How to become wealthy with just Rs 5 lakhs

Imagine.

No, I am not referring to the song by John Lennon.

But imagine that you have Rs 5 lakhs with you and you are 30.
The date is 28th October 2004.

And suppose one of the following happens to you:

a) Prison

You are thrown in prison for 10 years.
You stay in for 10 years.

Possibly because of the following:




(Source: http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/4205323/How+do+you+remember+your+name/)


Or


b) Paralysis

Not sleep paralysis:



(Source: http://thefunniestpictures.com/2014/04/18/ever-had-sleep-paralysis-thats-some-scary-shit/)

But like:

(Source: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/dec/09/stephen-hawking-brief-history-mine-tv-review)


Or


c) Renunciation: You decide to renounce the world and become a holy person. You would be living on alms and doing this to pass time:



(Source: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/27/gap-year-india-glorified-holiday)


Then suddenly.
At the age of 40.
You either are released or regain your abilities or have a change of heart and want to join civilization.

So do you start from scratch?

Since you could be feeling like this:



(Source: http://www.repaydebt.org/e-cards/i-am-having-an-out-of-money-experience)


But what if I say, you would be worth atleast Rs 1 crore 55 lakhs 70 thousand!
And earning an income of Rs 3 lakhs plus just in FY 2014-15

Unbelievable?

This is assuming you would have invested Rs 5 lakhs in ITC on 27th Oct 2004 and held onto them.
Back then the share price opened at Rs 36.27 (adjusted for splits and bonus).
The share split 10:1 and also offered bonus of 2:1 on 21st Sep 2005.
It again offered bonus of 1:1 on 3rd August 2010.

All this by just staying invested in ITC.
You wouldn't have even had to do a lot of research to know about the company.
ITC touches almost every aspect of one's life.
Advertises so much that only a most ignorant person wouldn't be aware of its existence.

This is the magic of compounding and long term investing!

3 things to do before meeting a prospect

Greetings!

If you are a sales person from India, you must have spent a long weekend celebrating Diwali and avoiding injuries! :P

If you are a sales person from elsewhere and do not know about Diwali, I would urge you to read this

However, regardless of wherever you are from, but are a sales person; you must keep the following in mind before meeting a prospect:


a) Remind: Send an email/message or even call to remind the prospect about the meeting. This must be done a day in advance. There are chances that the prospect would have forgotten all about the meeting because she might be in this mood:



(Source: http://www.pgi.com/learn/rescheduled-again-5-techniques-salvage-cancelled-sales-call/)


b) Research: Today there is no excuse for not being knowledgeable. Except lethargy! Most individuals have a profile on atleast one of these social networking sites:


And most of it is available for free. So do try to find out whether you have a common friend or is the prospect a fan of Manchester United or if the prospect had flown to Manila last week! You will be amazed to know that only a small percentages of sales people spend time researching.

(Source: http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml)


c) Rehearse: Never underestimate the importance of preparation. One can either rehearse the meeting with the help of a colleague or mentally visualize the meeting. Create a list of questions that could be asked so that one can be in charge of directing the meeting rather than letting the prospect be in charge. Look at how Matthew Hayden would prepare for a match.

So Remind, Research and Rehearse!

The three Rs that should help you earn a lot of rupees!



Source: (http://www.123rf.com/photo_27613435_happy-young-business-woman-holding-indian-rupee-notes.html)

Want to know why Chandrababu Naidu was voted out in the earlier election? Read this!

http://www.monbiot.com/2004/05/18/this-is-what-we-paid-for/

Phoneswappr - Transfer contacts from one phone to another!

This is undoubtedly a great app!

They managed to identify a common yet difficult problem and offered a simple solution for it.

What am I talking about?

Remember the pressing thought in your mind whenever you get a new phone?

Although you are excited you are also dreading that you might end up losing a few contacts while trying to migrate them from your incumbent phone to your new and swanky device.

But this puts an end to your misery.

You can also install it from here.

Here are the top things I like about Phoneswappr:

a) Easy to install.
b) No ads
c) Very efficient. I could use this to transfer my contacts in a matter of five minutes.
d) Platform independent. Doesn't matter if your old phone is a Blackberry and your new phone is an I Phone. This works across operating platforms.

How does it work?

a) Download the app into your old phone.
b) The app enables you to upload your contacts into their secure cloud. (The contacts will be available on the cloud only for seven days after you upload it. So better download them into your new phone quickly!)
c) After you upload your contacts, you get a pass code
d) Download the app in your new phone
e) Insert the pass code
f) Download the contacts into your new phone

That is it!

And not even one contact is missed or garbled.

Even the Bat agrees!

3 tips to exponentially improve your life

Heard of the Pareto principle?

(Source of image: Here)

It says that 20% of causes are responsible for 80% of effects.

So how do you make small changes that can result in big differences?

Well, here are three to begin with:

• Always be on time: Respect time. Be ahead of time. But never be late. Apply this to everything you do. And you will always have more than enough time on your hands!

• Never procrastinate: You got to do what you got to do! So just do it! Keep at it. Just like I pushed myself to write this article :P

• Make people happy: Friends or Family. Acquaintances or Strangers. Smile at them. Help them out. Make small talk. Make them feel good about themselves. But just spread happiness.

Why don't you try these out?  And share your stories with me!

5 ways to become a star sales person

(Got the image from here!)

Is this your first job in sales? Interested in closing deals right away? Here are a few ways by which you can become a prodigious sales person:

1) Human to Human: Understand that you are selling to a human being and not a company. People buy from other people. So smile at your prospect. Genuinely listen. And be interested in what the other person has to share.

2) Find a common ground with your prospect: Nobody likes a pushy sales person. But everyone likes to find common ground with another person. So once you find what your prospect likes to talk about, you have hit gold mine. Also one must be well read to find common ground. This takes us to my next point. Caveat: If you fake interest, the gold mine can turn into a coal mine.

3) Read: Read as much as possible. Blogs and books. About anything. Don't restrict yourself.

4) Appearance is important: Wear good clothes. Polish your shoes. Apply a classy perfume. Nobody likes to spend time with an unkempt and smelly person.

5) Wish everyone you know on their birthday: Don't you feel good when someone who hasn't spoken to you for an year remembers your birthday?

I personally know someone who does most of this.
His name is Vijayant Dhaka.
And it is inspiring to see him in action!
Follow him @vijayantdhaka

Our legacy

Our predecessors left cave paintings, books and photographs.

These are difficult to salvage and can be lost to time.

But now we can turn every moment, intimate and otherwise, into a format that can be easily replicated and can last till an electromagnetic burst over rides machines.

Recently iCloud was hacked and compromising pictures of several important people were leaked.

As always, there were those who tried being humorous:



What if you or I were that celebrity?

Would all the money, fame and power make us so thick skinned that we could easily let this go.

Especially if one is an endearing and talented young female actor who is just learning her chops?

Our legacy will be interesting indeed.