Our Inner and Outer Scorecard

Recently, a friend bought “The Joys of Compounding” for me.

Here are my thoughts on Chapter 10!

To achieve inner success, we need to be authentic.

As we go through life, we’ve seen too many people who buy things to impress people they don’t even care. We pretend to be very different from who we really are.

Is it more important to care about how people think about us OR should we care about being real?

This creates what we call, Outer Scorecard and Inner Scorecard.

Unfortunately, most of us are celebrated when we share our successes and we are frowned upon when we share our failures. When you look successful, you have strangers waiting to be befriend you. When you are down, no one wants to be near you.

Inner Scorecard

At the end of the day, it is your inner scorecard that truly matters.

Relating it back to investing, here are some questions:

• Do you enter into certain companies because you have serious Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)? Do you know what are the fundamentals and valuations of the company?
• How do you feel when you are down -20% in your portfolio?
• How do you feel when you are up 20% in your portfolio?
• Do you share your successes and hide your failures because you are afraid that your friends may see you less knowledgeable?

Especially, in my line of work where I coach people in investing, it is risky to show my losses because they will lose faith in my coaching. But authenticity goes a long way.

I lost money in several occasions. Two notable ones are InnoTek and Zhong Ao Home Group. There are people who followed me and lost money too.

1. InnoTek – I was unstable emotionally because it was the first time I suffered a 40% decline. After I sold, the shares recovered and rallied above my average purchase cost.
2. Zhong Ao Home – I was blinded by their cheap valuation and ignored the quality aspect. The trade receivables issues was glaring yet I chose to ignore it.

These happened nearly two years ago.

I hold myself with high expectations. At times, I doubted myself and I nearly wanted to give up investing.

How could I… known to many people as an investing coach, made such obvious failures? It was so embarrassing and I could not face my community members without any form of guilt. It took time to recover.

Since then, I’ve grown a lot stronger and better at picking high quality stocks. And I am okay because I know it’s part of my journey to become a master investor.

At times, I underperformed the market. At times, I outperformed the market. Most importantly, I learned to be authentic at all times. This means speaking the truth and sharing my analysis without any fear.

An investor cannot be swayed too easily. If you are in a community of investors, it is very easy to get swayed by opinions from the crowd. You need to question whether there is any merit behind certain opinion. You measure your own research, thoughts and successes.

You live life being in control and you make the right decisions for yourself. Even if the decisions were wrong, you would pick up wonderful learning lessons.

If you feel that making 15% return in the stock market in great, then it’s great. Even if you do not hit 20%, no one can make you feel miserable. Only yourself.

Why make life difficult for yourself? At any point of your life, be happy and live by your own internal principles. Do not bend your principles to fit into any expectations.

Outer Scorecard

Do you dress in certain ways because you are afraid of being judged by others?

You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.

See, there are some famous people who lived very extravagant lives. However, when they are truly alone, we asked ourselves one question. Are they truly happy about who they are?

Bernie Madoff accumulated wealth through his Ponzi scheme yet he lived in constant fear.

If pursuing success, money, fame in certain way leads us to feeling unhappiness, loneliness and shame… then everything is for naught. I am not saying that pursuing wealth is wrong. But do it in a way where you feel that you’ve earned it the right way.

You can only find true happiness when you know you deserve the wealth.

Do you flaunt your wealth regularly because it makes you feel great? If that is true, you’re seeking happiness in the wrong places.

Only you can give yourself your self-worth, no one can make you feel any happier or sadder. No one.

Ending

Throughout our lives, it will be filled with multiple ups and downs. During those moments, don’t bend, be your own person. It is our principles that keep us as us. Find out what is going to make you happy emotionally and financially and stick to it. You want to live a fulfilling life, not an empty life.

Be authentic to yourself, then you can be authentic to the world. It’s much easier to be you.

Hope you enjoy this small sharing! Find me on Instagram and Facebook.