Fetch Rock

Playing “go fetch me a rock” is a favourite time-pass for clients and managers.

You are asked to produce something with little or no details and no specific goal.

When you accomplish the task, the response is this is not what was required you are sent on another wild goose chase and this goes on and on.

It’s like “go fetch me a rock, no this is not the right size, get a bigger one, no this is not the right shape, go get me a different shape and so you rock-fetch, rock-fetch & rock fetch….

It’s a pointless, useless activity that just keeps people occupied without achieving anything and frustrates the hell out of people.

“Unfair”

It seems unfair when someone makes you fetch rocks likes this, isn’t it.

However so many of us don’t realise how we spend so much time fetching rocks ourselves without paying attention to what’s happening.

In India mythology, when Lord Hanuman was asked to fetch a certain herb with medicinal qualities and he couldn’t differentiate between the various herbs that were growing on the mountain from which he was supposed to get them, he picked up the entire mountain and got it, or so goes the story.

Well, at-least he knew he needed to fetch the herb even if he couldn’t identify the right one so he did what he thought was best.

However when you don’t know what you are going for, you spend a lot of your time on meaningless/pointless activities that are akin to “fetch-rock”.

End of the day, “fetch-rock” is like walking without a destination in mind and as they say “ if you don’t know where you are going, then you are Alice in Wonderland.

Simple to Complex

For generations, investors were used to getting steady yields in their fixed income portfolios.

There were pension benefits, bank deposits used to provide a good yield.

Life was simple.

You could be a saver and sail through.

You really didn’t need to identify how much you needed, things were simple.

First there was pension and if that was not enough, your bank deposit would make up for the shortfall.

No complex equations were required.

You had not need to think about investing.

It was not a necessity.

Over the last decade or so things changed dramatically.

Inflation got reined-in.

Interest rates dropped.

Savers used to stability were caught unawares.

Suddenly no rules applied anymore.

Follow the “Rabbit”

As the rabbit of low rates kept moving deeper the financial wonderland took investors on a fantasy trip.

Now you had to make decisions that you are not prepared for.

You don’t know what you need to achieve.

There is excitement as well as fear of the “unknown” and the financial roller coaster gives you the ride of the lifetime.

The excitement of equity markets overshadowed the objectives and suddenly people were all over the place.

The roller-coaster made emotions jump up & down and all people ended up doing was “fetch rocks”.

Jigsaw Puzzle

The question is are you in it for the “excitement” or for a purpose that is no longer fulfilled by the simple saving methods.

The “excitement” of the rise makes people often forget the purpose.

It becomes then a classic “rock-fetch”.

The jigsaw puzzle has a purpose and a method.

However if you randomly try to construct it, you can never put it all together.

There is good news

The good news is that this “rock-fetch” is in your control.

Like everything in life-for example studying to become a professional (doctor, Engineers etc.,) doing a business or job to find meaning and also making some dough, investing needs to have the defined goal.

Once the goal is in place, you will be fetching lesser rocks while solving the jigsaw successfully.

So defining a purpose and a goal as you see is critical not just while dealing with a boss/client or some other power but even in how you lead your life.

——————– HAPPY READING———————–