NITHIN KAMATH ZERODHA

Nithin Kamath has built over a billion dollar worth of wealth, all bootstrapped!

But in the awe of all that wealth, 

we forget that the wisdom he has given for free is worth a lot more valuable!

9 powerful lessons from Nithin Kamath (on investing, business, startups and life):

1. Ethics is everything.

Zerodha is in the business where people often fall prey to the lure by brokers, 

but for them protecting their customers is more important than growth.

2. Don't chase money. Do the right things, money will follow. 

This thing crops up from his work as a trader for many many years. 

In trading if you set goals to earn this much money in these many days, then you're going to make some wrong decisions.

Because the market flows in it's own way, and your fixation with the result will screw your focus. 

Get the process in trading right, the results will follow.

3. Not having an agenda and contained metrics for growth has helped Zerodha serve their customers better.

Zerodha is a unique tech startup which has no revenue targets.

Growth at all costs is not something Nithin likes and their ethics guide them not to trick their customers into anything silly.

In a capitalistic world there are shareholders and they want results and metrics. 

So, everything you do in your startup is aligned for that.

There's no problem in that at all, but if you actually want to run a business creatively, maybe not taking any money is a better option.

It gives you freedom to execute whatever you want. 

An option to fail and learn along the way.

Right now companies like Instagram, YouTube and everyone else are shifting their strategy towards short form high attention content to compete with Tiktok. 

This is obviously to show their investors that they have a chance against Tiktok.

They'll mould human behaviour and go against all morals just for their shareholders

The whole system becomes about catering to the shareholders’ greed for more profit

And when the whole world is just run on greed, they take over morals

"Growth at all costs has its own costs."

4. There's no point of long term investing if you're not doing a long term investment in your health.

Most of us hit the gym when we want to get slim for a marriage or something.

Our motivation is not about our health, it's about a status, an aesthetic.

Remember if you have made a long term investment you're going to be rich at some point of your life. 

Make sure you're fit to use it properly.

5. Before building a business, build core competency.

Business is so hard that you can't survive without knowing exactly what you're doing

Nithin says that Zerodha is not a 10 year old company, it's actually a 25 year old company

It started when he started trading 25 years ago

All that core experience from a daily life as a professional trader made him aware of the problems every trader has.

That is why they've been so good at solving them. 

So, if you're starting our as a founder, first spend a lot of time in building your skills and researching.

6. Your efforts might not give any results for a very long time, doesn't mean they aren't worth it

An outcome-based approach makes you optimise for results, but a process driven approach makes long term ready

If you're doing the things right, things are going to happen for you.

7. Customers respect you when you say the truth to them. 

Nithin openly says less than 1% traders make money trading in the stock market.

This can really hurt his business and he should be talking about getting more people into the stock market, but that's just it.

You don't do stuff just for more profits, you don't want money just because you can take it.

8. Never compromise on risk just because you think the rewards more.

9. Not having focus in life helps you jump from one thing to the other trying everything you like.

Don't push this feeling away, embrace it.

Nithin tried a lot of stuff in life because of a lack of focus and that is how he found an interest in trading.