Parveen Kaler

Autumn

There is a chill in the air.  I put on my fedora and rain jacket before stepping out the door.  The sky is gray and there are leaves on the sidewalk.  It is fall.

It’s amazing how fast the year has raced by.

There is something special about autumn.  It is a transitory season. I always find myself in an introspective mood.  Last year, I jumped on my motorcycle and disappeared for two weeks to think about where I was in life.

The answer did not exist on the beautful places that the motorcycle took me to.  The answer existed in the person that was guiding the motorcycle.

Mountains

I’ve always had mountains in my life.  The small town I grew up in was snuggled in a valley.  My childhood home was located on the Fraser River.  Across the muddy Fraser was a mountain.  It always loomed large through the picture window in the living room.

The mountain had been carved out of the landscape many years ago when the glaciers retreated after the last ice age.  It took an epic event to put that mountain there.

Mountains exist to remind one of the epic.

The North Shore Mountains sit directly north of the downtown core.  I always turn north after I put on my fedora and rain jacket and step out the door.  I take the time to pause for just a moment before I head out on my way.

Mountains remind me not to accept bullshit in my life.

I went to school at Simon Fraser University.  Choosing to go to school on top of a mountain just felt right.

I was 18 my freshman year of university.  Although the legal drinking age in my jurisdiction is 19, I was crafty enough to sneak by the bouncers at the university pub.

I recall walking back to my dorm room after one night at the university pub.  I recall standing on top of that mountain and looking down on the city.  I recall not wanting to be the person I had been the first 18 years of my life.  I recall wanting to be better.

I have been fairly successful over the last ten years.  But it was time to redefine my definition of success.

My last epic encounter with a mountain was at the Pemberton Music Festival.  Pemberton is also snuggled in a valley.  The house I was staying at was located on the slopes of Mount Currie.

I sat on the slopes of that mountain one night after bands had left the stage.  It was just myself, the Japanese Husky that lived in the house I was staying at, and the mountain.

I took out my Moleskine notebook and on the left page I wrote everything in my life that was unacceptable.  On the right I wrote everything that I believed in and everything that I’ve aspired to be.

Moleskine

I decided then and there to be better.

Investor Confidence

Recently, I have been told that the problem with the markets has been ”investor confidence”.  That doesn’t sound like a problem with the markets.  That sounds like a problem with the investor.

The biggest investment in one’s life is one’s life itself.

It’s taken me a year to gain conifidence in what I believe in.

Magnitudes Better

I want to be better.  Magnitudes better.  That’s why I will only work on things that I believe in.

I write this here because I want to hold myself to that promise.  Hold me to that promise.

Allow me to fail.  But don’t allow me not to try.