A Hobby Which Can Lead to Your Dream Job

“Never give up on anything which gives you happiness, you never know how a childhood passion might lead to one of the greatest achievements in your life.”

A hobby that brings happiness is the best, but one that brings money along with it is better than the best. The stock market, banking and business are the most competitive spheres one can ever get in. But one must know how to make space for oneself by starting early on. A hobby that you have in your early life can make a huge difference in the path ahead of you. The hobby a future banker has is analysing and investing. A hobby of reading the name of a new brand and getting to its roots is a rare one to find. Looking about companies for their history, management, product lines, mergers and acquisitions, stock price movement and branding helps you to know everything about the parent of a shampoo or a packet of chips that you are holding in your hand.

As the interest deepens, there is an inner voice which speaks to you and tells you to put the knowledge to use. Then, you come across the stock market. After you take up some more courses on it, you realise that it is not that simple to invest and that you are underage to have a Demat (Dematerialization) account. After a short period of hopelessness, your school provides you with opportunities to participate in investment competitions, like Mock Stocks. As you win a series of them, this hobby transforms into investment in virtual stock market platforms, like IQ Option, Dalal Street, Zerodha, etc. This series of new introduction in the line of investment never ends. It is followed up by cryptocurrency, trade wars, news analysis, portfolio management and whatnot.

In this case, banking was the next step. Learning about insurance and loaning system of banks is fascinating because now you know how most of the big businesses got their initial sum of investment. One fine day, you realize that Demat account can be opened in your name and you can trade in the actual shares market with the details of your parents. This is a new venture for this everlasting hobby. A few minor trades, some profits, more losses, tracking the stock’s every movement and the heartbeat’s lub-dub’s synchronization with the price index are common features for a beginner.

Going into the best Finance colleges, such as Shri Ram College of Commerce, IIMs, Wharton University and Harvard, is the next stepping stones in the process. These colleges look for investment geeks and offer innumerable opportunities to them. This hobby is one, which can be transformed into a future career path. Avenues, like financial analyst, fund manager, portfolio manager, risk manager, hedge fund manager, alternative investment analyst, stockbroker, risk analyst, rating analyst, private equity associate, and more, are open in front of you.

A career, which is based not only on profit motive but also a childhood fantasy, is truly desirable. These dream-jobs might make you a money-making machine, but the child in you will never let your emotions dry out. Coming on to emotions, emotions are the most important thing an investor must know how to handle, and each and every one of them learns this from a quote by Warren Buffet, “If you can’t control your emotions, you can’t control your money.”

Knowledge like this comes from experience and the most efficient way to unlock the learnings from others are books. In the investment world, the following books are prerequisites: The Intelligent Investor, Letter to Shareholders, Rich Dad Poor Dad and Shoe Dog. But these lessons are not limited to the silent pages of a book, there is an infinite number of courses available. Some of the best ones in India are E-learn Markets, Shine Projects and High school programs by colleges, like Shri Ram College of Commerce and Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce. You get to learn about Porter’s 5 forces, SWOT Analysis, Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis, which empower you to judge the quality of any company’s stock.

Finally, what one learns while investing is leadership due to the sole ability to make calculative decisions and handling losses! An investor leads by managing risks in all endeavours of life. Earning bills also give you the power and ability to help those in need. Not only money, but it is also the heart that controls philanthropy. This need not only be in the form of food or clothes to the needy but also educating children about your field of expertise is a part of it. Hobbies motivate you to earn the respect of others more than anything else.

The beauty of a hobby is that it never makes you tired of doing what you do, rather it burns the fire in you to work smarter and harder. So, pursue your dreams so that there are no regrets and you can never say, “Those were the days.”

By Ansh Gupta