Archives for April 2021

How to Minimize Shocks from the Unknowns and Unknowables of Life

“Life,” John Lennon said, “is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.” We have seen ample proof of this in the last year.

However, here is a tool, a mental model, a practice that can help us minimize the shocks that the unknowns and unknowables of life render us from time to time.

It is called ‘margin of safety’ – a widely known but rarely applied idea – which is an engineering concept that is used to describe the ability of a system to withstand loads that are greater than expected. In simple words, it is a buffer between what you expect to happen and what could (and often would) happen.

Life may offer you a raw deal, sometimes when you least expect it. A wide margin of safety ensures that the effects of good decisions are not wiped out by errors, uncertainties, or simply bad luck.

Of course, applying margin of safety in your decisions will not keep situations from going wrong, it will act as a cushion for you to fall back on and survive if and when things go wrong, which they will.

Stay safe. Get vaccinated. Wear a mask.

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The Sketchbook of Wisdom: The first print of my new book – The Sketchbook of Wisdom – is almost 90% over, and has already been bought across 30+ countries within 2 months of its launch. Click here to get your copy today. Send me an email at vishal@safalniveshak.com if you wish to place bulk orders.

How to Be Okay When Things Are Not

Trust you and everyone in your family is safe and fine.

Here is my latest podcast episode, the first in a series on my book – The Sketchbook of Wisdom – wherein I talk about how we can be okay when things around us are not. This applies not only to life but also to investing. So, I hope you find this useful anyway.

The Last Things on My Mind

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions,” wrote Haruki Murakami in Kafka on the Shore –

You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

It is no news that we are currently in the midst of a “storm” that has changed our lives beyond recognition.

Millions of people are fighting for their lives, struggling at home, in intensive care units, separated from their loved ones in their hours of need. Billions are in lockdown, unable to visit one another, or go to work, or attend school.

The virus has hit hard not just at our bodies and minds, but at our most instinctive desire of being close to our family and friends, to express and receive love and care in the face of this existential threat – for even that could bring illness and death. We have, as humanity, never been so vulnerable like we are now (I may be suffering from recency bias here, but that is the way it is).

My Talk on Long Term Investing in the Age of Short Attention Spans

I recently spoke at a webinar organized by MoneyWiseSmart on the subject of long-term investing in the age of short attention spans.

Click here to watch the video of my talk, or watch below.

Thank you for your time!
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Buy The Sketchbook of Wisdom: The first print of my new book – The Sketchbook of Wisdom – is almost 80% over, and has already been bought across 30+ countries within 2 months of its launch. Click here to get your copy today. Send me an email at vishal@safalniveshak.com if you wish to place bulk orders.