Money has a
brand new definition
You can sell
your Ferrari to become a monk. But what's more important is what you do with
that money.
The original 'monk' Robin Sharma sold his Ferrari, wrote a best-seller The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, got rich and now runs Sharma Leadership International Inc, a global leadership consultancy. Spirituality is not a bad thing, you see; especially, if you are a man who loves money.
However, I wonder what would have happened if Mr Sharma had titled his book The Monk Who Sold His Maruti. My hunch: it wouldn't have flown off shelves the way it did, almost like a fl ashy red Ferrari.
Ferrari signifies 'rich'. And everyone loves Ferrari-like money. Including the chicks that come free with it! So, during the economic recession in 2008, I wasn't surprised when my editor wanted us to fan money-orientated desire in our readers. I was a journalist then, with a reputed business daily, churning out stories on materialistic stuff -BMWs, yachts, high-end real estate, and sometimes, even private islands!
I wrote stories on how the demand for luxury cars is crawling up despite people losing their jobs. I had become an expert at dangling carrots in front of unsuspecting readers, by goading them to want things that they didn't need. Now when I look back, I feel criminal!
We might face a similar crisis again despite positive reports flowing in. Says Hitesh Oberoi, chief executive of Naukri.com: "It's too early to say if things are going to be as bad, but you have to be prepared for the worst." And if things turn out to be bleak in the near future you can expect job cuts, ghost promotions and flaccid investments. And, it isn't just us that feel the desire for money is often overestimated during uncertain times.
Take, for instance, ex-investment banker turned monk Rasanath Dasa (real name: Chelakara Ramnath). Small and delicate looking, this ex-IITian and former Bank of America employee gave up his $170,000 job and became a Krishna devotee because he realised he couldn't depend on external objects to make him happy. During the recent Wall Street protests in New York, this 32-year-old monk came into the limelight when he was discovered leading meditation sessions at Zuccotti Park.
The original 'monk' Robin Sharma sold his Ferrari, wrote a best-seller The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, got rich and now runs Sharma Leadership International Inc, a global leadership consultancy. Spirituality is not a bad thing, you see; especially, if you are a man who loves money.
However, I wonder what would have happened if Mr Sharma had titled his book The Monk Who Sold His Maruti. My hunch: it wouldn't have flown off shelves the way it did, almost like a fl ashy red Ferrari.
Ferrari signifies 'rich'. And everyone loves Ferrari-like money. Including the chicks that come free with it! So, during the economic recession in 2008, I wasn't surprised when my editor wanted us to fan money-orientated desire in our readers. I was a journalist then, with a reputed business daily, churning out stories on materialistic stuff -BMWs, yachts, high-end real estate, and sometimes, even private islands!
I wrote stories on how the demand for luxury cars is crawling up despite people losing their jobs. I had become an expert at dangling carrots in front of unsuspecting readers, by goading them to want things that they didn't need. Now when I look back, I feel criminal!
We might face a similar crisis again despite positive reports flowing in. Says Hitesh Oberoi, chief executive of Naukri.com: "It's too early to say if things are going to be as bad, but you have to be prepared for the worst." And if things turn out to be bleak in the near future you can expect job cuts, ghost promotions and flaccid investments. And, it isn't just us that feel the desire for money is often overestimated during uncertain times.
Take, for instance, ex-investment banker turned monk Rasanath Dasa (real name: Chelakara Ramnath). Small and delicate looking, this ex-IITian and former Bank of America employee gave up his $170,000 job and became a Krishna devotee because he realised he couldn't depend on external objects to make him happy. During the recent Wall Street protests in New York, this 32-year-old monk came into the limelight when he was discovered leading meditation sessions at Zuccotti Park.
He reportedly
told a newspaper: "When the world markets were crumbling in 2007, I found
myself working on a merger and acquisition project for Playboy magazine. I felt
it was absurd trying to sell sex when the economy was collapsing and people
were losing their jobs. It was not that I hated the industry or the people I
worked with. But I began to see the shallowness in that world. I wanted to be
part of something authentic and deep." Today, Rasanath is being courted by
corporate biggies like Citigroup, UBS and Bank of America to speak at global
leadership summits. However, not all men are lucky.
Studies have shown that an economic slowdown usually gobbles up jobs typically held by men (construction, manufacturing) and leaves more of the typically women's jobs intact (health care, education). In fact, by mid 2009, economists were using the term "he-cession" to describe the job losses among men. "Women usually hold jobs that are more recession-proof because of the sectors they are in," says E Balaji, MD and CEO of HR service provider Ma Foi Randstad. "Men are usually more at risk during a downturn."
This may sound depressing, until you meet people like Rahul Soni who turned bad times into an opportunity to rethink how they spent their lives. Two years ago, 37-year old Soni gave up a well-paying manufacturing job in Toronto, Canada, and created Xtremeways, a company that provides training and facilities to extreme sports enthusiasts across India. "I feel 16 years younger now," says Soni who spends his free time kicking up dust on his dirt bike and ATV instead of wasting his life in a factory abroad.
A man who makes a jump like this often has a hard time talking about it because it sounds too much like a dream and not enough like a job. If you aren't suffering, you aren't serious. Soni says that at first he thought it sounded odd and almost over privileged to be saying "adventure specialist" when somebody asked him what he did for a living. It's a previously overlooked area of male guilt, and if you don't feel it spontaneously, someone will remind you that you ought to have it. "People would say to me, 'You're living a fantasy life'," says Soni.
So here's my proposal: meaning is the new money. (When there is less money, something has to be the new "it"). Sometimes, as with Soni and a few others that I spoke to, this new mindset requires facing the fact that the "meaning" job pays a lot less than the "money" job.
Studies have shown that an economic slowdown usually gobbles up jobs typically held by men (construction, manufacturing) and leaves more of the typically women's jobs intact (health care, education). In fact, by mid 2009, economists were using the term "he-cession" to describe the job losses among men. "Women usually hold jobs that are more recession-proof because of the sectors they are in," says E Balaji, MD and CEO of HR service provider Ma Foi Randstad. "Men are usually more at risk during a downturn."
This may sound depressing, until you meet people like Rahul Soni who turned bad times into an opportunity to rethink how they spent their lives. Two years ago, 37-year old Soni gave up a well-paying manufacturing job in Toronto, Canada, and created Xtremeways, a company that provides training and facilities to extreme sports enthusiasts across India. "I feel 16 years younger now," says Soni who spends his free time kicking up dust on his dirt bike and ATV instead of wasting his life in a factory abroad.
A man who makes a jump like this often has a hard time talking about it because it sounds too much like a dream and not enough like a job. If you aren't suffering, you aren't serious. Soni says that at first he thought it sounded odd and almost over privileged to be saying "adventure specialist" when somebody asked him what he did for a living. It's a previously overlooked area of male guilt, and if you don't feel it spontaneously, someone will remind you that you ought to have it. "People would say to me, 'You're living a fantasy life'," says Soni.
So here's my proposal: meaning is the new money. (When there is less money, something has to be the new "it"). Sometimes, as with Soni and a few others that I spoke to, this new mindset requires facing the fact that the "meaning" job pays a lot less than the "money" job.
Sample this:
Nikhil Nagle quit his job as the equities head of global financial services
firm, Citigroup India, to take up personal interests in wildlife. He devoted
himself to wildlife photography and conservation in the forests of Madhya
Pradesh with his NGO Last Wilderness Foundation. Though Nagle refuses to talk
at length about his work-"I want to get something done on the ground and
then talk about it," he says-the going has not been easy for him. But he
is doing what he wanted to do all along. And he is happy, more than anything
else.
Sounds pretty good, huh? So, why don't more people take the first step? Dr Rachna K Singh, a psychologist and lifestyle expert at Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon, says that's not so easy. "We call it the 'postponed life'. It's the life everybody thinks they are going to live eventually," she says. "I see a lot of men who are fatigued behind the eyeballs. I'm not talking about everyday stress. This is something deeper."
Let's face it: given the choice of a face-off session with a career coach and a half decent cricket match on Star Sports, most guys are going to settle back on their bean bags and reach for a bottle of beer and order a pizza.
"The male ego doesn't want to be perceived as weak," says Dr Singh. "Why would you ask for help if you can't even ask for directions?"
If you want change, you have to make at least tiny efforts to behave a little differently. Like how? Disconnect.
"The paradox of this age is that we are both over-connected and under connected," says Gaurav Kataria, who quit his job at Coca-Cola and now runs Adventure and Expedition Travels, a small but thriving travel business in New Delhi. "I see people on their portable devices in airports. I listen to some of the conversations they are having. I see couples in cars, each partner talking on a cell phone to somebody else. It feels strange," he says.
Kataria runs regular excursions into remote locations around the country, where even the pesky Vodafone pug can't follow you. "You sit around a fire talking every night, and different things end up being said," says Kataria. "The whole idea is to create a human moment and move back to the original pace of life." Alaska may not be in your budget or on your calendar, but you can accomplish periodic detachments from your cell phone and iPad in less dramatic ways.
Join a group. Not the ones on Facebook. Even a biker group will do, as long as you avoid stupid stunts. According to researchers in the US, a group experience- even a brief one-that provides support, can be very powerful for men. These groups are like workshops-you step into a mini-culture where mutual support and problem solving are the norm.
People like Soni and Kataria say it takes a crisis before most people start thinking about their ideal lives. In hindsight, one can never predict a crisis. So, what are you waiting for?
Sounds pretty good, huh? So, why don't more people take the first step? Dr Rachna K Singh, a psychologist and lifestyle expert at Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon, says that's not so easy. "We call it the 'postponed life'. It's the life everybody thinks they are going to live eventually," she says. "I see a lot of men who are fatigued behind the eyeballs. I'm not talking about everyday stress. This is something deeper."
Let's face it: given the choice of a face-off session with a career coach and a half decent cricket match on Star Sports, most guys are going to settle back on their bean bags and reach for a bottle of beer and order a pizza.
"The male ego doesn't want to be perceived as weak," says Dr Singh. "Why would you ask for help if you can't even ask for directions?"
If you want change, you have to make at least tiny efforts to behave a little differently. Like how? Disconnect.
"The paradox of this age is that we are both over-connected and under connected," says Gaurav Kataria, who quit his job at Coca-Cola and now runs Adventure and Expedition Travels, a small but thriving travel business in New Delhi. "I see people on their portable devices in airports. I listen to some of the conversations they are having. I see couples in cars, each partner talking on a cell phone to somebody else. It feels strange," he says.
Kataria runs regular excursions into remote locations around the country, where even the pesky Vodafone pug can't follow you. "You sit around a fire talking every night, and different things end up being said," says Kataria. "The whole idea is to create a human moment and move back to the original pace of life." Alaska may not be in your budget or on your calendar, but you can accomplish periodic detachments from your cell phone and iPad in less dramatic ways.
Join a group. Not the ones on Facebook. Even a biker group will do, as long as you avoid stupid stunts. According to researchers in the US, a group experience- even a brief one-that provides support, can be very powerful for men. These groups are like workshops-you step into a mini-culture where mutual support and problem solving are the norm.
People like Soni and Kataria say it takes a crisis before most people start thinking about their ideal lives. In hindsight, one can never predict a crisis. So, what are you waiting for?
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Your 2012 life satisfaction checklist
Unplug your devices: Hear the roaring silence? Fill it with communication with the people who are (or ought to be) closest to you. Join a group: Pitch in with others-to play the game, teach the kid, distribute the food. It's a sure path to satisfaction. Take a moment: Call it prayer, call it meditation. By any name, it settles your mind and changes priorities. Guaranteed! Do it, every day. Talk to her about it: Are you locked in as a provider? Is it the only way to organise your life? Find the answers. And find them together. Practise courage: It's harder to choose your direction than it is to let others do it for you. That's a good reason to do it.
The happy factors
To measure the influence of various factors on people's self-reported happiness, an economic research survey was conducted on nearly 88,000 people in 46 countries over 17 years. Here's some of the stuff that moved the glee needle Health: An increase of one per cent in self-assessed health status goes hand-in-hand with an increase of just over one per cent in self-reported happiness, which makes a Rs 1,400 MH subscription a crazy bargain. Employment: Joblessness brings a person's satisfaction level down by 0.61 point on a 10-point happiness scale, and also lowers his or her self-assessed health level by one point on a 5-point scale. Relationships: From happiest to unhappiest: married people, individuals living as married, surviving partners whose spouses died, divorced people and separated people. The happiness gap between being "married" and "separated" is about 0.75 point out of 10, or more than being unemployed. Age: A graph showing the relationship between happiness and age would be U-shaped. People in the 35 to 44 category are the unhappiest. The 18 to 24 and 55 to 64 age groups report equally high levels of happiness, and the 65-plus crowd is the happiest of all. Social interaction: Helping out at the local Helpage centre or orphanage is certainly more noble than starting a touch-football league, but either option can give your happiness a little boost (about 0.05 point on the 10-point scale). Clear conscience: A little more than half the survey respondents said that cheating on taxes is never justifiable; these tax patriots also systematically reported being more satisfied with their lives. Money: Income affects happiness very little. For example, jumping up just one income bracket (say, from level four to level five, out of 10) provides a 0.1-point increase on the 10-point happiness scale, while a move from bracket nine to 10 brings only a 0.01-point boost.
Leaving my job gave me a sense of purpose'
Gaurav Bakshi
quit his high-paying job in the US and lived to tell the tale!
The recession had thrown up many new trends. The sabbaticals, mostly forced and sometimes (if you are lucky) voluntary, being one of them. Gaurav Bakshi, until recently a senior financial analyst with a healthcare firm in Atlanta, belongs to the latter category. Turning point: At 33, Bakshi was living the quintessential Indian dream with a high-paying, well-settled job in the US with great market value, especially in the marriage mart. And one fine day, in June 2009, he gave it all up. Fed up with the whole climbing-the-corporate ladder race, Bakshi took the step "to do something that was meaningful to me". Six months on and there are no regrets. The road ahead: "When in the US, I got into yoga, primarily for staying healthy and started doing volunteer work with the Isha Foundation," Bakshi tells us and adds that a lot of his 'revaluating-his-life' kick was because of this. But, the journey hasn't been a cakewalk. "I had planned it for a year-and-a-half, so money was not an object," he mentions. The real stumbling blocks were the attitude of people around him. "Leaving my job made me realise how much people like to interfere in other person's life," he mentions. Second coming: Today, Bakshi has figured out what he wants to do, read an online retail venture along with some social initiatives. "Because money is needed," he says matter-of-factly. And this new setting leaves him with time to indulge in his other passion: acting. "Since my decision, I have a better sense of what to do," he says. With the online venture, he refuses to settle down at one place. "That way you grow roots," he says, "I don't want to get into that rut. I am happy." And that is the bottomline!
Recession-proof your life and family now!
George Mathew, 30, walked into my office. He had a worried look on his face. "What's the matter, George?" I asked. "It's the slowdown in the job market due to a recession that I am worried about. How will I pay for my living expenses and my loan EMIs if I lose my job?" Emergency fund: "A few simple steps should take care of that. First, you must create an emergency fund. To do so, you must put aside enough money to pay for your living expenses for six months. Living expenses must include home loan EMIs, insurance premiums and any other dues in addition to your monthly household expenses. This amount should be invested in a bank fixed deposit (FD). The advantage of a FD is that it can be easily liquidated in the event of a job loss. The emergency fund should not be used for any other purpose. It is your safety net," I replied. George nodded. Health insurance: "Second, you must have a health insurance policy that is independent of your employer. Group insurance schemes offered by employers do offer insurance at a low cost. However, in case your employment is terminated, your policy will also end soon. You must keep aside enough funds to purchase a new health insurance plan for you and your family. The premium can be ascertained by requesting a quote for a health cover from your insurance agent. This amount must be earmarked and used only if you are no longer employed and your current health cover has expired. Please ensure that the new policy has the same sum assured as your existing one," I continued. Line of credit: "Instead of an emergency fund, can I not just get a new credit card with a credit limit equal to that of the emergency fund?" George asked. I smiled. "This may be considered only in addition to the emergency fund. Credit card debt carries one of the highest interest rates and is best avoided. However, you can keep such a line of credit ready to use if you have exhausted your emergency fund and have still not found a job," I said. George felt better. He now knew he could handle a recession with this plan. He smiled and thanked me.
-Veer Sardesai
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http://menshealth.intoday.in/story/money-has-a-brand-new-definition/0/3899.html
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