Ramblings

Nothing really worth enough material to post and yet I feel my blog has been neglected way too much and I again need to start the writing habit of mine. Apparently so much action is happening in life that there is barely time to sit back relax and form a post.

 

Either I am working out investment portfolio’s for clients or sorting out badly sold insurance policies to them if that were not enough the renovation/extension work at home takes up hours and worst is it comes up at any time and the plumber/carpenter/mason are even more important and vip people then my clients. They get first preference, also it seems that the work just doesn’t get over either. Even though the major work seems to be done there is no decrease in the hours it takes of mine. Sporadically I do manage to still venture on FB and give my system the much needed virtual injection. Then there is so much of sporting action happening everywhere, Olympics, India v SL, NZ v WI and Eng v SA. Actually I am complaining of too much on my palate sigh…

 

It was a treat to watch Saina Nehwal play, I must confess I have not watched her earlier but she did play like a champ and I was pretty hopeful she would get a Gold but then not everything we wish for happens. But it was a wonderful feeling watching her play, full of concentration, focus and skill. The shooter’s doubled their medal tally from last year. The hockey team though tried their best I guess the loss in the first two matches in which I thought they fought quite well took its toll and knocked the stuffing out of them. They would probably be feeling very disappointed having lost all 5 matches. But lets not focus on that, lets talk about Mary Kom, honestly I didn’t know much about her before a week. I am kinda amazed at the achievements of the woman a 5 time World Champion, a mother of 5 year old twins and boxing like this !!!!!!!!! Gee… I am gaping and ashamed that I take the elevator to reach a third floor in the building ! :-/

 

In the world of friendly cricket matches, SL managed to almost lose everything but our blokes decided one day to collectively have a brain fail during a batting display in the second ODI giving something to our friendly neighbours.

 

The other highlight of the last week was Kevin Pietersen’s batting against Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. Whilst England were pummeled into submission in the first test, in the second in Headingly in a tricky situation KP showed why he is badly necessary for cricket. With all due respect to Sachin, Brian, Ricky this has to be one of the most manly attacks on a bowling line up I have seen recently. No he didn’t score a 60 ball 100 but the manner in which he took on Steyn and Morkel and their short pitched stuff and the thumping he gave was superb. No it was not cover drives, there were hooks with 3 players on the leg side boundary. Don’t be-little him, it was Steyn and Morkel, it was Yorkshire not Chennai and yet I saw Dale Steyn shaking his head at the helplessness he felt in front of KP’s assault. Then as usual, KP’s innings was overshadowed by none other than his own stand-off with the ECB. Pity this man can’t just focus and play Test Cricket.

that is Dale Steyn going over the straight boundary

 

Guess he is a bit like me can’t do one thing at a time, must always focus on multiple things in life ! Talking of other multiple things clogging my timeline were planning for a Monsoon trip to Goa and well its my first visit to the Travel Capital of India it seems, rarely have I met anyone who has not been to Goa. Fair in another fortnight’s time I will be able to join all those people. Apparently it seems I can’t really take to the beaches or the water sports there but Monsoon promises its own share of beauty. What with Outlook Traveller featuring Goa in the Monsoons and whetting my appetite. My raincoats are ready and I can’t wait to rent an Activa and drive on the tar roads bordered with the fresh green vegetation.

 

Well, I think I must stop my ramble here and get ready to shop for curtains or else my wife is going to make me sleep in the balcony by the look of things… But before I shop for the curtains I will leave you with this song that is on my lips at the moment

 

Wordless Wednesday

Narkanda…

Pankhon ko hawa zara si lagne do…

It was on 1st May last year when after a meeting in office where I felt unreasonable firing was given to our Sales team by our as impractical boss as there can be, I went home and told my wife, I have had enough, I want to chuck this job, and today !! I was pissed off and although you should never take decisions when you are emotional and I wanted to do exactly that.

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She was probably stunned but didn’t show, she knew I didn’t like the job much, it was a stop gap job to move to Bharuch first and find another in a Bank perhaps, but things were not working out there. She listened and told me think it over and decide. I told her, getting a job in an Insurance company if things didnt work out independently was 1o mins job. I must take this chance. I will also do some content writing and somehow make it up. She told me if you really feel confident and are sure go ahead. She just had got permanent in her school job and promised full support if a crisis arose. Those were just the words I wanted to hear at that point. At most times in my life for all decisions and changes I made I have had a lovely companion who has always supported and stood by my decisions even the wrong ones God bless her

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Since ours is a joint family next to be informed in line were my Mom and brothers and they all also thought it was upto me to decide and hence the resignation was written the same day and the notice period began !

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Luckily I was a Mutual Fund Advisor and my previous boss in Max New York Life had encouraged me to do the side business even though I was doing this job. I had got good business during the year. Even the impractical boss was an investor with me. Every colleague of mine was worried how can I survive on Mutual Fund selling. In 2011 there were 85000 Mutual Fund distributors in India of which only 14000 odd were active. Meaning only they did new business every month. The commissions in the mutual fund industry had dwindled and lots of distributors who now do business actually charge the customer for the service they provide.

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Unlike my job here I was not bound to sell just one product but had to actually use my brains to find out the best product. I was not tied to one company no longer did I have to squash my guilt of selling an inferior product well knowing that there were a lot of better options available in the market. When someone asks you what do you think is the best alternative I would blurt the truth and sales would not be concluded as my product had many superior products in the market. Insurance as an industry in India works on basis of getting investments, where as reality is one should never invest in Insurance. With that naked truth in my mind it was terribly difficult to sell insurance. I didn’t actually have to sell, get it sold by others but most of the times the others would put me in front of the client and when the client would look at me and ask is this the best I couldn’t help it. It was killing me.

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Eventually thanks to my wife I managed to chuck the job off and started my own firm. A few things I had decided to do not to sell products that give high commission as they are invariably not good for the investor. Hoping and praying that the low commission product selling would eventually do the customers good and they would refer me. Another very important and to many, including my wife, a strange decision was to not do any direct marketing. I decided I will not ask people to buy from me unless they seek my advice. In this market everyone is out to sell financial products and so much mis-selling has happened that a lot of consumers have completely lost faith and when anyone comes to sell anything to them direct they are most apprehensive. I used to work as a free lancer before I shifted to Indore so I had a client base earlier. The only bit of marketing I did was to sms people about the products available in the market from time to time and if anyone got interested and called that is when I was to get cracking.

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The most anxious moment of my life has perhaps now passed. Today one year down the line I am a lot more relaxed and assured of myself. Thankfully the investors have opened their wallets and so far so good. I now have enough time to look after the extension work going on at my house or be with my son to play cricket when he wants, or cook a new recipe I see on a cooking blog. I can now help at home whenever I want to and can take a break when I want to

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Most importantly I like my work now, for the first time in my life I don’t loathe at work. I go out to meet people drink tea with them, have lunch with them, talk about my travel or my blog and show some of them how to work on facebook and they invest with me. Many times I have no work and I just go out to the city to show my faces to all sorts of people and they suddenly remember they have so and so money lying which they would like to invest Like Rocket Singh says always give your customers more than they expect. In a time when people are charging a fee and giving no service I don’t charge any fee and try my best to keep my investors happy Their satisfaction has ensured the volume of business has gone up and the miniscule commission that the MF’s pay is sufficing.

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So far I have been working from home but I hope to rope in another guy as a partner and look forward to opening an office next year. Touchwood but this is slowly but surely starting to work out. Travel is now so much easier, trips are now happening at the frequency I love and looks like more and more trips beckon I can take breaks impromptu and being a reasonably greedy guy is helping settle things in life for the first time. I know I shouldn’t be counting my chickens yet, this is only the beginning.

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This song has been an inspiration and I want to dedicate it to my wife who is vacationing in Pune.

Lets now sms her to read this post. I am sure a smile and a lot more beckons when I reach Pune to meet her tomorrow It would not have happened without you sweetheart <3