Maximizing Profits

This isn’t a business post. It is not linked to anything remotely business.

Why am I saying so? Because we instantly associate profits with business and work. But is that the only way to look at it?

The past few weeks, in multiple conversations with colleagues and friends, and in my thoughts, I came across this theme. How to maximize profits?

Well, you see, it is how our minds work. How we retain what we have been taught. And of course, how work consumes so much of our daily lives!

But we would be amiss to think about profits only in the context of our work or business. Of course, profits in that arena is what we all want to maximize. To gain more and faster. To prove that we are contributing meaningfully with the right impact. To ensure we can justify what we do.

Profit also comes in the context of our relationships. The positive mind may think of how we are benefitting each other in a relationship. The circumspect one will also think about how are we maximizing our closeness to someone to benefit in some form and shape.

There’s another angle though. How do we profit collectively and become better – a better family, a better community. How do we maximize this?

Then, there’s profit in the context of our health. How do we profit from healthy habits to elongate our chances of living more? Or how do we maximize our profits from the workouts we engage in, and if there’s enough return on investment of time and energy.

But here also there’s another angle. How do we maximize our profits and hit our goals while allowing ourselves to enjoy the little pleasures of life?

How could I forget money matters and profit in that context. How do we ensure we are maximizing our returns and adopting the right strategy for investing our hard earned money? Or how do we maximize both short-term and long-term profits.

Of course, there is another angle here too. How do we maximize our knowledge and hold on financial matters, such that profits are a by-product and not left to the skill of others only or luck.

If you look at all these aspects – relationships, health, financial matters, work or business – they are all interrelated. If we don’t handle them in the right proportion, profits from one domain could be at the cost of a great loss in another.

That’s a rather tricky thing to achieve…

I have arrived!!

What makes us think that? And is it really ever true?

This last week, I was incessantly scrolling my Google app feed. There were a lot of articles related to financial advise, probably owing to my recent searches to identify certain investment decisions and taxation.

As I went through some of those articles, I ended up reading a detailed review of the data on income distribution in India and the US and how that’s becoming more lopsided over the years.

Consuming the laid out information, my mind went to how do I fare in these distribution models. As an individual and as a household.

I quickly began to think about what it means to lie in the top x% of the population and how we associate our success to how we have moved up that ladder through our lives. Except for maybe a few who were born with a silver spoon!

Figuring the progress from the start point felt like a self congratulatory realization. A pat on my back for what I have been able to achieve till now. Good while it lasted.

But as my mind raced in that direction, the next question that occurred to me was what was a target to seek? Am I happy with where I am or do I need to strive for more? And where to draw the line of satisfaction?

Thinking deeper, I also came to terms that financial success couldn’t be the only metric on which I can decide whether I have arrived or not…

There are many things that make up my life and existence. And while money is an important aspect of it, it’s not the only one in that list.

My relationships and my association with my family and friends is critical to my functioning. My health is important for me. The contribution of my work to a bigger cause matters to me.

So, while I may associate my success momentarily with how much money I make or what’s my net worth; but in the scheme of life, all those other things matter almost as much as money.

The only difference is that money is probably the easiest to quantify and hence the most exciting of the lot. Their value and importance in life only comes to the fore when there’s something specific happening.

That, however, shouldn’t be so. A good reminder to myself…

Money

It is what keeps the wheels of our world turning. Yet, there are very few things that hold behind them as much dichotomy as money…

It’s a source of livelihood. It’s also sometimes a reason for ending lives.

It helps us put food on the table, clothes on ourselves, and a shelter above our heads. It also often leads to worries in our mind, aches in our heart, and false pride in our eyes.

It allows us to be more connected and aware about the world. It also blinds us at times to what is happening nearby us.

We love it and want more of it for what it can do for us. We also hate it for what it can do to us or others.

Some of us clamour for it when we don’t have enough. Some do so even when they have more than enough.

It invites respect and creates a safety net around us. It also can incite jealousy making us less safe.

It allows us to help bring up our children in the best possible way. It also sometimes is the reason behind the spoilt ones.

It helps us to take care of our’s and our family’s needs when we grow old. It also often leads to infighting that divides and destroys that same family.

How so ever it may affect us or help us, there is no denying the fact that money has a very influential role in our lives.

And yet, very few of us understand how to handle it and remain sane, whether in scarcity or surplus!