Compound Interest - It works - in all things except money too!

Was seeing the documentary - "Becoming Warren Buffet" a month ago. (The husband is a huge admirer of Warren Buffet and had sourced it as soon as it was released)

I quite enjoyed it, as I love deep diving into the minds of the people who have broken an orbit or more within a lifetime. It sure is a sign that they have discovered/developed/been blessed with something different, that has worked wonders for them. 

Warren Buffet said some wonderful things- 

The theme that ran right through his life and the single most important reason, he claims, for the massive wealth he was able to create - was - "Compound Interest works"

I'm not going to get into formulas in this post, but we do understand that the basis of compounding is consistently re-investing the interest received on the principal. It made complete sense in the context of investing. Adding the interest to your capital, gives exponential returns over the years.

There are 2 ways to get very wealthy :

1) Win a huge lottery or

2) Invest systematically and consistently while optimising costs 

Interestingly, Getting Spiritually rich also has 2 such similar concepts according to Buddhist Tradition:

1)  Satori

2)  Kensho

Michael Beckwith explained these two ways in an interview with Vishen Lakhiani : –

Satori – Satori is growth through an AHA moment. It is a sudden awakening experience where a person becomes aware of the truth and he suddenly KNOWS what he only believed previously. He sees it, he feels it. This is a profound liberating experience that immediately shifts the perception of a person and gives him a vision of the ultimate truth. However this is not a moment you can usually hold on to forever and also are relatively rare moments. It’s a bit like a lottery.

Kensho – Kensho is essentially growth through pain. These are moments when you deliberately let go of some of your limiting beliefs that have caused you pain and you learn the lesson that these beliefs don’t serve you anymore. You must have observed how your greatest learning came after the biggest challenges in your life. You can also choose not to learn the lessons, in which case, similar events will keep on occurring in your life, till you learn the lesson. Kensho is the learning from the pain you feel through life experiences. This learning is something we can choose to do deliberately, everyday, through meditation, self-introspection, awareness, mindfulness. This is a like compound interest. Needs to be done consistently  and levelled up as we go along. 

A lot of us usually wait around for Satori moments, when the Universe will magically align and the heavens will speak to us and tell us our purpose in life and true calling. Those moments, in my experience are usually a result of a snowball of Kensho moments.

Warren Buffets autobiography is called SNOWBALL for a reason. Everything that is powerful and durable in life takes time as well as many Kensho moments, to build up, i.e. Character, wealth, a good relationship, a great career, an abundant and fulfilled life.

Deep down we want to avoid the Kensho moments. Let’s not fear the Kensho moments, let’s embrace them for the lessons they bring us. As Richard Bach wrote in one of my favourite books, “Illusions” – “You seek problems because you need their gifts”

We will win more lotteries/Satori moments (at least they will feel like lotteries, when we systematically compound our investments & Kensho moments)

There are some practices which if we can deliberately adopt into our life that will snowball and make our life much more abundant and fulfilling. I will share those in the next blog.

Stay tuned

Alpa

If you are a woman and would like a complimentary coaching session, you can write to me at alpa.a.teli@gmail.com with a paragraph about yourself and what you wish to be coached on. I will be delighted to partner you on your growth journey.