Ep558: Priya Kumar – Don’t Trust Somebody With Your Money Blindly

Andrew Stotz 00:01
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community we know that to win in investing you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen arm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives to reduce risk in your life. Go to my worst investment ever.com And take the risk reduction assessment I've created from the lessons I've learned from more than 500 guests fellow risk takers this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz from a Stotz Academy and I'm here with featured guests. Priya Kumar, Priya, are you ready to join the mission?

Priya Kumar 00:41
Absolutely.

Andrew Stotz 00:42
I was just saying before I turned on the recorder that I just feel from your energy that I've just in a couple of minutes that we were talking before we turn on that this is going to be a fun time.

Priya Kumar 00:55
It all seems fun.

Andrew Stotz 00:58
Yes, that's a good point. So let me tell the audience a bit about you. Priya Kumar is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, Best Selling Author and now screenwriter. She's written 15 inspirational books that have won 42 international awards. She's worked with over 2000 multinational corporates across 47 countries and has touched over 3 million people through her workshops and books. Priya has written over 700 columns for national and international publications. Her work has been extensively featured by the media in India and abroad. And she has been invited as a celebrity guests on several business entertainment and reality shows Priya was awarded the Times of India speaking tree, good karma award as India's most inspirational author, my goodness, Priya, take a minute and fill in with us about the value that you bring to this wonderful world.

Priya Kumar 01:54
Thank you for the lovely introduction, and thank you for what you do. I have great admiration for your work, and especially that it's helping people, you know, because money is such a big issue. And I tell you, my purpose or something that drives me, you know, like sometimes people question the purpose is to help people realize that it's okay, you know, to take life as it comes, you can still find a way to be your best. And that best is always on an improvement scale. What you think today is, oh, this was wonderful, there is still more, and I am absolutely driven to help people discover more of themselves. And I feel that is a limitless bank, you know, and I like to do that with a personal example, with real stories with real applications. I'm not a theory person that I read this in a book sounds good. So you should do it, I prove it by my journey. And, you know, also set it right in the context. And it's just so magical to see people move past, you know, the obstacles that they have created for themselves, and find ways to be their best selves. So that is something that drives me it's something that is a value that keeps me going, despite all odds.

Andrew Stotz 03:18
It's fascinating the idea of kind of continuous improvement. And I'll share a story that my regular listeners know about me, which is when I was 16, I was in a lot of trouble with drugs and alcohol in high school back in America. And basically, I went through three different rehabs to try to get clean. And when I left the final rehab, it was June, June of 1983. And basically, it's basically been 40 years since I've had any alcohol or drugs in my life, which is amazing. So that worked. Well, number one, but what I really got the hook on was what you said is that, like your life can get better and better. And for 40 years, I just have kept going and trying to bring something better into my life and into my impact on the people around me. And it just gets better. But it doesn't get painless. Yeah, it's we got pain, we have struggles I, you know, lost my sister, I lost my father, I've had ups and downs in business and all that. But I can still say that life gets better and better. Because you can't get rid of pain. Pain is part of the process of life. So I just love that idea of trying to continually improve ourselves. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. And let me just ask you, before we get into the big question, I've got another question. What's the best way for people to engage with you to kind of see what you're talking about? You know, is it through one of your books? Is it through Instagram? It's through LinkedIn or is it through your website? What's the best way?

Priya Kumar 04:56
Um, my books are a great medium because I tell stories that inspire are real stories, you know, very well created. I can be reached out on Instagram, Twitter, my website, LinkedIn, well, yes, I tried to be everywhere, wherever I know that people are seeking, you know, some ideas of people are seeking tools for improvement. I'm there.

Andrew Stotz 05:25
Okay. And we'll have links to all that in the show notes. And ladies and gentlemen, if you just go to Amazon, you can see some of her books right there. In fact, this is an interesting one, which I just was thinking of how attractive it is, but it was called I will go with you the flight of a lifetime. But I just want to read this because I thought it was just so well crafted. What happens when a pilot entrusted with the lives of hundreds of passengers loses his mind and decides that life is not worth it, and chooses to end his life taking all the passengers and crew with him. The 300 passengers boarding the flight sl 502, from Dubai to New York believe that the rest like the rest of us that flying is the safest mode of travel. They haven't the faintest clue that the pilot in the driver's seat has decided to end his life midair by committing suicide. Well, not every passenger is unaware of impending danger, there is in the flight and astrologer humoring his fellow passengers with some predictions when he realizes that there is something deadly in common with all these predictions. Wow.

Priya Kumar 06:30
That's a great book. It's a great book, it talks about, you know, the main idea, of course, it's a thriller. It's an inspirational spiritual thriller. But the main point of the book is, does it end with life? I mean, does it end when the body dies? Or is there more and that is the exploration and that is an idea, which I have found people have agreed with. And, therefore it's liberating.

Andrew Stotz 06:56
Exciting, and I'll have links to all that in the show notes for those of you who are listening or watching so but let's, let's get into the story. Now it's time to show your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to and then tell us your story.

Priya Kumar 07:15
Um, well, it's, it starts from the fact that I don't know about others, but I am very when it comes to finances, when it comes to money. I'm pretty dogged. You know, it's like, I know how to earn it. I know how to spend it. But the other stuff I have no clue about, and thank God for my mother, who manages my finances still date, if it wouldn't have been for her. I don't know what I would have done. You know, so I'm telling you one of the worst mistakes which I learned the hard way. You know, I had an accountant. I mean, I have a small business. And like I said, I don't understand money, I feel money is energy. And it comes very easily to me, and I spend it with even greater ease. You know, I had always thought when I was growing up that I would consider myself rich if I don't have to look at the price tag. And I don't, you know, so you should. I learned the hard way. So I had an accountant who was managing my money. Actually, he was swindling my money. And you know what, I had no clue at all whatsoever. It was forgery. It was deceit. At a level you cannot imagine, to the point that I had no money in the bank. And I didn't know about, you know, so it just happened, like circumstances aligned. And it came to my notice through the bank that I have issued some checks, which I hadn't. And, you know, that was the last check that would ever be cleared from my bank. And I was so arrogant. I used to say, You know what, if I don't work for another 10 years, I can still maintain the lifestyle that I have. So now imagine from that, to no money in the bank and clueless. So anyways, the whole thing was reported the guy was caught. But even while he was caught, there was no way to bring the money back. I mean, it's been six years. The case is still open. It's still in court. I haven't gotten any money back because the money was spent in, you know, the, in the dark web, where, you know, he took money, but you don't know where it went it. I mean, it just opened up streams and streams and streams of further deceit where other people had been cheated. It went to I think about $100 million scam eventually. But here's the thing. How did this happen? You know, how did I not know about it? It was going on for a year and a half and When I realized it was very painful, actually, because it was a breach of trust, I trusted the guy who was working with me for eight years to handle my money and say, I used to sign blank checks and keep because I travel a lot. I mean, it was not still the time, it was not a digital savvy world then. And I think the worst mistake I ever made was to blindly trust somebody with your money, you know, because money also is it. It's like temptation, you have it all. You have access to it. And the boss or the person who creates it has no clue is really daft. And us people spend, you know, that kind of money on meaningless purses and stuff like that. And I think you're tempted to do something valuable with it, or whatever the guy is mindset wall. But it brought me back to zero. I mean, I have heard of people investing in stocks, investing in real estate and coming to zero, I had invested my money in a person with trust that you can handle it, it's your job, I pay you for it. And that broke and brought me in a similar situation with the people. I think I never confronted it. You know, it was just so biggest setback, I was so involved with the cops with the tax department with the finance department, that I never really got to confront my emotions about it, you know, for three months, I was involved. It took me by the way I am so daft it took me two weeks to understand. I had nothing. You know, I had nothing all the papers that

Andrew Stotz 11:37
I remember that day when you realize you had nothing.

Priya Kumar 11:42
It was, you know, I'm a motivational speaker. And I tell people that you know, when you hit rock bottom, the true test is how hard you will bounce back. I was there from, you know, a 10 year security to nothing. And that's when you realize, you shatter you don't bounce back. You know, it is a shattering experience. So yeah, it took me a while to stand up and there was no bouncing. There was no bring my security net was gone. So I have to do some rethinking on what I see and what is real.

Andrew Stotz 12:24
Yeah, it's interesting. Part of the thing I love about doing this podcast is that you realize that the people you want to work with are the people who have made mistakes, who are addressing those and are improving themselves from them. There's a lot of people out there that aren't that aware. And so I just love that aspect of it. So let me ask you, how would you describe the lessons that you learned from this?

Priya Kumar 12:49
Well, you know, they say, trust and faith is good. Yeah. But you should be aware, that doesn't mean put a blinder and do it blindly awareness and also putting a system around it, there should be agreement, and they should be timely checked, you know, you can't just walk around, like the wedding vows, you know, I think they should be reminded every six months, or there should be a review every six months. Are we on track with what we promised? So that went missing? And also, I don't know account? I'm not I can say I didn't know about? You know, and I studied it that Where did I go wrong? You know, I didn't know the processes. I didn't know the filing. I didn't know anything. I didn't know how to go to the bank. I didn't know where the bank is, I don't know till date, I am very wary of using an ATM. I mean, you can't get worse than that. You know, every time I use the ATM, it eats up my car. So something goes wrong. I can't remember numbers. And therefore it was easy for me to delegate it to somebody that knew handle it. But that was a mistake. And you can't do that on something that is a life support for you. Like I said, it's very tempting, you know, when people see $1 on the floor or somewhere, I don't know if they raise it and they will drop it, they just pocketed they've lucky if the lucky penny or whatever. It's not someone lost it. So I learned to learn finances and account so that I know where my money is going. And I know how to check if it has gone there.

Andrew Stotz 14:30
Beautiful. And maybe I'll share a couple of things that I take away from it. You know, I mean? The first thing is that I always tell people in the world of you know, having listened to so many stories. I one thing I know is in small business. The first thing you need to do is make sure you get your p&l, your profit and loss statement and your balance sheet every month.

Priya Kumar 14:52
Uh huh. Every month, that's something new I learned every

Andrew Stotz 14:55
month. Now this somebody that Oh, I just wait to the end of the year. Every six months or something every month, for a couple of reasons. Reason number one is that chances are, you probably don't have a system in place to even do that job. So this forces you to get that system in the place. Number two, why are you doing a business, you're doing a business to build the resources to either continue to expand your business or to expand your life in some way. So you need to understand your creation or destruction of resources, otherwise, you just end up five years from now, just you know, crashing. So the second one is to understand the, you know, the, the output of the energy that you're putting into it. And finally, the third one is said, you know, without, you don't need to become a financial or accounting specialist. But if you look at it every single month, over and over and over and over again, you start to understand it. Yeah. And so that's, you know, my big takeaway is, you know, do that. And then the other thing, of course, is cash reconcile when you get that balance sheet at the end of every month, and it has a cash amount on it, get your balance, get your statement from the bank and check the cash, and they should be pretty close. And that's called reconciling the accounts, right. And that's it, if you do that, my best friend who runs our coffee business here in Thailand, for one of the businesses I'm involved in, he was a major in Japanese, and he didn't know about accounting and finance, but we set up those systems. And over time, he became a financial manager. And I always tell people that finance adds no value. Finance is a mirror to give you a picture of your management decisions and their impact. And that's we need feedback on those management decisions. And the financial statements provide that. So that's kind of the thing that you really remind me of, and I do some work with companies and other individuals. And I basically always say, you can solve most of it's just like, if you wanted to say, someone wanted to lose weight, if you measured your weight every single morning, it's probably a good place to start. So anyways, anything you would add to that? Well,

Priya Kumar 17:32
thank you for that. I mean, it's so simple. No, I mean, I feel if it is simple, it's doable. It's the complexities that, you know, talk about deterrence, you know, of application on the standing, it's really, really simple. Another thing I want to tell you is that I lost a lot of money in partnership, you know, where we found the company made the investment. But I don't understand how companies are formed and don't understand the laws, I don't understand the exit clause, I don't understand the paperwork. And because it didn't work out, I lost, you know, and even to contest it, I have to pay more money. So it's a loss loss loss loss, just because I didn't understand, you know, and they don't tell you everything upfront, when you go to sign up, they make it sound so easy, and that you're going to make it big in the world. But when it comes to compliances, and penalties and paperwork, not right, you lose everything, and I don't know who's winning have to follow?

Andrew Stotz 18:37
Well, I would add in, I wrote a book called How to start building your wealth investing in the stock market. And I wrote it for women. In fact, I wrote it for five women. And the five women are my five nieces. And when each of them turned 18 and graduated from high school, I flew back to America with $3,000. And I gave it to them, but I said we're going to use this to set up an investment account. And I told him in this investment account, what I want you to do is buy this particular fund, and it's a fund that owns every stock in the world. You don't have to pick is, am I making a bet on India versus America? Nope. It just owns all American, all Indian, all Chinese, all different companies. Am I making a bet on the tech sector is too expensive or not? No, you don't need to make a bet on that because you're just owning all the companies in the world. And then I taught them just to you know, contribute to that on a monthly basis and, and grow your wealth through there. So you'll hear at the end of the podcast, I talk about create, grow, protect our wealth, we create our wealth through business. We grow our wealth through investing. And particularly nowadays, there's such easy investments in funds that own every stock in the world, that you can just focus on creating your wealth in your own business and then carefully investing in something like that. So it just you made me think about that when I was hearing what you were saying. Interesting, simple, simple is best. And when I started when I started in, you know, when I started in Thailand, I came to Thailand in 1992. And I started in the stock market in 1983. You couldn't even do that, right, you had to buy individual stocks. And, but I would also say, for most people out there, never, ever invest in someone else's business or that type of thing. The benefit of buying a stock that's in the stock market is that they have to go through a lot of regulations and disclosures. But most of the time when people invest in other people's businesses, they just lose all their money. Right? So, but that's another story for another time. So based upon what you learned from this story, and what you continue to learn, what action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Priya Kumar 20:54
Yeah, I feel that study and finances is something we're not taught to study, you know, I was never taught how to manage or, you know, grow money, or even how to deal with money. And it may be a smart idea to put some professional interest there. Because ultimately, that's where we're out to do. And that's something I did. And ever since I know, while I was very confident that oh, you cannot take money away from me anymore, then I had to learn more stuff, you know, how do you form a company, it's like, you can't just jump into the sea and say, oh, sorry, I don't know how to swim, you wouldn't do that. And you would learn that skill before you take jump into the water. And I feel everybody should learn basic of finances. And if they really want to be rich and wealthy and protected, like you said, there has to be a degree of professional investment in learning there. And that's been my greatest lesson. And I hope I don't come back on the podcast again. And if I do, you know, your own biggest story?

Andrew Stotz 22:01
Well, I'm sure that you've learned your lesson, and you're getting better every day. So let me ask you, what is a resource that you've either you've created, or that you'd recommend, whether it's a book or you know, your, your platforms, or some other resource that you do or use that you'd like to recommend to the audience?

Priya Kumar 22:20
Um, so two, one is, I have a series on YouTube, it's free, it's while creators of the future, so I did it over one year, a video a week in sequence, you know, where you can create anything that you want, I did it with the audience. So it's really cool. I did that about five years ago still works. That's a resource, I would highly recommend to people who are looking for systematic growth and are looking for achievement in a manner that once they finish they can duplicate. You know, I think that's a true measure of success. Can you do it again? Can you do it faster? Can you do it better? Second is my book it's called turn the tables from challenges to opportunities, where like what you're doing, I have put forward the worst, or the biggest challenges that I faced and how actually they proved they proved to be the biggest opportunities and how I capitalized on them and reached here. These are the two resources I would highly recommend.

Andrew Stotz 23:19
Fantastic. And I'll put that all in the show notes, ladies and gentlemen. So you can click and go. Last question, what is your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Priya Kumar 23:28
Well, for the next 12 months, my goal is to be centered, you know, centered, solid, and to do whatever it takes for me to find myself find that space, I'll tell you what I mean is like how you have a road with lots of cars, you know, going up, bumper to bumper, and somebody bangs into you. And that hit causes so many further hits, you know, so the temp QA actually did nothing, it's just bearing the impact of one person whose grounding was not stable enough. So while I get hit, I don't want that impact to go anywhere else, I should absorb it, I should deal with it. And I should become bigger with it. So the next 12 months really are focused on soul searching on finding myself finding a bigger space for myself as a person, so that I can, you know, live my life in a new viewpoint in a better viewpoint and a more spiritual viewpoint. So that is my objective.

Andrew Stotz 24:34
That's great inspiration for all of us. I know, you know, we've all had this whole pandemic and government actions and all kinds of stuff hit us. And we didn't do anything. Right, just hit us. And we've all been impacted in different ways. So let's hope that we can become more grounded like you and continue to build on that. So that's great. Well, listeners there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. If you haven't yet taken the risk reduction assessment, I challenge you to go to my worst investment ever.com right now and start building wealth the easy way by reducing risk. As we conclude, Priya, I want to thank you again for joining our mission and on behalf of a starts Academy I hereby award you um, nice status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience? Well,

Priya Kumar 25:30
be responsible, you know, whatever happens is my doing and my creation while it's easy to blame. I just then keep the door open for more losses to come forward. So my door is shut because I took responsibility and the key is in my pocket, you cannot take it out.

Andrew Stotz 25:50
Beautiful and that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. Let's celebrate that today. We added one more person to our mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.