UJ Ramdas

💼 Co-Founder of @intelligentchange (Creator of the @fiveminutejournal), Current focus: investing and creative projects

[Morgan Housel @morganhousel]

"People are strange: they are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice." – Charles Bukowski

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

The 5-Minute Journal is simplicity itself and hits a lot of birds with one stone: 5 minutes in the morning of answering a few prompts, and then 5 minutes in the evening doing the same.

Each prompt has three lines for three answers.

To be answered in the morning:

I am grateful for . . .
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

What would make today great?
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

Daily affirmations.

I am . . .
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

To be filled in at night:

3 amazing things that happened today . . .
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

How could I have made today better?
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

It’s easy to obsess over pushing the ball forward as a type-A personality, which leads to being constantly future-focused. If anxiety is a focus on the future, practicing appreciation, even for 2 to 3 minutes, is counter-balancing medicine.

The 5-Minute Journal forces me to think about what I have, as opposed to what I’m pursuing.

When you answer “I am grateful for . . . ,” I recommend considering four different categories. Otherwise, you will go on autopilot and repeat the same items day after day (e.g., “my healthy family,” “my loving dog,” etc.). I certainly did this, and it defeats the purpose.

What are you grateful for in the below four categories?

I ask myself this every morning as I fill out the 5MJ, and I pick my favorite three for that day:

An old relationship that really helped you, or that you valued highly.

An opportunity you have today. Perhaps that’s just an opportunity to call one of your parents, or an opportunity to go to work. It doesn’t have to be something large.

Something great that happened yesterday, whether you experienced or witnessed it.

Something simple near you or within sight.

The gratitude points shouldn’t all be “my career” and other abstract items. Temper those with something simple and concrete—a beautiful cloud outside the window, the coffee that you’re drinking, the pen that you’re using, or whatever it might be.

I use Intelligent Change’s bound 5-Minute Journal and suggest it for convenience, but you can practice in your own notebook.

It’s fun and good therapy to review your p.m. “amazing things” answers at least once a month.

[Ronnie Stoeferle @RonStoeferle]

“Modern luxury is the ability to think clearly, sleep deeply, move slowly, and live quietly in a world designed to prevent all four.”

Justin Welsh

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@dimabuterin Loved reading this Dima. Beautiful distillation of your life path.

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

Growth is a controlled explosion.

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

“What an astonishing thing a book is.

It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles.

But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years.

Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you.

Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs.

Books break the shackles of time.

A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."

—Carl Sagan

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@awilkinson @MohnishPabrai He's not just a great investor, I really appreciate what he's done with the Dakshana foundation

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@elonmuskADO Twitter

[Mohnish Pabrai @MohnishPabrai]

Wish my parents were still alive to hear this. Made by couple of fans in Toronto:

https://t.co/bB9BFSpGXx

[Guy Spier 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 🇨🇭🇬🇧🇮🇷🇦🇪 @GSpier]

His name is Pabrai, but we call him Uncle Chai

"Play the games you want to win
Set the scorecard you set within."

This is beyond excellent.

It's a mantra for a new generation of value investors.

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@GSpier Glad you enjoyed it! My wife and I had fun making it.

See you in May for the Berkshire AGM?

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@MohnishPabrai Glad it landed! My wife and I had a blast making it.

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@dimabuterin I have to say that “fucking” in your Russian accent sounds way cooler than reading it on here.

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@awilkinson Won’t be able to make it this year. Are you guys going to be having a live broadcast of the AGM?

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

“Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
— Thích Nhất Hạnh

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@adamislucky @int_change 🙌

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@humza_j This is one of my favourites.

[Dr. Parik Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. @ParikPatelCFA]

You know you’ve matured as a desi when you start looking forward to daal

[UJ Ramdas @ujramdas]

@jonwu_ This is my favourite thing on the internet today.

[Brian Feroldi @BrianFeroldi]

Wise words to keep in mind when valuing a business: