My Worst Investment Ever January 2022
Ep502: Atul Sethi – Remember to Write Things Down
BIO: Atul Sethi is the founder and managing partner of Farnam Tree, an investment advisor based in Bangkok, which is currently under pre-licensing.
STORY: Atul bought stock in a retail business, but the share price plummeted due to poor corporate governance. He kept holding onto the stock in the hopes that the price would go back to what he’d bought it. Instead, it kept going down, and he lost a sizeable amount from his investment.
LEARNING: Pay great attention to the people at the helm of the company you want to invest in. Don’t anchor to the purchase price.
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Ep501: Paul Smith – Figure Out Your Secret Sauce First
BIO: Paul Smith is an independent corporate director and private investor with significant experience in the Financial Services and Investment Funds industries. He served as President and global CEO of CFA Institute from 2015 to 2019.
STORY: Paul and his friends put in money to start a hedge fund seeding business in Hong Kong. The financial crisis hit just when they had received about 40% funding and had to pay back the investors who chose to get out. The partners had to close down the business and lost quite a substantial investment.
LEARNING: Have a unique business model that investors will want to back. Don’t have a highly concentrated shareholder base. Get your business to at least $3 million as fast as possible to survive.
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Ep500: Dato’ James S. W. Foo – Find the Right Perspective
BIO: James Foo has been seasoned by nearly three decades of hard knocks and life-worthy experiences. He offers a unique view of life in entrepreneurship, with valuable insights and advice from a panoramic view of things that can save you time and help your company grow.
STORY: James badly wanted to be rich, and so when he saw his friend’s dad selling this incredible new machinery, he wanted to join him. James didn’t make a lot of background history on the machines and just started selling them to friends and family. After about nine months, the machines started working poorly and needed to be serviced. James had to return money to his customers when reaching his friend’s dad became futile.
LEARNING: Learn the difference between growing and scaling a business. Be aware of what’s happening around you to avoid getting into trouble unaware. Admit once you’ve done something wrong, then apologize and make amends.
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Ep499: Padmini Janaki – Nothing Is More Important Than Health
BIO: Padmini Janaki is the CEO and Co-founder of Mind&Mom, an AI app that predicts pregnancy abnormalities and cures.
STORY: Padmini chased success with everything she had because she believed that’s what she was born and raised to do. It wasn’t until she forgot to feed her daughter that she realized she’d been chasing the wrong thing.
LEARNING: Nothing or nobody is as important as you are. So invest a lot in yourself. If we don’t have health, we have nothing.
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Ep498: Bryan Clayton – Remember That New Things Bring New Risks
BIO: Bryan Clayton is CEO and co-founder of GreenPal, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals.
STORY: Bryan learned about Bitcoin from an employee who claimed to be a miner. He invested $10,000 without further research. Their Bitcoin wallet was hacked six months later, and he lost his entire investment.
LEARNING: Don’t do anything unless your whole heart and soul are in it. Understand all the risks you’re exposed to before getting into something new.
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Ep497: Puja Talesara Bhandari – Every Exit in Your Life Is an Entry Somewhere
BIO: Puja Talesara Bhandari is an internationally certified Life and Executive coach recognized globally for her out-of-the-box thinking and result-based approach.
STORY: Puja put her heart and soul for six months, only for it to be scrapped just 14 hours before its launch. She wasted another two months following up on why the project was canceled instead of moving on to other active projects.
LEARNING: You need to know when to stop trying. Always have your primary goal, but don’t lose sight of other goals.
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Ep496: Dr. Harish Pant – Think About Where You Are Focusing Your Attention
BIO: Dr. Harish Pant brings thirty-eight years of global and Indian experience spanning aerospace and defense, aviation, automotive, steel, engineering plastics, lightweighting and composites, industrial design, engineering services, and infra-trade.
STORY: Harish was a rising star, excelling in his profession and the youngest department head. Out of nowhere, a senior person was transferred to his department and became the new head. Harish was made the assistant department head. He didn’t understand why this happened and wasted a whole year trying to prove himself.
LEARNING: You’ve got to know when something is not worth your time, energy, and attention and, therefore, walk away.
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Ep495: Adrian Choo – Get Business Expertise Before Starting Your Own
BIO: Adrian Choo is the One and Only Career Strategist in Asia and is the founder of Career Agility International. In three years, he helped more than one thousand clients successfully achieve clarity to enjoy a happier and even more successful career.
STORY: Adrian and his friend started a technology company that ran for three years. They had to call it quits when they couldn’t scale the business.
LEARNING: Don’t go into business just because you want to be in business; acquire domain expertise first. Entrepreneurship is a long game.
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Ep494: Shang Saavedra – Learn About Saving Your Cents to Wealth
BIO: Shang Saavedra reached the ability to be work-optional by the time she was 31 years old by focusing on increasing her income, lowering her expenses, and investing all her savings.
STORY: Shang was ill-advised to buy a life insurance policy with the promise of getting 6-7% returns. She trusted the financial advisor without doing any research on the policy. The policy is barely making any returns.
LEARNING: Do due diligence on the motivations of any financial advisors that you take on. Scrutinize any figures and illustrations that you get.
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Ep493: Patrick Huey – Learn to Apply “Brief, Fly, Debrief” to Your Life
BIO: Patrick Huey is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy®, and an Accredited Tax Preparer.
STORY: Patrick bought a technology stock based on rumor and peer recommendation. He didn’t do any research and the stock ended up losing value.
LEARNING: Don’t just come into an investment seeking an investment, seek an outcome. Overestimate your risks and underestimate your gains.
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Ep492: Jacent Wamala – Gain Inspiration to Face a “Grief Storm”
BIO: Jacent Wamala is a licensed marriage and family therapist turned money mindset coach and wealth & wellness university founder.
STORY: Jacent accumulated huge student loans while in graduate school in her pursuit to fulfill societal expectations.
LEARNING: Put boundaries, stipulations, and structure in your life. Have a clear vision about where you want to be.
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Ep491: Ajinkya Kulkarni – Master the Process Not the Result
BIO: Ajinkya Kulkarni is the co-founder and CEO of WintWealth. His company offers high net-worth individuals and retail investors asset-backed fixed income products that provide higher returns than fixed bank deposits.
STORY: Ajinkya gave money to a friend who promised to give him a return of nine percent every month. After receiving returns for about a year, payments stopped. He never got back the money he had invested.
LEARNING: Focus on the investment process, not the result.
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Ep490: Neil Twa – Learn to Protect Yourself From Fraud
BIO: Neil Twa is the founder and CEO of Voltage Digital Marketing. He has been launching, operating, and growing private label e-commerce businesses for the last nine years.
STORY: Neil partnered with a local community on a project he believed would be a gamechanger. He found out that he was being defrauded and had to quit the project losing his entire investment.
LEARNING: Get a mentor. Know the people you partner with well before you get down to any business.
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DISCLAIMER: This content is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Readers should not consider statements made by the author(s) as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies. The author(s) cannot be held liable for any actions taken as a result of reading this article.