By Jacob Wolinsky. Originally published at ValueWalk.
The following is an excerpt from ValueWalk’s interview with Gautam Baid, CFA, portfolio manager at an SEC-registered investment advisor based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Gautam discusses the inspiration behind his book called ‘The Joys of Compounding’, the importance of choosing the right role models, and the top lessons he has learned from his parents. Check the full interview on ValueWalk Premium.
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You leave the title of the book ambiguous, The Joys of Compounding, and does that refer to information knowledge skills, and was that deliberate?
The compound effect it’s an action all the time and compounding permeates various aspects of our lives. The reason for keeping the title open and ended was that I wanted to write about compounding positive thoughts, compounding good habit, compounding good health, compounding wealth, compounding knowledge, and compounding goodwill. All these topics have been discussed in detail in the book.
Very nice. And there’s a lot to cover in the book. So I just want to start here. What was your favourite chapter to write?
This is a really tough one because there were many chapters thoroughly enjoyed writing. But if I had to choose just one, it would have to be the chapter titled The importance of choosing the right role models, features and associates in life, in which I pay tribute to my parents, my role models, my teachers. And since that was one of the most personal chapters to write, I would regard that as my personal favourite.
Yeah. The role models when you first arrived here in the US, who was your role model?
There were a host of role models. In fact, I’ve written an entire big acknowledgement section at the back of the book in which I pay tribute to all of them individually. It’s a long, long list, I recommend that should actually go through that entire list, the re long list, this book is basically my heartfelt tribute to all my role models and teachers in life. All of them have data very important role. But of course, first and foremost, my role models are my parents, first and foremost.
Yeah. What would you say is the most or some of the top lessons that you from your parents that you actively do every day.
Well, my noble mother taught me the importance of honesty, authenticity and humility. And my father taught me the big lesson about not believing and believing in others and helping others rise. I was academically a pretty weak students since my childhood. So in spite of all that, he kept on, you know, believing in my potential and, and he always lent a lot of moral support. So those are some of the, you know, important lessons that I took up from my parents.
Yeah. All right. Yeah. In the first chapter you write, everything in life can be a teacher. When you possess the right mindset for you, what is the right mindset to achieve this? And how do individuals keep their mindset sharp? And how do they refocus when they are feeling down?
To answer the first part of your question as to what is the right mindset to achieve this is just a single word. Answer all humility, humility, humility. Let me share a small passage from my book together. This important life principle is from the chapter on humility. advisory become, the more we realise how little we know, a lesser known and one of my all time favourite equation from Albert Einstein rings true ego equals one divided by knowledge, more than knowledge, less or the ego, less or the knowledge, more the ego. The deeper one dives into any field, the more humble one generally becomes. This is also known as the Dunning Kruger effect. By demonstrating intellectual humility and acknowledging what we don’t know we place ourselves into a beneficial position to learn more. That’s the dawning of wisdom.
Read Joys of Compounding full interview.
The post The Joys of Compounding With Gautam Baid appeared first on ValueWalk.
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