SOME LESSONS IN LIFE FROM RAAMDEO AGRAWAL

SOME LESSONS IN LIFE FROM RAAMDEO AGRAWAL

I have started doing a new series – I go out and talk to some of the most successful investors but not necessarily about stocks and markets. I try to present the man (or woman) behind the face you see on CNBC-TV18. The personal traits, the lessons of life, the likes, the dislikes, the achievements, the regrets and everything else and then what lessons

So yesterday I went out and shot at the swanky and large office of Motilal Oswal financial services and spoke to the face of the company – Raamdeo Agrawal, someone who is one of the proponents of value and growth investing. These are some interesting takeaways that came out from this interview

1)      Work on a solid foundation, rewards will come later: When asked what has been his biggest achievement, Raamdeo says completing his CA, even though it took time. He still rates the basic education as the most important stepping stone for his huge success

2)      No excuses: Raamdeo grew up in a village with no electricity and a very humble background. But that didn’t stop him from dreaming big and constantly working towards achieving that dream

3)      Enjoy your riches too and believe in giving: Raamdeo enjoys his life. He is an avid traveler. There are only 28 countries left in his bucket list and he will visit them over the next 5-10 years. He also believes in sharing wealth and does a lot of charity work which satisfies him a lot

4)      Take care of your employees: The facilities for employees at Motilal Oswal rival that of some of the biggest MNCs. And they keep working on improving that. According to Raamdeo, it’s more important to retain talent than finding good talent and they go all out to make sure their employees are happy

5)      Read, read and read: To be a successful investor or to be successful in general, Raamdeo believes it’s very important to read good books and treasure your collection of good books. Till this date, he has all the newsletters of Warren Buffet printed and hard bound and he keeps referring to them

6)      No regrets: If you take a calculated decision and it goes wrong – so be it. There have been instances where he has sold stocks right at the point of a start of multi bagger cycle. But then, if he had taken an educated call to sell the stock, he won’t regret it but won’t mind buying it higher again if his conviction tells him so.

7)      Price is last: For Raamdeo, price comes last. Most important is quality, then growth and finally price. His belief is that if quality and growth is sustained, price will have no option but to keep going up. The best example of this is Eicher Motors per Raamdeo.

You can catch the show all through weekend and once the Youtube edition is available, I will embed it on the blog. It was great learning and fun