Today, I was a gladiator.
It goes like this.
One of my investors had invested a sum of capital in 2017. Time went by, and I did my best. A month ago, he came at home and asked why our portfolio hasn’t doubled since covid crisis.* This was not a curiosity question, this was a blaming question. I knew exactly what he was saying. I said to him – Our portfolio hasn’t doubled since covid crisis, because it hadn’t been halved in the covid crisis. We never took any risk, and that paid off in the covid crisis. It was like this. For others, 100 became 50 in covid, and then doubled and became 100 again after covid. For us, it was like 100 were 100, because we’ve had already hedged, and it went on steady to become 120. We never take any risks. Even though we didn’t double, but we ultimately gained.
*He didn’t come alone. He brought his wife along to discuss business. He didn’t even have the guts to come alone. What a zandu personality!
He was already brainwashed. He was not ready to accept any logic.
Then he contacted me yesterday to withdraw his amount. I readily accepted and proceeded to withdraw. Then he argued about my profit sharing, which is 80/20. Obviously, I am taking the incentive only after making him profitable. He started to bargain and he was not ready to give me my incentive. He started to quarrel and use a loud voice and all the things an uneducated person does. Obviously, I can cut it from his portfolio and give him back the remaining amount. But… … …
Before but, let me give you some background.
He lived in our house as a tenant for 7 years. And all the 7 years, we were a nice landlords. His wife has been coming at our home since previous 25 years. I helped him when I was in Nagpur. I helped him with many online purchases. Everywhere and every time, we were nice to him. Always. Also, he is a professor, an educated person. And all he was haggling for was ₹30,000/-. Isn’t it amazing…! His terms were – out of the ₹47,000/-, he would give me only ₹17,000/-.
If anyone had given me a choice to take ₹30,000/- and I’d be ashamed for my whole life, obviously, I would have passed it without even blinking. Leave ₹30,000/-, try paying me 3 million for real and you’d know that I will light it up for sure…! Self-respect, earned, hard-worked, risk-taking self-respect never has a price…!
Obviously, I have had choices. One of which would have been to fight over legality and my whole incentive. Other choice would have been to accept the 17,000/- to not let things go further. To not let that uneducated man show more of his bottom. To accept relationship over money.
I was on my heaviest squat set, 160kg. The phone rung on my 5th rep. I knew who it was. I continued till failure and completed 7 reps. I picked up the phone.
He said, “So what have you decided?”
I said, “I’ll transfer the amount.”
He said, “How much?”
I said, “The whole.”
He was stunned. He asked, “What do you mean by whole?”
I said, “I won’t even take a rupee as an incentive.”
He had his tail between his legs. He said, “No, This is not what I meant. I am coming over your place. blah blah blah…”
I said, “There is no need to meet now, or ever.”
I said, “Your money is in your account even before finishing this call. Full money. Have it. I don’t want money of an uneducated, distrusting person.”
He asked me, “You are out of breath.”
I said, “I am in the gym, you are not allowed to disturb me, ever.”
God, I felt like a LION, A ROARING LION… … …!!! The feeling, unique, novel, once in a lifetime feeling!
₹47,000/- is a very little money to feel like a Lion. That dirtiness was in my life for previous many years. I helped that dirtiness with my morality and happiness. For ₹47,000/-, that dirtiness will never ever touch me again.
Adios…