42:34every day
42:34and we are convinced
42:36that we have it
42:37within us
42:37to make things happen,
42:39then you don't need
42:40the session.
42:41You don't need me,
42:42you don't need
42:43Outlook money,
42:43you don't need
42:44any investment advice.
42:46You'll figure your way out
42:47because you're enough.
42:49And you know
42:49that you have everything
42:51within your capacity
42:52and agency
42:52to make things happen.
42:54And on that note,
42:56I wish 2025
42:56for that year
42:58to be for you.