INVEST IN YOURSELF FIRST

Shilpa Bhasin Mehra

We have financial advisors advising us on the stock market, buying homes, loans etc. (Although I must say this lot is a bit quiet nowadays with the only news being that of recession.)

Before you invest in any of these things, you should have already made a few wise investments of an entirely different nature. The very first thing you must invest in, from as young an age as possible, is yourself. This might sound like a philosophical concept, but without investing in yourself, you've got no chance of success in any other type of investment.

Invest in your own name and build your reputation. Everyone is given a name when they are born. It is up to us to make a good name for ourselves. If you make a promise, honour that commitment. If you say you will do something, make sure you do it. No false promises. Give people sufficient reason to have confidence in you. If you do not invest in your name and reputation, when the time comes to make a financial investment, it will be difficult to secure trust from others, whether it be banks, business partners, financial supporters, or references.

We need to invest in our studies and invest time to better ourselves and to absorb all the information and knowledge that we can. We need to invest in our health, because without that, the other things don't seem to be of any consequence. I am glad to see that people are so conscious about their health and are investing in it, and wisely so. Also remember to invest in your appearance and your image. Again, just like books, many people will judge you by your ‘cover'. That's why we see all the glossy cover magazines selling hard. Whether their content is worth a read or not, is a debatable issue!

Next, invest in other people. Invest in relationships and in establishing trusting alliances. Work on earning their respect. Right from childhood, invest in friendships. Always be willing to help others. It is from here that networking really stems: your network of friends. You cannot suddenly become social. The relations that you have around you are a result of your good and helpful nature since you were much younger.

We frown when we see the name of a person flashing on our mobile, because we know that person only calls for a favour. We don't want to take his call. On the other hand, we happily take a person's call who is always there to give us a helping hand, and we are willing to bend backwards to reciprocate his favours. I cannot call upon others for favours if I haven't done any. What goes around, comes around, it is said. So the only way I can reap good fruit from a relationship is if I have planted the right seed and watered it regularly. If I had ripped people off, people would not do business with me, because once you ruin your reputa-tion, it is very hard to undo the damage.

Law firms and lawyers work so hard to establish a name and a good reputation. Their goodwill is worth a lot. And why not! I remember when I was a junior I went to my boss and asked him how we could charge the client so much for just writing a page. It was a legal notice. He said we are not charging for the quantity of work but for our name and reputation that goes on our letter head. He was so right because we recovered a huge amount, by that one page letter, simply due to the weight of the good name and reputation that the law firm carried.

We often ask our client, who is the lawyer of the opposite side, because we want to know if any heavy weights of the legal profession are involved. If so, we know before hand that it's going to be a tough battle. They have earned a reputation of excellence in their work, thanks to their hard labour over the years.

Before making financial investments, we should invest in ourselves, our name and reputation, because only on a strong infrastructure can you build a strong superstructure. Then financial gains will come even without the aid of financial advisors.