Winners of the Safal Niveshak 1st Anniversary Contest

A few announcements to make before I get to the Contest winners…

1. Safal Niveshak is now 1,000+ tribesmen strong. 🙂 Thank you so much for your support!
2. I’ve opened registrations for the Art of Investing Workshop in Pune on 18th August, Saturday. If you are in Pune, and have six hours to spend with me on that Saturday, you can click here to register for the Workshop.
3. The Mumbai Workshop on 21st was awesome in terms of interaction and deep discussions on value investing (one tribesman, Kiran, actually travelled 36 hours to attend the Workshop!). Delhi, we’ll meet this Saturday.

Now for the winners of the Safal Niveshak 1st Anniversary Contest.

First off, I’d like to thank everyone who submitted an entry. There were a lot of great submissions, and it was unfortunate that I could only have first, second and third place winners.

Anyways, apart from the first three winners of the Contest, I’ve made honourable mentions for seven more entries on the list.

Here are the third, second and first place winners, along with their response to the question “What does being a Safal Niveshak Tribe Member mean to you?”

Third Place: Rahul Koul

In the world of information dysentery, where there is so much to read / learn (not that it was not there earlier, but perhaps was not that accessible), one often loses on ‘simplicity’ & asking ‘WHY’.

Being Safal Niveshak Tribe member reminded me of childhood days, where almost everyone tries to get to the WHY of everything….As time passes by, we stop asking ‘Why?’

Reminding to un-complicate…to simplify…to ask ‘why’…in everything I do…is what Safal Niveshak membership means to me.

Rahul has won this best book on investing ever written…

Second Place: Harshad Parulekar

All of us run a rat race each and every day of our careers where we spend substantial time at work. But end of every day every person come right back home to his or her own family where he welcomed with smiling face, where he feels the warmth of other members of the family. This is how i can describe my experience with this tribe.

I have been an investor for quite some time now. What it mean is, I have gone through 100s of sites and 1000s of blogs and finally i have found my home. Thank you for this experience!

Harshad has won…

First Place: Shankar Patil

I think this is one of the toughest questions any member of an organization can face! Well let me try to answer ‘What does Safal Niveshak mean to me?’

It’s like a Father. It literally helped me when I was struggling to walk in the field of Investing. I don’t know whether I walked with it or it walked with me, but finally made me self-reliable, taught me to stand on my own legs.

It’s like a Mother. When I was struggling to open my mouth and talk in the field of investing, it talked to me again and again, made me to talk.

It’s like a teacher. When I just started to learn my lessons, it literally sat with me, taught me the ABCD of investing.

And finally it’s like a Friend. It was with me, not only when I was on cloud nine, but also was with me, when I shed tears.

Shankar has won a set of these three amazing books on investing…

Now for the seven honourable mentions (not in any order)…

First Honourable Mention: R K Chandrashekar

It means ”Empowerment”. It has made each one of us realize that we have the power, the tools and the abilities within ourselves to help us take Financial Decisions in a more disciplined manner than we ever imagined. A powerful force that was lying dormant has been unleashed. Jai ho Safal Niveshak!

Second Honourable Mention: Vivek Trivedi

Being a Safal Niveshak tribesman it’s all about “FEELING” which mean to me. Following are the major feelings described in Safal Niveshak style:
1. Feeling that I am part of intellect investing community
2. Feeling towards my approach impacted by Safal Niveshak
3. Feeling of vision that I may be a successful investor by following Safal Niveshak
4. Feeling that I am continually gaining knowledge and improving my behavior towards investing.
5. Feeling when I am seeing others doing silly things and their approach towards investing.
6. All last I feel Safal Niveshak in my day-to-day life.

Third Honourable Mention: Sunny Gupta

It means a wonderful journey! It’s about knowing that at least 900 people in the world near me (India, and that number will grow for sure) think and believe in what I’m learning, and they’re my classmates in this school (which I believe is one of the best courses I’ve or I’d ever take in life).

More than investing, it helps me realize and learn the “healthy” way of living. Since my association with value investing and Safal Niveshak, I’ve learnt that the first step towards success is to make sure you’re safe – safe in your area of competence – at least make sure you’re not delving into area which you’ve no clue about! Then, half the battle is one, since then, you know you’re safe and you’re confident about what you’re doing – so you cut out the stress, remain healthy and focus in the best manner on the job at hand, in case of value investing – on a rational analysis of business health and intrinsic value.

Fourth Honourable Mention: Manish Sharma

Just think about a situation that a blind man want to cross a busy road, full of traffic, noise and chaos and all sort of vehicles buzzing past him. In such a situation, he wishes just one thing. And that is the NEED of a HELPING HAND. I am like a blind person standing on the verge of Wall Street and Safal Niveshak is the Helping Hand!

Fifth Honourable Mention: Vikrant Upadhyay

The most important aspect of being a Safal Niveshak tribesman is being able to learn on a continuous basis. It means being able to ask question and be confident that you are not being judged for your question whether it’s a simple or complex, intelligent or dumb. It means being able to get answer of all questions without any bias, being able to share your thoughts and experiences with other tribesman and get to know their prospective. It means being able to circumvent our investing mistakes. It means being able to control my financial health and make wiser/disciplined and controlled decisions. To sum it, it really means a “lot”.

Sixth Honourable Mention: Sanjeev Bhatia

Being a Safal Niveshak tribesman brings a sense of community belonging which can’t be explained fully in words. It is like a team working devotedly and with sincere dedication to achieve a common objective where no body has any ego and everyone is working towards betterment of this wonderful initiative. From my side, I will always strive to share whatever little information or knowledge I have acquired over the years due to being in market or due to my CFP certification or otherwise.

During this journey, I have met many wonderful people who have taught me so many great things without an iota of selfishness or monetary incentive, and my idea of being a tribesman is to give back to society what I have been fortunate to receive. It is a great feeling being a member of such a group. Not just reading the Safal Niveshak posts, Reading comments of people like Mansoor, Mr. Chandrshekahr, Sri, Sudhir etc. all provides great insights. I just thank the day I stumbled upon this wonderful initiative in just a few days, I feel like it is my own baby.

Seventh Honourable Mention: Reni George

It’s here where I have felt like Tribesman. Tribe refers to a social group of people who are common and work collectively for development. Here the motto is not self development, but collective development. Collective development raises the Human Happiness Index. See the countries where there have been collective development, instead of self development, they are way above in Human Happiness Index.

So it feels great to be a tribesman, where there are many who are collectively responsible for my growth and where I am also responsible for the collective growth of my tribe. It’s here where I have sensed equality among people with various statures. Here there are people who are ready to listen and work collectively towards a bigger role, that is to free each member of this tribe to free himself from the financial worries that may impact a person’s life in the coming future which is not foreseeable

Congratulation to all the winners, and thanks to everyone who submitted an entry.

Anyways, that’s not all!

After I announced this contest, a long-time reader Sri made a very valid comment that the “real winners” of this contest should be the tribesmen who’ve walked with me for the longest time…and in the way have contributed a lot through their comments, ideas, and support.

It’s great to see a tribe member who’s bothered about the interests of his fellow tribesmen! And thus, as a special “thank you” gift from my side, each of the top five commentators on Safal Niveshak so far – Mansoor, Vikrant, Sanjeev, Sudhir, and Sri – will receive a copy each of…

Congratulation again to all the winners, and I thank everyone to have made Safal Niveshak such an amazing tribe where you are destined for success and happiness in life and investing.