All advice, in essence, is advice to your younger self. It’s wisdom mined from the rich vein of your experiences. Wisdom you wish to serve on a platter to those you care, without having them go through what you have.
As with everyone else, there’s one thing I wish I knew when I was younger. Nothing earth-shattering. On the contrary, I missed it for a long time because it was hidden in plain sight. Far from claiming to unlock a brand new insight, I throw light on something that escaped my attention because it was too generic.
Let’s dive straight in.
In my view, there are 4 broad modes in which you approach life.
The mode you operate in makes all the difference.
1. Reaction
You handle a task only when it’s thrust on you. It’s ignored until it turns into a roadblocker. Then, you’re forced to frantically use all your resources to resolve it.
‘Reaction’ mode people fail to see how their inability to anticipate things coupled with irrational optimism put them on a spot.
These people live on autopilot. They expect things to sort out on their own and refuse the responsibility of steering their life.
For instance, you see things are not great in the workplace. You see people getting fired. Yet, you do nothing. Because you think, “it won’t happen to me”.
You see people being called to account for their work time on different tasks. Yet, you think you’ll cross the bridge when it comes. When you’re abruptly called in to justify the time taken for a project, you struggle.
When something happens, you feel blindsided. You curse your luck instead of your own lack of foresight.
2. Response
Here, you observe things on the horizon. Things that are hurtling in your direction.
You find ways to defend yourself before it hits you. On the D-day, you’re not surprised. In fact, you’re well-equipped to deal with the task.
The ‘response’ time varies based on the task. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a long one.
What separates a productive employee from a clueless one (perception-wise) is preparedness at team meetings. Just 5 mins of jotting down things you must report at a team meet makes a big difference in how you’re perceived.
When you see significant changes in the organization, you discreetly collect data about what’s actually happening. And, try to analyze what these changes mean to you. And, act accordingly.
Of course, you can get it wrong. Yet, being conscious about your surroundings is typically helpful, no matter how big or small the changes are.
3. Planning
Here’s where the winners are born.
Here you’re looking for things that have not yet appeared on the horizon. You plan for things that are invisible today, but are most likely to come your way in the near future.
To make the most of any opportunity, you need to be well-armed when it arrives. So, planning is necessary to expertly exploit an opportunity when it presents itself.
Say, you think a particular technology is at the cusp of market dominance. You learn this technology in the hope that when it trends you’re well-positioned to capitalize on it.
When a failure happens, you introspect and dissect what went wrong. So that when a similar problem emerges in the future, you know how to handle it better.
To use equity parlance, planning is investing in thematic and sectoral funds in the hopes they pay off quick and big.
4. Preparation
Here’s where you find a new breed: consistent winners.
As they say, life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. While planning gives better success than ‘reaction’ and ‘response’, you need more for ‘consistent’ success.
Which is: preparation.
As Sahil Bloom puts it: “Planning is based on the expectation of order. Preparation is based on the expectation of chaos.”
To borrow from the example cited in ‘planning’, what if the technology you placed your bets on fails to take off. Instead, what if you learn a skillset that lends itself to more technologies, thus casting your net wide?
Trying to learn from failures is good. But it’s unlikely your future self will face problems that resemble those from the past. So, while it’s important to introspect failures, overthinking doesn’t work. For, your next big failure will be one you least expect.
What must you do then?
First, accept that no matter how hard you try, failure is inescapable. Second, make a list of things that can go wrong. Overwhelmed? But now you know you can’t prepare for all of them.
Certain errors are more costly than the others. Spot them and think about ways to navigate them.
Preparation is like having homework for the rest of your life.
Extending the equity example, preparation is knowing that thematic and sectoral funds are subject to greater volatility. Preparation is akin to investing in broad-based funds that diversify risk. It’s akin to investing in index funds that remove the need to identify future winners.
As Benjamin Graham, father of value investing said: “The defensive (or passive) investor will place his chief emphasis on the avoidance of serious mistakes or losses. His second aim will be freedom from effort, annoyance, and the need for making frequent decisions.“
Closing Notes
When you get kicked for the first time, it’s not just about the pain. It’s the shock, chaos and inability to make sense of the happening that perplexes you.
The pain remains intact the second time you’re kicked. But you don’t act like a deer in headlights. You may be going through the same motions, but see it all as a bystander. Importantly, you’re in control.
Preparation is similar. You may not be able to avert every failure coming your way. But it softens the blow. You’re not caught clueless. Even when you’re hit, you’re contemplating your next move.
The more you’re prepared, the harder it becomes to baffle you, to incapacitate you.
- Pushing yourself from the ‘reaction’ to ‘response’ zone is the beginning.
- Shifting your gears to the planning stage is how you rise.
- But it’s elevating your state of mind to ‘preparation’ that helps you thrive consistently.
Musings by Madhav 
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