I was once talking to a public market investor who seemed very hesitant to reveal the stocks he had invested in, as if he was holding some trade secret or I could somehow derail his investments.
On the other hand, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala used to reportedly ask people to buy Titan, which he was himself heavily invested in.
This illustrates how pervasive the zero-sum mindset is — if you gain, somehow I will lose.
I have seen this mindset everywhere in life, including in B-school, where people would hide things from each other and then also blow a trumpet about how collaborative the B-school was. 😊
Maybe, evolution has embedded ‘finite opportunity’ mindset deep inside us. But we need to consciously step out of it.
Some of the most successful people I know are very generous. My friend Ashish Chordia would be an extreme example of that. And I know many more.
99.9% of the games in life are not zero sum.
Being open and generous gives you a 99% probability of being more successful and a 100% guarantee of being more happy.
– Rajan