Ep648: Pia Singh – Mistakes Are Inevitable, So Be Prepared

Andrew Stotz 00:02
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, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives to join me go to my worst investment ever.com and sign up for our free weekly become a better investor newsletter where I share how to reduce risk and create grow and protect your wealth fellow risk takers this is your worst podcast Oh Is Andrew Stotz from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests piercing PA, are you ready to join the mission? Oh,

Pia Singh 00:40
I am excited.

Andrew Stotz 00:43
I am excited to have you and I'm enjoying our conversation we had before we turned on the microphone. So now the world gets to hear more, I want to introduce you to the audience. PETA is a growth a business growth strategist with 15 years of experience in helping companies find ways to save on the bottom line and drive top line growth. She is a recognized growth strategist with excellent strategic planning capabilities. She is a part of two world records in training and business growth and has authored four books on business startup and scaleups. Nowadays, P is applying years of experience to build a brain health company, the mind Smith, Pa take a moment and tell us about the unique value you are bringing to this wonderful world.

Pia Singh 01:35
Oh, well, thank you so much. I think if I had to sum it up in one line, I'd say that smart people learn from their mistakes, but the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others. Right. So what I am bringing to the world is the gaps that people oversee in their brain health in the most important organ of the body, the control center of our body, our brain. So I'm trying to plug those gaps so that people can optimize their health, their emotions, their well being, and in turn the life that they live.

Andrew Stotz 02:18
That's valuable. I mean, I would say, the COVID situation over the last couple of years really messed up people's brains. Yes. And also add on top of it, the divisions that are caused by social media that exacerbate divisions, and then add on to it the attention disaster and that mobile phones are doing to the youth and the people of this world. I mean, I've read 1000s of books, and I can't hardly read a book anymore. It's like I get stuck into YouTube. And I just think that, right. And to add on top of that, something that you and I just were talking about before we turn on the microphone and said, and everybody's looking for a pill. That's a problem. Even like my mom, I know when she first I brought my mother from America when my father passed away. And she had high blood pressure. And I said, we're gonna work on this, not through medicine, but through nutrition, and you know, weight and stuff like that. And it took a time, but eventually she got off that medicine. And, you know, we have different foods and other things that we use to try to reduce the blood pressure. But the key thing is, you know, I just remember my mom saying, can you just give me a pill? So you know that that's one of the things we're fighting against. But maybe just, if you could, for a moment, explain the type of challenges or problem that your typical customer would have, so that the listeners could see if what you're doing is suitable for them and then tell them where they should go to learn about them?

Pia Singh 03:52
Absolutely, absolutely. So my ambition with the mind Smith is a world where every person realizes their desired emotional, psychological, as well as social potential, we all have so much of potential. And we all have stressors, right? So you could have a very bad day at work, and you would come home and blast your wife, the wife plus the, you know, gets angry of the kid, the kid kicks the dog. So you know, all those things. Then sometimes what happens is that there are things that you love to do, though you were so much into them, and then suddenly you have lost interest suddenly, you don't feel like doing that. You could probably be losing sleep. You could probably be having problems in bedroom. You could have erectile dysfunctions, you could have, you know, problems to do with your sexual life. You're into Life, you could be addicted, you could be getting into substance use, which is not healthy, right? You could be, you know, you could have that high level of anxiety, the minute you enter into a room full of people, you're not so comfortable anymore, you could have had cases of physical or mental abuse as a kid or as a grown up, you know, and now, your confidence has really gone down, and you don't really know how to cope with things. So for any individual, the biology works the same way, our body functions almost in a similar fashion, the process remains same, right? But the way every individual is able to deal with stressors in their lives is different. Because you know, we're unique, our lives are unique, our stressors are unique, what might be a very small thing for my friend could be a very hard hitting thing for me. And that's perfectly fine. Well, there are things wherein you feel sad, withdrawn, you could feel around this life is not worth living anymore, you could not understand what the purpose is, why am I doing all this? Right? So all these things, when you are not functioning at an optimal level of what you would be, it is something that can be addressed. And that is, if there's one thing I want you to take away from the whole thing that I have been I've been saying it is that any thing anything that is making you unhappy, and is coming from inside can be managed.

Andrew Stotz 06:58
Exciting, and where should people go if they want to learn more about what you're doing?

Pia Singh 07:04
So most of it is on our social media pages, the social media handle is at the rate mind Smith, India, you can also go to our website, but as more you know, less on information more on the process, it is mind smith.co.in. So you could actually visit our social media, we have presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and we put out a lot of content that can help

Andrew Stotz 07:34
people. And I'll have links to all that in the show notes, ladies and gentlemen. So if you want to learn more, come and click Well, now it's time to share 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 it, then tell us your story.

Pia Singh 07:50
Well, it's actually a very interesting one. Let me go back a few years. So this is me, I am 29. And the marriage is fixed. And I'm supposed to get married in a couple of months. And when I say couple of months, I'm talking about three to four months PDA, and I'm supposed to get married. Now, like all brown parents it is my parents were like, you know, oh, we need to do this, we need to do that. Then it gets a lot out of hand and out of budget. This is the time when I'm thinking oh my god, what can I do to help them. And one of my very good friends from Royal Bank of Scotland, my ex colleague happened to just contact me and she's like, you know, I am building a business. And I would very much want you to be a part of it. And it gives you very early returns. And why don't you give it a try? Oh, and you know, suddenly as if by coincidence, you're I'm thinking that I need to help my parents financially. And from the other side, my friend reaches out and tells me there's an opportunity. So wow, I went, I met her. And it looked like the beautiful plan. It was all on paper, the numbers were all there. They were achievable. And I thought wow, I mean, this is gonna give me good sort of money in next three to four months. So let me go ahead with it. I invested a considerable amount, which very stupidly I pulled out of the funds kept for my marriage, which was supposed to happen in three months. So I pulled out a substantial amount. I put it in that business. And now I have all gotten over it right. I go to the meetings I try to build it up. I follow the process. I do what they asked me to do I work the numbers, you know, sales is numbers, you do 20 pitches, you could work two you do 200 pitches, you can work 20. So something like that is where, you know, if you are, if you have a sales background, you would know that. So I'm like, yes. Okay, numbers I can do. So I tried all the processes that everything that I could have done. And four months passed away. And I was in a deficient and the amount of funds that were available, were taken off, I had no profits. And then we had to take a loan to basically compensate for the withdrawal that I. So that was my worst investment.

Andrew Stotz 10:51
And how did you wrap it up? I mean, like, how did you exit it? Or say, okay, I can't do this anymore?

Pia Singh 10:57
No, I actually had to write it off, there was no other way I had to write it off. So a, I lost that money, B, I had to pay back the loan. So, you know, eventually, I had to kind of take off double the amount that I invested one, I had to write it off. And the other part the same equal that amount, along with interest, I had to pay back to the banks. It was painful, it was painful.

Andrew Stotz 11:31
Did you manage to keep your husband and your family through that? Or was there any losses?

Pia Singh 11:37
So well, it was personal. So it obviously did not go to my husband. But oh, my God, you know, you get married, I was not working six months into marriage. I conceived I had a kid, it was a very bad plan to start with. And then I could not plan it well, even afterwards. Because, you know, in Brampton is ended families, were supposed to follow certain milestones, right? So my milestones were due. And because of the concentration that my milestones required, I could not concentrate on making the other end, like, you know, getting my investment. Oh, my God.

Andrew Stotz 12:28
So how would you describe the lessons that you learn?

Pia Singh 12:33
IE, there are no shortcuts? If there is the biggest one that I will say there are no shortcuts? Be? I think what I did wrong was when my friend reached out, I was in a very excited mindset, you know, and I did not really weigh the pros and cons, you know, I do not think what if it does not work? Now, for me, it was like, oh, it's going to work. And I did not do my due diligence. I did not understand, you know, what, I did not talk to enough people to see if, you know, this has been done out here. Or if there are people who have made money in three, four months, even if there was a proportion, you know, 20-25%, who would, I would still say it was okay to go in. But in this case, later, when I checked, I found that, like, hardly one person who would make money in three months. And it's a very big ratio, compared to 99% is a very big ratio failure. And I stepped right in.

Andrew Stotz 13:48
Well, maybe I'll just summarize a couple of things I took away, you know, the first thing as I thought, one of the objectives in investing is to protect your money. And what's fascinating about interviewing so many people is so many rational people, for some reason, just make a rash decision without really doing the research. And that's kind of my second point is that, you know, you've got to do the research. And you said about this, and I always say to my students and other people that I talk to is nothing good comes easy. No, there are, you know, you could have some good things happen to you through luck. But you can't build a life around luck. So if we think about it, nothing good comes easy. And if you see something really good, coming easy, you've got to ask some questions. And then the last thing that I thought about was have a process. My process nowadays is to talk to my business partners. And I say okay, here's an idea. Let me present it and see what you think. And that it does a couple of things. I mean, it tests the Do test how strong I feel about it. But it also reminds me that my time is not my time. I had a family, I have business partners, and they want a return from me, whether that's being a part of the family and contributing what I need to contribute, whether that's a monetary return, you know, but they want that, and they have an obligation to it, particularly if you're doing business with partners. So set up a process. So those are some things that I took away anything you would add to that?

Pia Singh 15:31
Well, yes, I think the last point that you said about having a process, running it up your friends, you know, just picking the brains of the experts that you have in your community, especially, you know, I learned from my mistakes, and I learned. So, right now, I think one more thing that I would like to add to this is that let the experts do their work, you know, as a person, I might be very smart. But when it comes to a certain expertise, you may be able to do it, which is wonderful. But take it off your head, give it to a person who is proactive, so that a you will not be bombarded, you will not have to go out of your comfort zone to do things that they do on a routine usual basis. Right. And be is I think, one thing that I have learned when I have learned all kinds of things from my many, many mistakes, is that we can never stop making them. And it's okay. Perfectly. Thanks.

Andrew Stotz 16:47
Yeah, that's a great point in you know, mistakes are part of the process of discovery. So let's go back in time and think about that moment in time and think about a young woman or young man that is in a similar situation. And based upon what you learn from this story and what you continue to learn what what action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Pia Singh 17:14
Oh, okay. I think you've covered all of it and throw in the points that you had mentioned earlier that do your research a is do your research, because nothing speaks success more than the efforts that you've put in, if you look at it as a law of cause and effect, any sort of energy, even if it is a mental energy that you put into something, it does not go based. So research right to, if you have experts around you, go to them, talk to them. Three, if you don't know about something, and you want to get into it, talk to at least 20 people from different, you know, geographies, directions, who are involved with that sort of thing, who have tried it, to understand what all it takes, you know, it's not just financial Well, it's a lot of commitment and efforts, you know, your time and other resources that go away. So you need to talk to people before you get into something. And the fourth one that I'll tell you is and this, you know, comes from my current work with greenhealth is we make bad decisions. And we do it all the time. And it's okay. Like no, do not confuse all decision making with testing on your mistake. It's okay, we all make them.

Andrew Stotz 18:48
Yeah, I think that's a lesson I've learned is that you're gonna make mistakes, so be prepared. So what's a resource you'd recommend for our listeners?

Pia Singh 18:58
Okay, so I'd say you should go to our LinkedIn channel, which is accurate mind Smith, India, because there are a lot of things that are coming out there or we will be coming out with podcast the articles it would tell you what to expect in water situation. Now there are monthly lives on various things like the last one we had was on self esteem. So you would find tips and tricks for which you really don't have to wait for an appointment with a doctor or an expert. Find something off the bat take in and be able to use it in your life. So of every other channel, we have to say something that say our LinkedIn channel accurate Mike Smith and chia or the Facebook group, so we're a close to community. And that's where me and our expert experts we are practically available every time.

Andrew Stotz 19:57
Okay, last question. What is your number One goal for the next 12 months.

Pia Singh 20:02
So I really want to build a front line defense something. Something like a Mental Health First Aid Task Force. You know, we know CPR there is meant that there is first aid in every other sort of health exigencies that we have. So my topmost goal is to build a task force across the country, when these people are trained in the front line on the primary healthcare thing, and they can identify and refer people to get treatment before it really gets out of hand.

Andrew Stotz 20:42
Fantastic, fantastic. Well, listeners, there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. Remember, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. If you have not yet joined that mission, just go to my worst investment ever.com and join my free weekly become a better investor newsletter to reduce risk in your life. As we conclude, P I want to thank you again for joining our mission and on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Pia Singh 21:16
Oh, well, I always have a very good judgment. It comes from experience and the experience comes from bad judgment.

Andrew Stotz 21:31
Great, great concept to think about 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.