My respectful greetings to fellow ValuePickr forum participants.
Today, what I’m sharing is an aspect of life close to my heart. The events I’ll be sharing below have been life shaping ones. They’ve transformed me into a different version of myself, albeit a better one. And, the stock market has had an influential role to play.
I do realise that I post excessively. The reason being the lack of creative channels my entire life. ValuePickr forum has given me an opportunity to learn from the veterans, the experienced, from like minded fellow members and express my thoughts. Please bear with me and help me become a better person.
So, I had, in another post shared my experience of a break of 3 months I had taken last year to learn more on investing. I was opposed but I persisted. And, it was a truly enlightening experience. But, the reason for this immense desire to learn more on investing has its roots in another monumental event of my life.
The Monumental Event:
I’m a student in my very early twenties. Some years back, I was a student of the 12th grade. Its believed that performance in the 12th grade is crucial for admission to a decent college. I’ve, since childhood struggled with mathematics. However, I had been able to do score well in mathematics exams by working extremely hard. But, in the 12th grade, the syllabus was beyond my comprehension. I’d spend hours staring at the formulae of differentiation, integration understanding nothing. My basics were weak. I memorised formulae but wouldn’t be able to solve problems. What good is memorisation of formulae if I’ve no understanding on how to use them? I couldn’t share my fear of poor basics in mathematics with anyone for the fear of scolding. My parents would have supported me and helped me understand better. But, my mind had concocted horrifying stories. I put on a facade of being confident of calculus. Exams were approaching. My nervousness was skyrocketing. I appeared for the exam. I had worked hard but wasn’t sure I’d score well.
2 months hence, results were declared. I had scored a mere 42% marks in mathematics. My family members were devastated. But, their concerns were assuaged when I was granted admission to a decent college on merit because my performance in physics and chemistry was very good. Things got better. But, I was a mental wreck. Struggling from the within. Doubting myself. First year of graduation passed quickly. Results were declared and I had failed in multiple subjects. I couldn’t believe my eyes. But, that was the truth. It was difficult for my parents to come to with terms with this failure. My mind had expected this failure but my heart wasn’t able to accept it. I then reappeared for the exams. Worked hard and passed them. Fortunately, I was eligible for promotion to second year of graduation. On academics front things got better but on the inside I was at the nadir. A broken person. I had no hope from life. It was during those days I got even more involved in investing. At college some of my friends would discuss trading. I’d just listen quietly. It alleviated some of my troubles. I decided to try a bit of trading. I requested a very small amount from my parents. They obviously refused to grant it to me. But, I kept trying and finally they relented. I was granted Rs. 2000 ( Two thousand). It may not seem like a big amount to fellow members. But, for me, it was life changing. It gave meaning to my meaningless life. I started trading and as expected I lost most of it in some time. But, it motivated me to learn more. I spent time reading, tracking investments, discussing with my friends stocks and academics. My feelings of hollowness, meaninglessness were replaced with vigour. A desire to achieve something. It’s trading/investing that helped me recover from the lowest point of my life. The stock market is not something abstract for me but it’s a friend who prevented me from giving up on life. I didn’t earn money but I earned a reason to live happily. I’m forever indebted to the stock market. It has helped me transform from a feeble, low self esteem person to someone who is patient, dedicated, optimistic.
It has made me who I am. Rescuing me from the dark hallways of my mind.
It’s an event that’ll remain etched in my memory for my entire life. I shall be forever grateful.
And, as a consequence of this development I took a break last year in May, 2017 to delve deeper in investing. I’ve shared my experience in detail on another thread. Hence, I’m not repeating it here.
This is the way my life changed for the better.
Has the stock market or trading/ investing played a contributory role in your life?
Please share your thoughts.