When you start your career…you have some needs. In college you learnt that is was nicely tabulated by one Maslow and it is called the Need Hierarchy. A hungry person is hardly going to bother about whether the person feeding him has any respect for him. His hunger takes top priority.

Similarly only a person earning well is worried about recognition.

In school / college / early life I would have been thrilled with the following things….

1. a Doctorate in my field
2. a medal
3. publishing a book

Let us see what happened over the past 30 years…from 1982 when I graduated and did CA.

I was asked by many people – including practitioners saying a “PhD” helps. I could have done a PhD in why the share transfer form has 23 lines or why is it green in color. Yes, it would have been a PhD in “Investments” and I could have landed a job in a college, and would have been called a “Prof”. Well I resisted the greed for a ‘Dr’ tag. I am very happy that I did not do my PhD. I now do a lot of work with pharma companies. Some of them book my ticket as ‘Dr. P V Subramanyam’ and that is the closest that I have come to being a doctor. No, I am not missing the title at all.

I started running a few years ago and I realized that in order to attract more ‘participants’ medals were given to every body…repeat every body. All you needed to do was to fill up a form and show up. The medal became a joke, but many people came to running just to show off the medals. Many non runners are impressed by somebody showing off say 50 medals – I would have more than that if I had collected and kept all the medals!! Imagine what a waste of precious resources – the ribbon and the metal. No runner will ever be impressed by the medals. He/she knows how it is got, right? Just show up!!

Publishing a book – the worst thing that people can tell a published author is “I do not get time to write…how do you get time to write”. I do not understand. If I gave you my laptop (or pen) does it mean you will write like me? or that if you got time you could write? write well? write a book that sells? write a book that makes people want you to come to address their employees? or students? the IITs, the IIM, management schools, colleges, schools, the army, police, banks, doctors, chartered accountants (oops!),  – and pay your money to do it? Please, all authors are not the same. Many people write, sure. Some people say they cannot write because they are too busy. Or that they do not have time. Or….dammit. It is like me saying “I did not play cricket like SRT because I didn’t have time to play. Gimme a break.

So now what motivates me? Nothing. Actually nothing.

However, I enjoy talking about money. Investments. the Process. the experience. Retirement. Children and money……so I do that.

Of course I write. I write pretty prolific on my blog….which you are reading…

My work has been published too…and yes it has sold a few copies…again I do not know whether it was talent or plain bloody luck.