Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Sundar Pichai. Warren Buffet. Naruto Uzumaki.
All of them attribute much of their success to their investment into their own personal development and wellbeing.
I thought I was doing it too.
But in 2018 I realized how mistaken I was. When I made a list of courses/services that I paid for in previous years which made me better personally/professionally.
To my surprise, the last investment I could think of was my college fees! Which my father paid for. Post that I was only earning, rather than learning. I could not think of anything where I paid for a service that made me better.
Why didn’t I invest in myself?
I feel this maybe because of the culture and how I was raised. Being born in a middle-class family, we were taught how to earn money, how to save money but never how to use money.
I never was able to convince myself to pay for a service. I would look for free alternatives, even if that meant inconvenience. The motto was “Save as much money as possible”.
My Failed Attempts
Between 2012 and 2017
- I tried learning guitar from youtube instead of paying for a teacher. Result: I learned only basic chords and didn’t continue.
- I learned how to code using free tutorials on the internet instead of buying a paid course. Result: didn’t learn many fundamentals.
- I never hired a personal trainer for workouts. Why pay if I can get all the information on internet & can save money. Result: Failed 4 different times.
- I didn’t invest in grooming/shopping. Result: average appearance & looks.
Little did I know, that in all these cases and many more, instead of saving money, I was just limiting my growth opportunities.
Best Returns (10x)
For past 2 years I am consciously trying to invest in myself. And with all honesty, I am very happy with the returns.
Here are a few of my recent investments in Abhinav Mittal:
| Investment | Amount | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Took football lessons | Rs 2,800 | Instantly improved ball control |
| Bought books (Atomic Habits, Why we sleep, The Psychology of money) | Rs 1,800 | Finally resolved my bad sleeping habit. Also added 4-5 new habits. High impact on my life |
| Attended motivational session by Gary Vaynerchuk | Rs 1,700 | It was okay to see him & his energy in person. Not all investments are great! :p |
| Executive startup program to learn how to build startups | Rs 1.2 Lakh | Grew my network, learned new business models, successfully raised 100k USD seed fund for our idea Ivory. One step closer to my dream. |
| Learning Art of clear writing (Sessions from Amit Varma) | Rs 12,000 | Still ongoing…(you can tell me if my writing is getting any good :p) |
| Vipassana | Free | Maybe the biggest turning point of my life. Increased happiness atleast 50 times. |
Few points to note:
- Not saying free things don’t add value. But to grow fast & further, I feel investing is required.
- At no point of time I had excess money. To say YES to any of these investments, I had to say NO to other things.
So tell me, what were your last 2 investments in yourself?
I can completely correlate with this as right from beginning I have always criticized tution going kids that why they are investing too much as things can be learnt by own and at no cost.
Now, when I look back at my failures I realise that instead of being egotistical, If I would have invested some money in coaching it could have made some difference though not turnaround.
There is a possibility that coaching might not have done the big difference but then also I think I could have given a bigger fight.
So I completely agree with you that we should not hesitate a little in investing on ourselves.
Totally agree.
I couldn’t paste it here.
But, my screensaver says – “Judge your days by how much you invested in your future self.”