What is Your Freedom Figure?

I attended the "Achievers Conference", few months back at Banglore where a number a number of international authors and speakers, had come and gave talks on the topics of their are of expertise. Notably, most of the topics were related to help participants create a passive income.

For the sake of clarity, let me explain the difference between Active income and Passive income. 

 

Active income is something, wherein your physical presence, time and skills are needed to create the income. For a job goer it may be salary, for a professional it may be his daily revenue through service and for a small shop keeper it may be his daily earnings through sales. In all the above scenarios the need for the person to be physically present becomes inevitable in order for the earning to be made.

 

Now let us say, due to some unforeseen happenings like a serious illness or an accident, the person is not able to go for work for few days together, it affects his earnings. For example, a Corporate employee may face loss of pay, a professional like a doctor or lawyer will not be able to render his service, which would translate to loss of revenue and for a small shop owner he may have to keep the shop closed, till he is back to normal. In all these cases, time loss equates to money loss.

 

Passive income on the other hand is the income generated, even without you needing to be physically present. Some examples of passive income is interest on deposits from banks, dividend on investment from companies, rental income from house property or commercial property, royalty income from sale of books, MLM, etc. In all these cases, even if the person is not able to be physically present for a substantial period of time, his income will continue to flow in from the respective sources.

 

Now coming back to the seminar, the seminar I attended had speakers, who talked about earning passive income through investing in house properties, writing book, creating an online membership site, selling e-books, investing in the equity market and commodity market. This programme attracted over 2000 people and it was clearly evident that there is a growing interest from people on creating a passive income. Taking into consideration the inflationary trends, the increasing living cost and in order to secure for a happy retirement, it is essential to think about creating a passive income. Moreover, creating a passive income also helps the family to be financially secure, in the event of death of the bread earning member of the family.

 

In this context, one of the speaker, talked about ascertaining something called a “Freedom figure”. He said everyone should identify his freedom figure and start working towards creating it. What he meant by freedom figure is the amount of money a person needs to have, in order to live the lifestyle he desires, even without working. Let us say, you need Rs. 1 lakh per month to live the life you desire, it means you have to create an investment portfolio, which will assure that the individual will earn a lakh of Rupees every month. That amount of investment is called the “Freedom figure”. Sounds easy, isn’t it? But if you look at it more deeply, you will understand it is a very complicated question. This is because the freedom figure will differ from time to time. What we may think is a good amount of money today, may look like too small an amount in a few years from now. It is because, we are never content with how much ever we earn. There are so many ways to spend money, when it comes to indulging in luxury and we will always end of comparing our lifestyle, with that of others. In this way, we can never be free. We will just end up in a vicious circle.

 

I think that this freedom figure is very much of an illusion. The real freedom figure, lies in our contentment. When you know that you can adopt yourself to any lifestyle based on the family’s financial situation or the external economic environment, you have found true freedom.

 

It is true, that we need to build a sufficient investment base, to take care of our financial security. But that does not mean, we should cease to work or get lazy. Real freedom is in the ability to try out new things, stay innovative, follow our passion, take risks and be willing to face the consequences of our own choice.

    D. Senthil Kannan,

    Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

    Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

The South Korean Growth Story

I had the opportunity to visit South Korea, as a part of the CII Business Delegation. We were a team of 10 members, representing different companies in India. We visited the Capital City, Seoul and one of the important port cities of the world, Busan. A trade meeting was organised by the Busan Foundation of International Activities, to enhance the scope of trade relation between the 2 countries. This visit served as an opportunity for me to learn more about Korea. We had a series of meetings with many Govt bodies and trade bodies and this gave me some insights into the growth story of Korea.

The economy of South Korea is the fourth largest economy in Asia and the 11th largest in the world. South Korea is famous for its spectacular rise from one of the poorest countries in the world to an advanced, high-income country in just one generation. This country has witnessed its biggest growth between 1960 and 1980, and still remains one of the fastest growing developed countries. It has been a head turner for many countries, as to how Korea has been able to achive this. These are the few pointers, I found that could be the possible reason for their quick growth.

One of the notable point is to know that Korea gained from its adversity. Korea was ruled by the Japanese till 1945. It is only after the 2^nd world war, when Japan lost to America, South Korea became a separate country with the support of America. As Korea was located in close proximity to Japan, it gained the American foot hold strength, which was the starting point of their growth story.

It is a well known fact that, Koreans are skilled in Ship Building & Ship Repairs. And this is a very big business, by itself. This has to a great extent helped them to be globally recognised, as a technologically advanced country. Some of their other strong areas include automobile manufacturing (Hyundai), Electronics (Samsung & LG), Armaments and Cosmetics. Today all the brands have become global and found in every household.

Another strength of South Korea, is that  they are constantly innovating. They are always looking for better way of doing things. They are not happy with  status quo. The principle of Kaizen (consistent performace, continuous improvement), seems to be in action everywhere in Korea. It is not surprising to note that  South Korea ranks No.1 in the world in 2015 Bloomberg Innovation Index.

South Korea is also considered a  safe place, to do business, as there has not been many incidents of frauds and cheating. This gives Korea a good image and makes it a safe country to do business with.

Every country has a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to make itself marketable to the other countries in the world. The Korean USP, is quiet interesting. The USP of Korea is “Quality of  Japan @ Prices of China”. We all know that Japanese quality is highly commendable, but bit expensive, whereas the Chinese products are very cheap, whereas not highly reliable on quality. The Koreans seem to have understood this and the result have come out with an unique promise which appeals to all the other countries, who are looking at a better alternative.

On the whole, the Korean growth story is characterised by their resilience, reliability,  innovation, competitive focus on their core areas and strategical positioning of their product in the global market.

Korea’s growth story is undoubtedly an inspirational one, especially for the fast developing countries of this millennium.

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

Widening the Perception

I remembered an incident, which happened in my life many years ago, during my college days in London.

 

It was a lazy Sunday morning and I had taken my dirty linen for wash to the coin operated washing booths, located nearby. Having stowed my laundry, I walked out and sat on the bench of a nearby garden.

 

As I was sitting there, enjoying the gentle rays of sunlight, a drunken British beggar came near me, and started talking to me in abusive language. In London, as you walk down the streets you could see some beggars, who come and ask you, “hello, can you spare a few pence, please?” This person was one such kind, but because he was drunk he was behaving a bit differently. He seemed to be disturbed, which in turn disturbed me. It was a very uncomfortable situation for me, sitting there and listening to all his blubbering. I showed I was not interested in hearing what he says, by turning away my face (just like what the British do).  He said, “You, ….…... (abusive words) guys, have come and robbed away all the jobs and we British or on the streets”.  I understood he was jobless and he was finding a vent to his feelings, by abusing me.  I was just seeing, how fast I could get away from this situation, just when a British lady who passed by, saw this happening and came to my rescue. She came and told the drunken guy to move out of the place or she will call the cops, in a commanding tone. She also told the drunken guy something, which I still fondly remember. She said, “He is our guest and it is not good manners to treat him like this”.

 

Both were British, but both had a different attitude towards an Indian. One person treated me like a “robber”, while the other person treated me like a “guest”.

 

Often in life the fact remains the same, but the way we perceive the fact makes all the difference. There are people who choose to live with a positive attitude, while there is a majority choosing a negative attitude.

 

While I lived in London, some of my Asian friends, used to say, these whites have a scorn towards the Asians & Blacks.  I used to revert back saying that, why should we think that way.  I believe that, no can make us feel inferior without our permission. It is only by we letting go our self esteem, we get into such a complex.

 

If alone we can keep our self esteem high, nothing in this world can affect us. If some one looks down at you, there is no reason to shun away from them. You can look straight into their eye and re-affirm that you are an equal. This is what Gandhiji, too preached. We do not have to allow external influence to have an effect on the way we look at life. In fact, by looking straight into their eye, you make a bold statement that you are honest and open about the relationship. This will help the other person to come in terms with you.

 

It is the same British people who treated the Indians, like dirt during our pre-independence time, who have conferred, the Man of the Millennium title to Mahathma Gandhi.

 

We human beings are evolving not only in our life style, but also in our consciousness. The more our consciousness grows, the more peaceful our lives would be. It is time; we widen our perspective and become willing to change our perception. The world is changing. Are you changing with the world?

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

We are All Equals

While having an informal chat with a friend from the training fraternity, Mr. Maaney Paul, he shared a thought provoking concept called the human layers. It made me reflect a little deeper on those thoughts.

 

Human being can be primarily divided into three layers – the physical layer, the mental layer and the spiritual layer.

 

The first layer is the physical layer. This is about our physical appearance, our material comforts and the social status we enjoy thereby. The physical layer differentiates us from one person to another. It either makes one feels superior or inferior to another. Very often, we describe a person by his physical attributes. We say a short, fat man with a bald head or a dark girl with squint eyes, so on and so forth. This description of our self may not be so comfortable, but that is how the world looks at us. Another component of the physical layer is our material status, in terms of the car we own, the house we live in and our life style. A man tries to establish his supremacy, in this world through his material status. The ego plays a very strong part in this layer.  If you look at it more deeply, you will realize that this desire has been there with us right from our childhood days. As kids we wanted to possess the best toys and wanted to show off to our friends, our newly acquired belongings. We used to take pride in our material possessions.  Is it not? Having grown up as adults, the game has not stopped. The game is the same, but only the toys have changed; instead of toy cars we have real  cars, instead of the plastic building blocks we own real buildings, instead of those battery operated toys we now like to possess the most modern electronic gadgets like laptop, mobile phone etc.

 

The second layer is our mental layer. The mental layer is not only about acquiring knowledge, but exhibiting our intelligence.  We learned and earned a number of degrees and proudly added them beside our name in our business cards, to prove that we were one among the elite few. It gave us a great sense of pride, to call ourselves as an educated person. We like to be branded as intellectuals, think tanks, and master minds. We gain a great sense of satisfaction, winning an intellectual argument and take pride in exhibiting our knowledge, even while discussing with friends and family members.

 

Our tendency to dominate others either physically or mentally always prevails.  It is absolutely OK to desire to be rich, to desire a nice life style, to want to look more attractive, to become more knowledgeable, etc. The problem comes only when we say, I want to be richer than so and so….. or I want to prove someone, that I am greater than him in such and such a way. When in the name of comparison, we degrade somebody, we are committing a great human sin.  There is no need to look at somebody as an inferior in order to feel that we are superior.

 

The third layer is the spiritual layer. It is at this layer that we realize our true inner self. There is no tendency to dominate or masking our true identity. Here is where we come in contact with our source and realize that we are no bigger than anybody else. In this layer, we are no different from a beggar on the street or a madman in asylum. It is the same soul. Every soul experiences the same feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, depression, fear, pain, anger, jealousy and so on. When we come to realize ourselves at this layer, our ego drops and we realize that we are a part of the whole and we have a responsibility to treat everyone as equals.

 

It is good to often remind ourselves in this layer. Maybe in our daily prayer.  In a state of total surrender to our creator, let us remember this beautiful quote, “Once the game is over the king and the pawn goes to the same box”. We are born equals and we will die as equals. So when we live, let us respect each human being, for what they are and not for whom they are.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com