The Olympics - An event with different meanings.

 Hello Readers

 Hope you all are safe and fine.

 

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”

- Pierre de Coubertin (primarily responsible for the revival of the Olympic Games in 1894)

 

The Mood of this blog is jubilant and cheerful.

 

That is what I feel; after enjoying a visual treat this past week, yes, some of you would have guessed it already. The Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020.

 

The various sports and their brilliant contenders.

 

When you see a sporting event, there are different ways of interpreting the same. We would enjoy the event, that’s obvious!.

 

When I was enjoying the spectacle, I was viewing this differently.

 

First, I could see the excitement among all the participants in all the sports they participated in.

 

Their raw emotions of happiness or sadness in each moment while they played.

 

The burdens and hopes of their countrymen which they carry.

 

Finally, their trainers constantly trying to motivate them, whenever they can, whether a team event or an individual sport.

 

I think the Olympics is one such event the world comes together forgetting their borders, race or Colour and speaks the only language which is a sport.

 

Imagine the synergy and the positivity present there!

 

An actual demonstration that we all can live with differences yet come together and acknowledge the victory of each other after a fair competition.

 

We can learn a lot from sports; it can measure a person’s determination, goal-seeking ability, and true grit to achieve what they desire to succeed.

 

Finally, the trust between teacher-student or a trainer and contestant in a more sporting sense.

 

That is, a bond of trust which exists between them is unique. Do you know why? Whenever their pupil fails to lead the competition, the coach will go to a different level to motivate their student.

 

They trust each other to the core; that is the gift of the Olympics. When you know someone in your life and decide to become their well-wisher, a teacher, or a simple guide to them, I feel when you know someone in your life. You need to build trust in them and support them.

 

That is the identity of a mature guide.

 

Can you be one? Well, try to do it starting today!

 

“It is the inspiration of the Olympic Games that drives people not only to compete but to improve, and to bring lasting spiritual and moral benefits to the athlete and inspiration to those lucky enough to witness the athletic dedication.”

- Herb Elliott (Australian middle-distance Runner)

 

Hearty congratulations to all the winners of the Indian contingent and the other countries part of Tokyo 2020. who proved that it is possible to come what may! Their success stories are unbelievable and heart touching!

Courtesy Google images

Let us all learn from such joyful events and apply some of those principles in your life! Starting with believing in ourselves!

 

Thanks a lot for your time. Have a great week ahead.

Helios.

Snooze

Hello readers

 

I hope you are all safe and doing well.

 

There is no stopping when it's time, but until that time arrives, you have the time to prepare!

-Unknown

 

So many of us take help to get up each morning.

 

What is the simple and most accessible tool available? It's an alarm.

 

I have been a watches buff! since my childhood; I think it was in high school, I had a couple of friends who had once fancied a watch that had a radio in it, another one which had a GPS functionally and used to show the latitude and longitude.

 

I was blown away by seeing those gizmos! But fortunately, I am a 90s kid who has seen the world without mobiles or smart phones and PC games, and now I am living in an era in which they are at their peak!

 

Back to alarm clocks, the first American alarm clock was created in 1787 by Levi Hutchins in Concord, New Hampshire. However, this device he made only for himself, and it only rang at 4 AM to wake him for his job. The French inventor Antoine Redier was the first to patent an adjustable mechanical alarm clock in 1847.

 

After the advent of digital technology and solid-state electronics, digital alarms came into the picture.

 

Digital LCD watch manufactures competed with the multiple alarm modes and lap chronographs or stopwatches.

 

But the concept and logic behind the alarm clock are excellent; it has helped many in achieving their milestones!

 

Are you wondering how?

 

Just think, one of the ingredients  to achieve any goal in life is time management and deadlines, well there lies your answer, alarms do both the jobs for us.

 

What triggered me to write this one is a feeling of ah, seeing the advantages of the modern tech that helps you be on top of your things.

 

High-end digital watches, smartwatches, calendar reminders, you name it!

 

From outlook meeting reminders, birthday reminders on your smartphone calendars, until the smartphone alarm, or I am not sure if you still fancy keeping a wake-up call on your digital watch or a traditional alarm clock.

 

"Your times are ticking is what we hear all the time."

 

That statement has a deeper meaning. The time we have and the time we have wasted till today, the difference between these two numbers is the hours you have been both physically and mentally alive in the world! That is what I believe.

 

We all get constantly reminded by incidents and our past experiences, which should steer life faster in the direction in which we want to go.

Courtesy Google images

Enjoy your life with all the zeal and energy, set reminders and alarms that will help you measure your success, and avoid using this button called "SNOOZE” because when you do that, you end up procrastinating, which leads to moving all your goals ahead and delayed! 

 

Time is the essence of life.

 

Thanks a lot for your precious time.

 

Have a great evening and week ahead.

 

Helios.

The sculptor and sculpture

 Hello readers good morning!

I hope you all are fine and safe.

The exciting fact is, this blog was on my draft shelf for almost two years now, glad I am finally ready to discuss this.

 

We have visited historical places atleast once in our life, like an ancient temple or a chapel, we all would have noticed beautiful sculptures.

 

These sculptures were created using materials like stones or wood, and there are any other material.

 

What is that one activity which stands out while created statues? At the top would be the blueprint, of course, like the dimensions and all the engineering aspects.

 

The second place would go to the making of what is called chiseling, technically speaking.

 

You have a block of stone, and you have an image in mind; now, the goal is to change that block of stone into that image you have in mind or in front of you almost or entirely alike the former.

 

The process begins with the shaping of the stone-like transversal view or a longitudinal view. Once the basic shaping is completed, the most important part begins.

Chiseling: sometimes, it also called carving which requires deep skill and accuracy and timing, we cut the base material into the desired shape we intend to with an artistic touch.

 

In history, we have read about the construction of temples; the timelines soar from few years to centuries in which one of the major parts was chiseling.

 

The activity of carving is the one that would add to the beauty of the whole structure.

 

 Try to co-relate this to life: When you are born, that stone slab is you, untouched, pure, a gift of nature.

 

In case of carving figurines, there is a blueprint, to arrive at a result. Whereas in the case of us, there is no blueprint, the result is what we want to be! Almost unlimited.

 

When I say unlimited, it is up to us and the people around who brought you up and guided you until you could take decisions of your own.

 

Then it is all on you! How and where you want to reach in life, pure and simple, no strings attached here.

 

Of course, you will hear a lot of these words like "NO", "you can't do that", "leave this and move on", but finally it is you who accepted that and left it.

 

I would also like to add that leaving something and then clinging to something else you felt is a better option is not bad, but to completely stop pursuing your interests something is a bummer!

 

My simple message after setting prima facie is: We all are like untouched rocks; when we are born, people start shaping you, chiseling you to turn you into a beautiful person, then there is a point where even though the people are there for you to help you out, it falls on you to decide what you want to become.

When you are time is done on the green planet, people look back and admire the simulacrum(image) you left behind, make it an amazing one not for anyone else but for you; as it makes you feel contended that you lived your life to the fullest!

 

Wishing you all health and all the energy in the world, which I hope you will use to drive your subconscious mind into bringing the best out of you always.

 

The sculptor and sculpture would be you if the effigy did not come out well; now we know the tools are not responsible!

 

Don’t worry about looking good worry about achieving your goal.

-Raymond Thomas Dalio

 

Thanks for your time, have a good week ahead.

 

Helios.

The Stock Market Blob

Hello readers

I hope you are all fine and healthy.

Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered.

-An old investment industry saying warns against being excessively greedy.

So, it is weekend time to blog! Of late, my genres have been more on values, friendship, behavioural psychology, and some good vibes about entrepreneurship.

Today it is about one of my favorite topics, which I am pretty sure there are many people around who get excited and curious to understand about it. So, the stock market it is!

There is a lot of talks going on since last week about this jargon since past week.

It is called the “stock market bubble” lets break it up we know the stock market, what is a? A small globule typically hollow and light: such as. a: a small body of gas within a liquid. b: a thin film of liquid inflated with air or gas.

Understanding Stock Market Bubble

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently warned about a possible stock market bubble in its annual report for FY21. The central bank’s comment comes on the back of domestic stock markets touching record highs even as the country’s economy continues to face disruption due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the context of financial or economic markets, a bubble generally refers to a situation where the price of a stock, financial asset, an asset class, or an entire sector exceeds the fundamental value by a significant margin.

Stock market bubbles are usually hard to predict, especially for those who do not track the market in-depth daily.

There are usually five stages to a financial or asset bubble, and understanding each stage is essential to avoid wealth erosion. The five steps are displacement, boom, euphoria, profit-taking, and panic.

Simply put, the bubble is created based on speculative optimism or demand rather than the financial asset’s real or fundamental worth. 

When the bubble bursts, it leads to massive selloffs, and prices decline rapidly.

The housing bubble in 2008 that led to a severe global recession is one of the most prominent examples, though there have been more minor instances in the past.

The bubble can affect the overall stock market, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or shares in a particular sector.

 I read an article in independent.co.uk about the return of Michael Burry to Twitter, nicknamed the  “The big, short investor”

 Here’s what he had to say: The “Big Short” investor, Michael Burry, returned to Twitter after deleting all of his posts to warn cryptocurrency and meme stock investors that the “mother of all crashes” could be on its ways, costing them tens of millions or trillions of dollars.

 By now, we know the ingredients that make or builds a stock market bubble; let us try to list them, speculation, over inflation of stock prices, the earning capacity of the stock exceeding its fundamental values.

Rest assured; is not the first time this phenomenon has occurred ; here are some famous stock market bubbles which the markets have witnessed.

The Mississippi bubble (1719-1720)

The Mississippi Bubble -- which derives its name from the French Mississippi Company -- grew out of France’s dire economic situation in the early 18th century. By Louis XIV’s death in 1715, the treasury was in shambles, with the value of metallic currency fluctuating wildly.

 The south sea bubble (1720)

During the same period that French speculators were driving up the price of shares in the Mississippi Company, English speculators were purchasing stock in the South Sea Company. Formed in 1711 by Robert Harley, the South Sea Company was created to convert £10 million of government war debt (incurred during the War of Spanish Succession) into its own shares. In exchange, the company would receive annual interest payments from the government and a monopoly on trade with the South Seas and South America.

The Japanese “bubble economy” (1984-1989)

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Japan had one of the highest economic growth rates in the world. In the 1970s, the government began to deregulate financial markets, which allowed banks to actively seek out new customers. During the mid-1980s, Japan took a loose approach to monetary policy, which caused the money supply to increase and interest rates to fall. Combining these two actions was essential to creating a speculative bubble: with low interest rates and easier access to credit, new actors entered the financial markets.

Recently the 2008 mortgage crash!

Are bubble bursts suitable for the market and its participants?

 

• Investors can benefit from bubbles by being contrarian.

A bubble will typically result in great scrutiny on one or two market areas, leaving others ripe for the picking. Despite the broad brush that companies that operate in the sector get painted with, there are some excellent companies that long-term investors can target.

The two most significant traits to succeed in investing have the mindset that allows an investor to be comfortable going against the tide and waiting for their thesis to play out.

• The best way for investors to differentiate between a new business and a trend is to do their homework.

They should consider whether the business they are analyzing has earnings. A company may not necessarily be profitable if it is reinvesting heavily into its operations to grow its business. Still, the company needs to demonstrate an ability to generate profits at some point in the future.

• Investors need to evaluate how much they are paying for a business.

Paying 30, 40, or 50-times earnings is generally not a recipe for success, as a great company can be a bad investment if bought at too high a price. Sometimes, finding a great business means having to wait several years before the market offers up the opportunity to buy it at an attractive price, but that is part and parcel of being a disciplined investor.

• Investors need to monitor their investments.

This is to ensure that the reason they bought a company in the first place is progressing as expected. Companies can fail to execute their strategies for various reasons, poor management, changing industry dynamics or sheer bad luck.

Some key takeaways which understood from doing my math and research are.

The bubble is an inevitable situation, just like the highs and lows of the market cannot be controlled.

It must be noted that day trading should keep a tab on the volatility and avoid trading on eccentric days, especially in derivatives, to avoid losing on heavy market premiums!

Finally, the positive part is that if the bubble fragments the market, and we see a double negative, it is the best time for long term investments.

Thanks a lot for your time, enjoy the rest of your evening.

Helios.

References:

https://www.indiatoday.in/business/story/rbi-warns-of-stock-market-bubble-should-investors-be-worried-1809096-2021-05-31

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dotcon/historical/bubbles.html

 https://www.morningstar.in/posts/50879/markets.aspx

Pearl of Friendship

Hello readers

 Hope everyone is doing well.

A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.

-Unknown

 There are moments in your life which you would always recollect, and you rejoice in them

It was triumphant to you.

 Maybe that was the day you got your driving license or graduated, or maybe your first job.

 There is this word called “companion” or companionship which is dear to all of us.

 Why do we feel so? For the simple reason that we are called humans, the human gene in us longs for sociability and cordial relationships.

 So, there is a string in the mind which needs support to strum, sometimes because it is worn out due to the emotional wear and tear in our day-to-day.

 There are experts in tightening that string, and the tool they use is simple; they give the buff of happiness and the empathy required at that time.

 They give you a buddy boost, which was required. We call them friends.

 The Webster dictionary defines a friend as: person who has a strong liking for and trust in another person.

 Simple and beautiful as it sounds, a person who genuinely likes your quality, presence and appreciates.They shares your happiness and pain,  see happiness in your happiness.

 The beauty of friendship is, it is just that person being there for you and you being there for him.

 There is this word called expectation which sometimes blocks friendships. But I see it is a litmus which proves the vigor of that comity.

 People say, "meet my friend"!  but I feel the word "friend" is taken lightly these days and like so many sayings go you should seriously choose whom you want to consider as one, yes.  I am serious.

 I have learned one thing clearly in life: there are two kinds of people whom you meet in life; the first kind are just passers-by; definitely, you enjoy their company, then we move on, you might learn somethings from them or teach them and there it ends.

 Then they are this second kind, whom you want to stick upon, and they too wish to stay with you and accept you as you are; these are the people who will stand by you come what may.

 In fact, one of my friends asked me when I wrote my last blog, why don’t you write something even my daughter could connect!?

 I thank him for asking me that, we all need good friends in life, and the bonds should start building when we are young, and those bonds last forever.

 Of course, there are no timelines to meet good people and become pals.

 A very learned man once said, “when you have already accepted a person as your close friend, stop having your ego fights with them for things like starting conversations, who should be the ice -breaker! if you do not hear anything from their end just dial the phone or go meet them!”.

 Further, he says, once you are sure they will be part of your life till your end, support them, respect them, and enjoy the purity of the friendship.

 That is the pearl of your friendship.

 Ending my blog with a humble thank you to all my friends who stood by me and for me and made me smile when I tried hard to cry.

 This one is dedicated to all my dear friends!

 Thanks for your time, good evening.

 Helios.

My Brain and me.

Hello readers 

 

Hope you all are fine and safe.

 

A hero is somebody who is selfless, who is generous in spirit, who just tries to give back as much as possible and help people. A hero to me is someone who saves people and who really deeply cares.

-Debi Mazar

 

What are you guys up to these days? 

 

Lousing on office chairs for 8 odd hours, then some dinner, TV and sleep and a little bit of gym in the morning and the cycle continues.

 

Extended  lockdowns have had effects on our brain and our mental health for sure.

 

But still, it is incredible you can travel any nook and corner of this world in your brain, a great imagination tool!

 

That is the teleporting power of your human-computer.

 

I have a habit of writing a journal since I was in class seven.

 

Yup, heavy, I guess!

 

But it just started as a hobby and finally became a part of me.

 

I would not say it is a habit because my journal is like a person for me; when I write on those pages, I talk to him.

 

There are journal communities on the internet; it's pretty exciting for people like me.

 

That book does not know this word called 'false' because the pact is that you never lie to your journal.

 

“My Brain and me” is a behavioral study about the person(writers) who keeps a record of their life in a book.

 

Do you know where the culture of journal writing originated when sailors went on extensive voyages? They recorded almost everything they saw and experienced.

 

There is this word called 'self-policing '. You control what you do and what is good for you, basically maintaining an emotional balance and being composed during strange situations like the one we are in now.

 

So, the journal can become a friend, you can open to your truest form, and you become a judge of your life and work on improving your shortcomings.

 

Courtesy google images

Think about few scenarios about "you and your brain" and record it; that is how you start your writing journey.

 

A sincere thanks to all my readers who asked me if I was fine when they did not read see my blogs weekly. Just was a little held up.

 

Happy writing.

Let us handhold people who need help that is most needed.

 

Stay safe and happy, guys :)

Have a great day ahead.

 

Helios.