A few quick updates from Safal Niveshak HQ:
Special Anniversary Discounts:
🎁 The Sketchbook of Wisdom & Boundless: Now available at discounted prices for a limited time:
🎁 Mastermind Value Investing membership: ₹3000 off for new members. Click here to join now.
🎁 Value Investing Almanack newsletter: ₹3000 off on the annual plan. Click here to join now.
Offline Workshops:
Join me in-person (in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, or Mumbai) for a day of deep learning, reflection, and conversations around value investing and life. Click here for details and registration.
New Online Masterclass – The Art of Valuation:
A 3-hour live session on decoding intrinsic value and learning how great investors think about price vs. worth. Click here for details and registration.
Fourteen years ago, when I started Safal Niveshak, I didn’t really know what I was doing. Honestly, it was more of a heart decision than a head one. I didn’t have a business model or financial projections. I just knew I wanted to write, teach, and figure things out on my own terms.
But even without a plan, I was still wired like most people. And so, I kept wondering: “What will this get me?” How many readers? How much income? What sort of recognition? The truth is, I’ve spent many years chasing that question. Sometimes quietly, and sometimes desperately.
And that’s where I kept tripping. That one question, “What will this get me?” sounds harmless on the surface. But it creeps in and starts shaping every choice you make.
Should I write about this? Only if it goes viral. Should I launch this course? Only if the numbers look good. Should I work on this book? Only if there’s a clear, tangible payoff. And slowly, your work starts to lose its soul. You start doing things not because you feel pulled to them, but because you’re calculating what they’ll bring in return. You stop asking what feels true and start asking what looks profitable. And you start treating your own life like a balance sheet.
You see, the cost of only asking “What Will This Get Me?” is that this never stops asking for more.
You get the raise. Then you want the promotion. You get the promotion. Then you want the equity. You get the following. Then you want the influence. You get the influence. Then you want the fame.
It’s a treadmill. Except the treadmill isn’t broken. It’s perfectly designed to exhaust you.
And the real danger is subtle. When every project becomes a means to an end, you forget the joy of doing something for its own sake. You forget what it means to create without performing.
I’ve made this mistake more than I care to admit. And every time I’ve worked from that ROI (return on investment) mindset, something inside me has felt a little off. I have felt rushed, hollow, and transactional.
The funny thing is, some of the best things I’ve done, the ones that actually brought meaning, connection, and even some success, came to me from asking a very different question. And it was, “Who will this make me?”
That shift changed everything for me.
When I ask that second question, my lens changes. I stop thinking about outcomes, and I start thinking about growth. And I am not talking about growth in numbers. But growth in character, in in awareness.
So, my questions now become: Am I becoming more patient? Am I becoming more curious? More grounded? More generous with my time and attention?
Now, these are certainly harder questions. They don’t have easy answers. But they lead you somewhere deeper. Somewhere quieter.
The world pushes us to ask “what will this get me?” all the time. It’s everywhere. But those are temporary things. Yes, they’re addictive. But they don’t fill you in a lasting way. What fills you is the inner knowledge that you’re living in alignment with who you want to be. That you’re working in a way that builds you, not breaks you.
I’ve seen this lesson come up in other areas too. Parenting, for example. When I think of my children, I don’t just want to teach them how to be successful. I want them to ask, “Who am I becoming through the choices I’m making?” That’s the question that builds character. That’s the question that invites wisdom.
Or take money itself. We all want financial independence. But I’ve realized that real freedom isn’t just about money, but about becoming the kind of person who knows what to do with that freedom. Someone who doesn’t lose themselves chasing more. Someone who has enough inner quiet to know what matters.
This past year especially, ever since I started work on Boundless, I’ve been asking this question more and more. Before starting anything new, before saying yes to a collaboration, or even before writing a post, I pause and ask: If I do this, who will I become? And if the answer is someone more anxious, more distracted, more fake, then no matter how good the opportunity sounds, I try to walk away.
Because here’s what I know now. Life is short. Too short to optimise every hour and to turn every project into a KPI.
We don’t need more efficient outputs. We need richer inputs. We need more moments that, as Kurt Vonnegut had said, make our soul grow, not just feed our carefully-drawn spreadsheets.
So here I am, 14 years in with Safal Niveshak, still figuring things out. But if there’s one guiding star I want to follow going forward, it’s this:
Don’t just ask what this work will get me. Ask who this work will make me.
Will it make me the kind of person I’d want to become, even if no one’s watching? Will it shape my character, my voice, and my soul? And will it help me live a life that feels true, not just impressive?
Because if the work is changing me for the better, that’s already the biggest return on investment there is.
And that, my friend, is more than enough.
Safal Niveshak has been almost a one-person, self-funded initiative, and I expect to keep it this way. For me, true freedom has never lied in the liberty to do whatever I want, but in the liberty to not do what I do not want. Looking back at these 14 years, I am proud of holding on strong to that idea.
I must thank you, dear reader, for reading, for commenting, for your interest and support, for helping this entire movement of creating wiser investors become greater and spread wider. You are magnificent, and I am supremely grateful for your time and attention.
Just in case Safal Niveshak has touched your life, I would be happy and honoured to read your thoughts in the Comments section of this post.
Thanks again for being here and supplying the fuel of motivation to help me continue my walk. I seem to have come a long way, and I take inspiration from Dr. Seuss who wrote in Oh, the Places You’ll Go! –
You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So… get on your way!
– Vishal
P.S. A lot has happened in these 14 quick years. I’ve published more than 1,900 posts on the site. After adjusting for inactive readers, the Safal Niveshak tribe remains strong at 75,000 subscribers to the free newsletter – The Journal of Investing Wisdom.
Apart from that, over these years, more than 15,000 people have subscribed for courses like Mastermind, and other value investing masterclasses. I also restarted the Value Investing Almanack newsletter this year.
Also, my book – The Sketchbook of Wisdom – which I self-published in 2021, sold its 6500th copy this year (get your copy here). This year, I published my second book, Boundless, that has also received a wonderful reception.
The One Percent Show, which I launched in June 2021, has benefited from some amazing guests like Manish Chokhani, Prof. Sanjay Bakshi, Arnold Van Den Berg, Guy Spier, Mohnish Pabrai, Morgan Housel, William Green, and Leander Paes, among many others.
The Inner Game podcast that I launched last year, is on a run of its own. I just published my 102nd episode.