Here are two more quotes from Emerson’s essay on Compensation. Link is below the quoted text: Experienced men of the world know very well that it is best to pay scot and lot as they go along, and that a man often pays dear for a small frugality. The borrower runs in his own debt. […]
Category Archives: Self Help
Disasters can help you. Here’s How
I first read Emerson’s essay of Compensation as a teenager. In those days I wanted to be a millionaire (it was the 1970s and being a millionaire in dollar terms was to be very rich). I bought some books by Napoleon Hill and read them. And Napoleon Hill introduced me to Emerson. Specifically Ralph Waldo […]
A Necessary Part Of Your Education
I used to absolutely love James Michener novels. Here is the list of bestselling authors whose books I used to read repeatedly when I was young: I have always been a loner and controversial. As such I had to do something to keep myself entertained. And reading the books written by the authors above was […]
Career Advice from the Buddha
What career advice can you expect to get from the Buddha. In my opinion all that you need to know to master a profession – or any money making skill – is summarized in the following few verses: We are what we thinkAll that we are arises with our thoughts,With our thoughts we make the […]
On Learned Leisure
One of my earliest memories when I was young was being taught the virtue of hard work. My family and society emphasized working for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden. I am thinking in particular of my grandparents who lived through the Indian struggle for independence led by Mahatma Gandhi. My grandparents were very […]
Why I got robbed and what you can learn from it
What follows below is my personal experience: A person whom I thought was my friend kidnapped me and forced me to sign away a large part of my savings which were held in the form of equity shares traded on the stock exchange. I had made the mistake of boasting about my shareholdings to this […]
How to make a Powerful Impression on People
You will notice that I have said, a powerful impression, not necessarily a good impression. If that does not deter you read on. The best way to impress people is by not giving a damn what they think of you. Quoting from Emerson’s essay on Self Reliance: Honor is venerable to us because it is […]
Reading for Self Cultivation
Following is a paragraph from Gurcharan Das’s book, The Difficulty of Being Good. Mr. Das had taken early retirement from a successful corporate career and decided to take an academic holiday in which he did a lot of reading and thinking and discovered for himself the meaning of life. Here is how he went about […]
Why don’t People learn
I first came across this question – Why is it that people never learn – while reading the opening chapter of Shogun, the popular bestseller by James Clavell. If you are looking to be entertained by a rip roaring adventure while being exposed to Japanese culture that this is a book you will want to […]
A Guide For Wannabe Entrepreneurs
None of us likes to admit that we are mistaken or wrong about something. In my case and perhaps in the case of very many people I have a morbid fear of making mistakes. And this has had a disastrous effect on my online endeavors. This fear of making mistakes is a trait that might […]