Carlos Velásquez · Medium · 5 min read · Source: Viacom, Maya Movies theatrical release poster
Falguni Devi carefully stepped on the rocky trail as she used one hand to balance a water pot on her head. Her other hand carried food for her husband, who toiled as a farmhand on the other side of the 300-foot mountain she ascended. Devi was navigating the path she and many of her fellow villagers routinely took up and over the steep mountain on their way to the city center. But on this dreadful day, loose rocks caused her to slip and fall from the mountain’s ridge. When notified that his wife was seriously injured, Dashrath Manjhi rushed to her side, but there was little he could do. The nearest hospital was a 40-mile trek around the mountain. Devi succumbed to her injuries.
The setting is the Indian village of Gehlaur in Bihar in 1960. The year Dashrath Manjhi began unearthing a path through the mountain that claimed the life of his beloved wife. It’s a story that underscores the magnitude of our life’s potential when we focus on our daily actions.
Turning A Mountain Into Rubble: One Day At A Time
After his wife’s death, Manjhi continued to toil as a farmhand to feed his two children. But after every workday, he climbed the treacherous mountain that had claimed his wife’s life to chip away at its boulders, determined to clear a pathway with a chisel and a hammer.
His fellow villagers told him not to waste his time, that such an endeavour was impossible. Manjhi’s wife, after all, wasn’t the first villager to die traversing the mountain. But Manjhi ignored them. As the months turned into years, his determined daily routine caused people in his village to think he was batshit crazy. They weren’t necessarily mistaken; the mountain consisted of metamorphic rock that was tough to chip away with a mere chisel and hammer. Plus, it was a dangerous endeavour.
Manjhi not only endured criticism and dangerous back-breaking work, he also innovated to overcome physical limitations. He reportedly set fire to sections of the mountain that were especially hard to chip away and poured water on them once their surface crackled, making the boulders’ surface brittle and slightly easier to break off.
Day after day, and year after year, Manjhi made slow progress. But it was progress nonetheless. After many years of daily back-breaking work, Manjhi’s fellow villagers began noticing his progress. A few started helping him, and as the pace of progress picked up, more helped. In 1982, Manjhi’s vision of a path from his village to the city center was finally realized.
Manjhi’s arduous 22-year journey through a 300-foot mountain ultimately enabled easier access to medical facilities, water, and education for his fellow villagers. In recognition of his accomplishment, politicians bestowed honor upon him. An Indian postal stamp was dedicated to Manjhi, and some Indians even began worshipping him.
But none of this changed Manjhi.
He donated the farmland the government gifted him to build a medical facility for his fellow villagers. His commitment to honor his beloved wife was far more meaningful than any accolade or gift he could receive.
What Are Your Mountainous Ambitions?
Manjhi’s story contains a valuable lesson. Namely, committing ourselves to chip away daily at our goals can result in far-reaching accomplishments. Let’s apply this lesson to a mundane but important aspect of life that is easy to quantify as a function of time, one that many of us can relate to — saving for retirement.
Daily Ritual: Saving $100 to $200
Saving $12.50 to $25.00 each hour of an eight-hour workday amounts to $100 to $200 saved daily.
Monthly Results: $2,000 to $4,000
Saving $100 to $200 daily amounts to $500 to $1,000 saved weekly, which adds up to $2,000 to $4,000 saved per month.
Yearly Amount: $24,000 to $48,000
Saving $2,000 to $4,000 monthly amounts to $24,000 to $48,000 a year.
A 22-Year Total
Assuming an 8% annualized compound return, the 22-year outcome of a $100 to $200 daily saving regimen amounts to $1.4 million to $2.9 million. Over a 40-year career, this daily savings regimen would result in a nest egg of $6.7 million to $13.4 million. And even if one stops investing at age 65 (represented with blacked-out cells below), one’s nest egg could grow to $31.3 million to $62.5 million over 60 years.
For low-income workers, developing a daily savings discipline could be the difference between barely living above the poverty line or buying a home. Such discipline can have second, third, and fourth-order consequences for a family: one’s children can attend better schools if the home is bought within a good school district, increasing the likelihood of higher educational attainment and the ability to seek better-paying jobs. For high-income earners, developing the discipline to save can be the difference between working until age 65 versus actualizing one’s retirement dreams years earlier; or simply having the optionality to leave a well-paying but uninspiring job for one that is more meaningful.
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” ~ Bill Gates
As Bill Gates and others have noted, we tend to underestimate our long-term potential. However, developing a daily commitment to chip away at our ambitions— whether saving for retirement, writing a book, kickstarting a business or career (or clearing a path through a 300-foot mountain) — will enable us to focus on what we can control: our daily actions.
Those who understand the long-term impacts of our daily actions will be equipped with seemingly having a superpower — the ability to turn mountains into rubble.
Just like Dashrath Manjhi.
Author also wrote: The World’s Richest Man | A $260 Billion Mistake | Wargames Investment Strategy | Fooled By Randomness | Our Airbnb Experiment | Wealth Transfers | 5 Stocks: S&P’s YTD | Inflation Hedges | An 80-Year Life | 13 Rules | N. Taleb’s Minority Rule | Your Inner Voice | Bitcoin’s Volatility | Blockchain Stocks | 50 Investment Lessons | Flywheel Effect | Bitcoin: Mental Framework | Crypto Moonshots | 4 Crypto Stocks | Bitcoin: Insurance | Brief History: Money | Spontaneous Order | Ackman’s $2.6B Moonshot | Fragility Inducing Events | Antifragile: Definition
