The Four Words That Have Outlasted Every Market Cycle

My first investment in the share of a company listed on a stock exchange was in 1977.

My first loss was in that very first investment I made in 1977.

Since that fateful day, the earth has orbited the sun 50 times. I have added 50 years of experience to my age and, hopefully, some of it has trickled into a pool of wisdom. We have been hurtling through the cosmos at 67,000 miles per hour and yet, somehow, we are right where we are. Rooted in one relatively finite spot in the infinite expanse of our galaxy. Luckily, the laws of gravity kept us anchored to Planet Earth and to Mother India.

But while gravity anchored our bodies to Planet Earth and to Mother India, our moral compass seems to have been swept footloose and shamelessly on another journey. An ongoing journey that is so diametrically opposite to the values our grandparents and parents bestowed on us that, if the photograph which you have garlanded in your home, (yes, the one that shows the elders smiling at you), if that photograph could talk, your parents and grandparents may shed a lake of tears.

All the material goods we have in our homes, the shining new car, the gold watches, the diamonds, emeralds and pearls; the brand name paintings hanging on our wall which don't stir our soul but stirred our pocket book and sealed our arrival into society, yes, all those things may be frowned upon by the garlanded photographs of our grandparents that adorn our glossy lux-painted walls.

In 1981, I was on my way to study for my MBA in the USA when my father gave me a letter which he asked me to open - but only when I reached my university. Dutifully, I opened it the day I reached my college dorm. My father shared with me what his school teacher told him when he was leaving Sindh (now in Pakistan) to study medicine in Bombay (now Mumbai): "Be Good. Do Good."

That's it.

Four words.

No, "get rich, son".

"Join Wall Street and rake it in."

"Milk the wallet of your customers of the bank you work for to buy the best car and a palatial home."

Nope, none of that.

Simple words to anchor my life.

Four. Words.

I have relayed these four words to my children: Be Good. Do Good.

And, with the flourish of a chef putting his mark on a family recipe, I add a few extra lines for a bit of flavour.

I have explained to my children that, as a father, I would be proud of them if they have:

Learnt a few languages, and music is a language,

Are good at basic mental math, no calculus, no trigonometry, just quick with numbers,

Know ten people in the world whom they have not seen for years and, were they to knock on any of these ten people's home at midnight, the door is opened, my children are given a welcoming hug, and never asked when they plan to leave.

I have not driven them to "build" something, to "create" something, to "do" something.

I believe that a parent's job is generational; to help build the foundation of moral conduct and let the children figure it out, on their own, at their pace of time.

Whatever that "it" is which earns them the money for the lifestyle they wish to live.

Of course, as a good Asian parent, I will happily pay for their education and give them enough money for the down payment to buy their first home.

Meanwhile, we are all hurtling around the sun at 19 miles per second while simultaneously performing the pirouette of a ballerina every second as the earth revolves around the sun and rotates on its own axis.

We don't feel that movement.

We are grounded by gravity: a universal law that binds us all.

Gravity holds us to the earth. We had no say in that. Gravitas is the weight that holds our character to something larger than ourselves. Fifty years ago, both seemed equally reliable. I am less certain about the second one today.

In 1979, while munching on chiwda and banana chips and drinking Campa Cola, I came across a cartoon in Mad Magazine.

On the top panel was a flock of white sheep surrounding one lone, single, black sheep.

That panel was labelled as "THEN".

In the "NOW" panel the same number of sheep were there but with a difference: there was one lonely white sheep surrounded by the many black sheep! That white sheep was looking very sheepish!

This was in 1979.

Imagine how many millions of black sheep are surrounding that lone white sheep today?

My father's school teacher gave him four words for a journey that took him from Sindh to Bombay. My father gave them to me on a journey that took me from Bombay to the USA - and back home. I have given the gift my father gave me to my children.

Be Good. Do Good.

Gravity kept me anchored to this earth through 50 years of hurtling through the cosmos. Four words have kept me anchored to something else.

Fifty years later, I have nothing more useful to add.

Let that sink in.

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