CAN YOU DRIVE A CAR WITHOUT EVER LEARNING ABOUT IT?
It is a simple but powerful story. I guarantee you, after reading this story you will realize that perspective change was all you ever needed to know anything about investing.
Let’s directly jump into today’s story then:
No! Hell no! You can never drive a car without ever learning about it. So many things are there to learn. Even when you are an experienced driver, you still have a low probability of meeting with an accident. The chances are slim, but the probability will never be 0.
When you started going to driving school, you were first taught the basics (theory to be exact) about the car. Then after a few days when you got better at it. You chose the vehicle you want to learn to drive in.
Then you were given a car which was controlled by your trainer. Then you were guided by your trainer for a month or so. After that, you were given the learner’s license. You were supposed to drive on your own until you get the hang of it. It is a slow process. You start developing judgment of where to take the car when someone is overtaking. Should you slow or fasten the speed? Every single thing was taught, explained, practiced & experienced.
Only then you can pass the test for getting a driver’s license.
It does not end there, when you purchase a car, you get insurance, gears, accessories, etc., everything that you want, to make your journey as comfortable as possible.
Also, it is expected from everyone to know how to drive, which makes it a compulsory skillset to know. Just like driving, you have developed all sorts of skillsets like the skills you need in your profession you work in or know how to cook when you are living independently or playing your favorite instrument or even making your credit score better. All these skills are not something you learn overnight. These are skillsets that you have mastered over the years.
Similarly, why don’t we have the same mindset when it comes down to managing our own hard-earned money?
If you think about it, driving and investing are very-very similar to each other. Let me explain it to you. Just like driving, you need to first understand the basics (theory to be specific). It itself will take a long time to understand. You need to master the skills of interpreting financial statements or understanding economics at the micro and macro level or developing traits of an entrepreneur or understanding important terms of real estate, stocks, accounting ratios, etc. This will take years to understand if you invest an hour or so every single day. Being consistent is more important than being perfect at something.
Then after you have understood all these things, you choose which vehicle you want. The vehicle being the field of investing you want to get into. For example, you might wanna start with stocks, then slowly get into the business, and maybe then, when you have mastered the first two fields, then and only then you might get into real estate. So, it means you have 3 different types of vehicles to reach your financial goal/destination.
Now how can you master these fields? Get a mentor (just like a trainer while you were learning how to drive). Find someone who has already reached the destination/financial goal where you want to reach. Asking for help doesn’t mean you are weak; it only means you are hungry enough to do anything that is necessary to reach your goal. Every single thing will be taught, explained, practiced & experienced.
Only then you’ll be able to pass the test of becoming an investor. And it does not end there. When buy a car you get insurance but why doesn’t that happen when you are investing? Unfortunately, people don’t understand that. In stocks the insurance is stop-loss or in real estate, it may be house insurance or in business, there are different types of insurances like property insurance, liability insurance, workmen compensation insurance, etc. People just don’t understand that if you do not take any insurance before investing, of course, there is a chance of losing all of your money. It’s like driving a car without insurance. It’s like digging your own grave.
Get accessories for investing. You need a good working laptop with proper internet and security. You need to keep reading new books to keep your mind in the game. You need to maintain good relations with brokers and people. These small investments are good for your monetary investments. To make your journey as comfortable as possible you do whatever it takes to make everything go smoothly. Told you investing is a lot similar to driving a car.
The conclusion of this story is, during the time when you are almost 18 and you should know how to drive a car, you talk about it with your friends and family but not about money and earning? That is so dumb. Because when you turn 18 you should have the skillset to do both the things but how can you learn to drive after talking/learning/studying/practicing about it, & also learn about money without doing any of the above. How in the world are you supposed to do that?
I’ll leave that question in your mind and let you decide what kind of vehicle you want to drive? A little car which takes half of your salary as EMI, assuming that you have that job, till you complete paying off that loan OR do you want to have one of the fastest cars in the world which takes you to your destination as soon as possible assuming that you are not driving on Indian roads.
The choice is pretty much yours.
I want to make this one thing very clear to you. I am not comparing driving and investing in the literal sense. See driving can be learned in the time span of 2–3 weeks. But investing takes years of studies, hard work, and tons of experience. To become a sophisticated investor, one might even need more than a decade’s time. Depends from person to person. It’s a vast subject with too many different factors to consider. But my point here is, don’t think investing is an easy skill to master. I just compared driving with investing because of their similarity as a skill set that every person should know, just like any other skill to know to survive in this fast-changing world.
Thank you for sparing a few minutes of your time for this story.
I hope my content was worth reading.
