Wow! PV Sindhu won the Olympic Silver. At that point in time it was clear that point in time PVS was one of the best badminton players in the world, if not THE BEST.

Can you or your child win an Olympic Medal?

Can you conquer the Everest Mountain?

Can you run the Full Marathon in sub 3 time (the world record is about 2 hours)?

Can you manage a portfolio like Vallabh Bhansali?

Actually these are wrong questions to ask. The question to ask is Can you (will you) follow the process that PVS followed for winning the Olympic medal? If you see the process that these kids (PVS, Saina, Sania, Deepa, …et al) follow and feel that you can you should aim for the Olympic gold.

PVS would get up everyday at 3am to reach Gopi’s training facility (I have seen the building from outside) at Hyderabad at 3.30 and spend the morning 1 hour getting some playing gyan from the guru. The guru spotted the 8 year old kid and put her through a real tough routine.

SHE DID NOT CRIB ABOUT THE SCHEDULE AND STUCK TO IT throughout her playing life.

He increased her strength training – look at that kid’s stamina – I am sure she is one of the fittest badminton players that we have had

She had a strict diet – and that included being denied junk food for long periods of time

She gave up school – which means other than badminton she has NO CAREER option. Requires guts.

She had complete, total and full trust on her Guru Gopichand – hats off to her, and her parents too

There maybe another Sindhu, but I am not sure whether there will be another Gopichand

How many of our other athletes were that careful about diet – Gopi personally ensured that they had their meals together.

Who Gopi you asked? Well well “Who Gopichand? the man who mortgaged his house to build a badminton training institute when he could have taken the easy route of endorsing Coke and getting a few million for it. Oh yes the same man who coached PVSINDHU. Just to remind kids what it is to stand for one’s Principles. If he took money he would have stood for his Principals…not for his Principles :-)”

I think I can pick a lot of holes in the training in some of the others…but this Drona-Arjuna combination was flawless..and remember at 21 she is a kid…and has a long way to go…When Gopi sets up such an amazing process..results will follow. She will win a bronze, silver, some more silver and then Gold. Very unlikely that she does not reach the top 4 in any tournament. She will bag a few golds in the future..God bless her.

Ask yourself:

Will you create a team of 2-3 people and 15 authors to learn about equity investing?

Will you spend 90 minutes a day in reading about equity investing?

Will you create an ‘ideal portfolio’ for yourself – of whatever amount – and benchmark yourself against a good fund scheme?

Will you benchmark your own created portfolio against the indices?

Will you maintain an investment diary to record your feelings about market conditions on a DAILY basis? In HANDWRITTEN FORM?

Will you maintain the ideal portfolio in HANDWRITTEN FORM?

Will you read, read, read the classics and ignore NOISE?

Will you create clubs for meeting and discussing concepts and company managements?

…now tell me who won?

PVSindhu or the Gopichand process?

the truth is every Drona is in search of an Arjun just as much as an Arjun is in search of a Drona. Drona can only suggest strategy and equip Arjuna. It is for Arjuna to get into the act and deliver thetho results.

Frankly I am not sure whether all our other athletes bring so much into the game as this PVS-Gopi combo. All those who do will win medals. Surely.

PS: why hand written diary, and portfolio in handwritten form? so that there is no temptation to delete the unpleasant bits later on.