Slower, Older, Smarter (SOS)

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When a huge Airbus A380 was flying across the Atlantic, there happened to be a small fighter jet patrolling nearby. The fighter pilot slowed down, flew side by side with the Airbus, and then greeted the old Airbus captain with the communication radio:
"Hi, Captain Airbus, is long-distance flying boring? Take care! Let me show you a rare flight show!"
After speaking, the little fighter began to roll, accelerate, break through the sonic barrier, climb rapidly, dazzling, and then dive almost to sea level at a breath-taking speed.
After the dazzling performance, the fighter flew back to the airbus. Asked: "How is it? Admire it?"
The old airbus captain replied: "Wow! Very impressive! But now let's watch my performance!"
So, the fighter stared at the Airbus to see what he was performing, but nothing happened. It continued to fly straight at the same speed.
Five minutes later, the old Airbus captain said to the fighter: "How about the performance? Admire it?"
The fighter pilot asked in confusion, "Ah? I didn't see any performances?"
The old Airbus captain smiled and said: "That's a pity, I just stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back of the plane to go to the bathroom, then drank a cup of coffee and ate a cinnamon cake, can you?"
The moral of the story: When we were young, we pursued performance and speed. However, with age and wisdom, calmness cannot be underestimated. This is the so-called S.O.S. - Slower, Older, Smarter.
Most of us would have made mistakes in our investing career when we started off as we were after performance and momentum. However, we ultimately mature and learn from our mistakes only to realise that investing to create wealth is more about Consistency and Longevity.
We also realise that performance will always have its ups and downs in the short term but will ultimately catch up over the long run. Thus SOS holds true even for investing - 'SLOWER' to not run after short term performance, 'OLDER' for staying invested over longer periods and 'SMARTER' for investing consistently irrespective of the market situation without following the herd. Remember, most of your stress comes from the way you respond, not the way life or the market is. Adjust your attitude. Be positive and all the extra stress is gone.
About the author

Satish Prabhu is an avid blogger and has written close to 300 blogs on the basics of investing. He prefers the short story-telling format for his blogs and writes motivational life stories which are then weaved to give a message on investing. While content writing is his forte, financial literacy initiatives are close to his heart. He feels that investors can create wealth not by investing more money but by improving their behaviour with money. His stories give the message of patience, perseverance and resilience, the keys behavioral traits to be imbibed by investors. He is greatly inspired by the book ‘Psychology of Money’ by Morgan Housel. You can read all his blogs on his LinkedIn page.
On the professional front, Satish is the Vice President & Head of Content & Direct Customer Engagement at Franklin Templeton (FT) Asset Management (India) Pvt. Ltd since December 2013. Prior to FT, he worked for 8 years with CRISIL Ltd. (a Standard and Poor’s Company) and for over 7 years with the Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd. (SHCIL).
He speaks at various investor education forums, conducts knowledge sharing sessions, webinars, podcasts for investors, advisors, relationship managers, corporates, among others.


















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