This is the 150th blog on my website. Such milestones are rare and they should be celebrated. Therefore, I invited a friend to write one. The 50th blog was written by PJ, the 75th by Anshul, the 100th by Ankit, 125th by Bharath and now the 150th by my friend, Vishal Sarda. Vishal and I were classmates at MDI, Gurgaon. And since both our names started with V, we were assigned to the last row. And we had to shout from the last bench to score class participation marks. It was desperate class participation indeed!

Vishal is the CEO of SKCL Capital Pvt Ltd, a wealth management company that he founded, in Kolkata. Of the many amazing things, I was fascinated by the way he has structured his business and his life in such a way that it allows himself a lot of time to read and reflect. What you will find below are simple anecdotes with simple lessons. But these have been distilled over years.

For example, one of the lessons he has shared below is Simplicity trumps Complexity. It is not just an anecdote; it becomes a philosophy for how he runs his business. He has decentralized and empowered his Relationship Managers to think and act in the best interests of the client and manage all their transactions. The ethos of the company is simple and clear: do what is right for the client. No one is under any doubt as to what to do and not do. No one is making complex spreadsheets and pushing high margin useless products. Complexity is out; Simplicity is in. His Relationship Managers know what to sell and his clients know what to expect. And it becomes a mutually beneficial self reinforcing loop based on simplicity and trust.

I asked him for one blog, he wrote two and asked me to choose. I kept things simple and chose both. 🙂

Hope you read and enjoy them.

—

Blog 1: A few things that I learnt late in life

I was always a good student. Coming from a middle class business family, science education or civil services were never in my horizon. B.Com happened, so did MBA almost by default. When it came to finance, accounts and economics courses during MBA, I was naturally cocky, having studied some of these in school and college. And here I was competing against engineers who had no idea about micro, macro and double entry accounting system. I’d surely do better than them.It took one semester for the illusion to shatter. The relentless work ethic of some of my engineering batchmates ensured that soon they were outscoring me in my “forte”. 

This led to lesson one – diligence and work ethic beats prior knowledge. 

The 2 years in MBA school flew by and placement season came. It was somehow ingrained in my head that the first job should be in hardcore sales, which would lead to a marketing & branding job, which would lead to a strategy role and eventually to the corner office. And the best place to do all this was an FMCG company. I turned down the first offer made to me by a media conglomerate, simply because it was not “FMCG sales”. I got my “dream” job and started my journey to the corner office. It took one quarter to realise that selling soaps and lighting solutions to dealers in small towns and villages is not exactly “dreamy”. Especially when you don’t speak the language. My regional manager was doing the same job for 20 years and he was as far from the corner office as me. I quit. 

This led to lesson two – dreams should be flexible. 

Banking and wealth management happened by accident. India was at the cusp of a renaissance in mutual fund investments. Over the next two decades, mutual funds as a percentage of household wealth would grow from a rounding error to a meaningful chunk. I was at the right place at the right time. So I made the obvious choice – I quit, again. I started my own company with the intention of riding this wave. 

This led to lesson three – the right time to take a risk is NOW. 

In the ensuing two decades, India did well, investors did well, we did well. We saw people compounding their businesses and their wealth. We grew with them. We learnt about asset allocation, global markets, currencies, interest rates, regulations, taxation. We learnt about the greats of the “game”. We read, and read, and then read some more. We gradually developed our business and investing philosophy. 

This led to lesson four – simple trumps complex. 

The biggest asset we have acquired in the last two decades is our clients’ trust. Now their next generation is getting ready and they want to work with us. This is a great privilege and a great responsibility. I love talking to them, teaching them, learning from them.  

This led to lesson five – real education begins when formal education ends. 

—

Blog 2: Books that have stayed with me

Food Rules – Michael Pollan

No one simplifies food like Michael Pollan. For this seminal book, he went on a 10 year journey interviewing scientists, dieticians, analysing genetics, traditional food, modern food, research papers and everything else one can think of to find out one truth – which food / diet is the best. His conclusion is summarized in just 7 words – “Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants.” Anyone who remembers these 7 words and builds his / her eating habits around it, need not worry about any fancy diet, protein supplements and indeed about GLP-1’s. 

Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harrari

We are who we are because of the stories we tell each other. This is a stunning simplification of human evolution. We would not have emerged as the most dominant species on this planet had we not evolved to believe in collective stories – about a common God, a common mission, a common country. No other species, as per Harrari, has the ability to co-ordinate at a global scale believing in a common purpose, a common goal. This is what makes homo sapiens stand out, and rule the world. This book made me question reality. It also made me aware of why we still live in our little “herds”, why telling a story at the start of an article or a presentation makes it better, why social media is designed to amplify “stories” and not facts. 

Breath – James Nestor

5.5 seconds inhale, 5.5 seconds hold, 5.5 seconds exhale, resulting in 5.5 breaths per minute. This is a beautifully simple technique for healthy breathing and consequently healthy life. Nestor, experimented with himself, consulted doctors, scientists, yoga gurus, meditation experts and eventually boiled down to this simple technique which showed remarkable results on overall mental and physical health of the practitioner. And it is so simple. 

Born to Run – Christopher McDougall

I must admit, I hate running. Always have. Have never ran long enough to get the “runner’s high” which regular runners eulogize about. Therefore, I was really intrigued about this book. McDougall hated running. But then he went on a journey to understand the world’s greatest runners – the Tarahumara tribe in Central Mexico and the greatest race in the world. The conclusion was – humans are born to run, and everything we believe about running is probably wrong. I still don’t run (prefer swimming), but I’ve developed immense respect for those who do. 

When Breath becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi

I never knew doctors could write so beautifully. This is one of the few books that had me crying by the end. Imagine the irony – a hugely successful cancer surgeon, suffering from an incurable form of cancer. He knows everything there’s to know about the disease – the suffering, the physical and mental decline and the inevitability of it all. Kalanithi gives a unique insight into cancer from the eyes of a patient and a doctor. One day when cancer is cured for good, we will have poignant accounts like this to reflect on the greatest killer mankind has known.

—

Thank you Vishal for sharing you experiences and wisdom.