The Real Finance Mentor

Guys this page will be discontinued soon. Follow me on the Binod Shankar page. 👌😊

People help people they know and like.

Be smart. Don’t be transactional & start asking for advice or job references from people you haven’t bothered staying in touch with (something Desis are brilliant at).

Build good relationships & a solid network before you need them.

Otherwise no one will give a f**k. I know I won’t.

👌😎

With Ralph Khoury at an event today.

Come and listen to and meet us on 14 November. Live in Dubai!

Registration link 👇👇

IMPACT: The Craft of Leadership | Australian Business Council IMPACT: The Craft of LeadershipDate: Friday, 14 November 2025Time: 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM (followed by networking and lunch)Venue: The St. Regis Downtown DubaiReal stories. Bold perspectives. Leadership that moves people.The finance world is changing fast. AI, shifting talent dynamics, and new expecta...

The scandal regarding this royal family pic is more than just about Adobe Photoshop.

This is yet another reason why we should never compare ourselves to such people (and feel inferior or depressed) because their entire public lives are carefully curated by professionals to look flawless to the point of being fake.

What you see is NEVER the reality because they’ve too much to lose by showing their real lives which I bet are quite similar to the average human in terms of anxiety, depression, fear, shame, stress, pettiness, ugliness, prejudice, infidelity, greed, anger etc. They all have to s**t as well. 🤣

Let’s all think of this the next time you see a video or pic of an influencer or celebrity.

Break free.

👌😎🔥

Larger than life. 👌🔥

That’s Paul Smith for you.

I first had a brief chat with him at a CFA event in 2019 when he was the President & CEO of CFA institute and I was struck by, inter alia, his incredibly down to earth manner.

In 2021 he agreed to appear on my Real Finance Mentor podcast & that turned out to be my longest interview at 2 hrs, deftly covering a wide range of topics. In 2023 he immediately agreed to write a foreword to my book “Let’s Get Real”. We’ve also had random Zoom chats.

Fast forward to Feb 2024 & he messaged me that he’ll be in Dubai and we had a long in person chat in DIFC.

We talked about what’s happening in Hong Kong, China, a 10 second history of England (!), the importance of 1350 AD, what the Magna Carta was & wasn’t, colonialism, multicultural vs cosmopolitan, India’s challenges, the real difference between London and Dubai, coaching, sustainability, CFA institute etc. This could have gone on for another few hours!

He is witty, honest, knows a lot and is a fantastic storyteller so talking to him is a rare combo of education and entertainment. He keeps it real.

And I finally got to give him a signed copy of the book. 👌😄

Link to the podcast episode:

https://www.therealfinancementor.com/podcastepisodes/episode-28-paul-smith-episode-28-paul-smith-there-is-no-substitute-for-the-personal-touch

Tigers are entirely self-employed. They dance to no one's tune but their own, and answer to nobody. It's just one of the things that is so great about being a Tiger.

Hmm.

New Study Links Optimism To Lower Cognitive Abilities Research highlights adverse effects on financial well-being. Optimistic thinking, often celebrated in self-help literature as a pathway to happiness, health, and longer life, can also lead to poor decision-making. This aspect of optimism is especially critical in matters of financial health, where

My last session at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

On The Treasures of Sanskrit.

1. As per a 19th century English historian “Since the renaissance there has been no momentous global event as the discovery of Sanskrit”. Sanskrit was considered “high technology”.

2. Phonetics was invented 2500 years ago to preserve the right meaning of the Vedas. India was so fundamental to the advances in language throughout the world.

3. To say that Sanskrit is the best computer language is nonsense. But Sanskrit did invent computational linguistics.

4. Sanskrit came to medieval Europe through the Muslims just as they did with Greek knowledge. The image of India among Muslims in the 11th century was as a land of knowledge particularly mathematics, medicine and astronomy.

5. There is another classical language in India - Tamil. Europeans have written on the many influences of Tamil on Sanskrit.

(Oscar Pujol & James Mallinson talking to Swathi Chopra)