I wish all tribe members of Safal Niveshak a very happy Vijayadasami or Dussehra. As per Hindu tradition, today marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. Today also marks the victory of Lord Rama over demon Ravana.
Consider Ravana. He is depicted and described as having ten heads and as a follower of Shiva. He is a great scholar, a capable ruler and a maestro of the veena, but someone who wished to overpower the devas. His ten heads represent his knowledge of the six shastras and the four Vedas.
A negative interpretation of Ravana’s ten heads are the ten emotions or senses in humans –
- Kama (Lust),
- Krodha (Anger),
- Moha (Delusion),
- Lobha (Greed),
- Mada (Pride),
- Matsar (Envy),
- Manas (Mind),
- Buddhi (Intellect),
- Chitta (Will), and
- Ahamkara (Ego)
When it comes to investing, some of these emotions stand in between the investor and his long-term success.
As the story of Ravana depicts, the mind tends to shun all things good for our life and seek all things bad for our life. To attain wisdom, one of the most important things we must do is witness the tricks of the mind, and avoid playing the wrong hand as much as possible.
In the illustration that follows, I have tried to depict the ten emotions, or the ten demons, or the ten tricks of our minds, when it comes to investing. Print it, paste it on your work desk, and look at it often.
No investor can claim to master or kill these demons, but a knowledge of these residing within you is, I believe, pretty helpful.
Click on the image to open it in large size
Investing or otherwise, we all have demons inside of us. It’s our choice how many of them we feed, and how often.
The idea is to know and accept that they exist, and then learn to tame them before they eat us and our investment returns.
What do you say? Which of these demons do you feed most often? Share your thoughts in the Comments section of this post.
