Tuesday 5 May 2015

Midnight Financial Crisis


Finance, a subject I consider to be one of my most dreadful nightmares. A subject I was always inclined to give up, and not a surprise, to which I lost every time. I left no stone unturned to just get a mediocre result. However there were many small battles I fought en-route to Finance. I never really understood what expenses will go under operating, financial or the investing activities. Earnings, understood, but shouldn't it stop there; no there was retained earnings. Same was the case with deferred taxes. On top of that the biggest enemy I had was the balance sheet which was the most imbalanced thing in front of me. Every time I would dive in thinking how difficult can it be, Money gained could be just added and money spent could be subtracted. Every time I would be taken aback by the big words like liability, which at the end was added to equity and had to be balanced with even larger things like assets.

Such was my equation with Finance since the beginning of time. Even in my school board exams, the one question I got incorrect was of Profit and Loss. In class 12th as well was a Part C in the mathematics paper, which I never dared to touch. Part C was commercial mathematics and the word itself scared me. I worked day in and out on part B which was an alternative and more of physics. This was my strategy to evade Finance. The problem was similar when I had to open investopedia every time I read the Economic Times.

The days in IT kept me isolated from the exasperating reach of the subject. However my journey of MBA opened the gates ajar. MBA curriculum has it all - Reports, statements, Accounting, Institutions and more, bringing all my fears alive. Of course there were few smart finance lovers in my class and they were very helping. However, the frequency of my doubts made it very difficult to reach out to the fellow students every time. I had to seek online help. I started viewing video tutorials by Ramana Sir, one of the greatest teacher's in Finance streams in my college. His tutorials were very informative and cleared most of my concepts.

But soon came the time to implement my learning and crunch the numbers. Assignments, grueling and demanding every bit of my concentration, piled up. Few days of extensive struggling, went in vain. A friend of mine recommended JugaadClass, a platform to find great tutors who could help online. With little hope logged in at midnight and added Finance to my interests. I started looking for tutors and to my surprise I found a great one, with  great ratings, online. He was ready to schedule a class for assignment help at 12:30 AM. The whole process was very quick and smooth. I posted my question and the tutor assisted me in solving it using excel, online white-board and other audio tools. Owing to the desktop sharing and online classroom feature of JugaadClass, I could learn the concepts in a very interactive way. The tutor also helped me understand the concept by assisting in some similar problems. He was from IIM Kozhikode, a major in finance. On asking why he was registered on JugaadClass, he said he wanted to share his wisdom and laughed. Relieved, I submitted my assignment and content, that I could learn something so clearly that day.

After delving deep and learning the subject for 3 terms, I realize how important it is for a manager. Starting from understanding the current financial position of a firm, to formation of new businesses, everything is captured in those numbers. It allows businesses to take advantage of opportunities to grow along with the strategic use of financial instruments, such as loans and investments. Moreover, financial trends have impact on the economy on a global level altogether. Little did I know that the subject so challenging can so interesting at the same time. Coming from a non-commerce background did make the learning tough. However, whenever I stumbled, I always had my friends and JugaadClassJugaadclass- Online Tutoring, a bank of great tutors on the subject, with a firm grip on the subject and rich industry experience are ready to clear your doubts on-the-go. Now I have made peace with the subject, and yes it really feels good that I know, not very much but at-least a little bit of Finance. My quest to explore it still continues. 

As said by Patton “Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory”.