Santanu Borah's Key Ideas from Chanakya and the Art of Getting Rich
by Radhakrishnan Pillai

Chanakya, also known as Vishnugupta or Kautilya was known as a strategic, diplomat, politician, economist and a sharp thinker. His ideas of waelth and management is immortal.

The king Chandragupta was a student of Chanakya. Although he came from lower-cast village of that time, with right training from Chanaya, he became a worthy king. Alexander the great was also defeated against Chanakya's intellect and couldn't extend their empire to India.

Chanakya's Arthshaastra, written 2400 years ago, composed of 6000 sutras Or aphorisms, was based on economic policy, political governance and military strategy. It talked about wealth identification, wealth creation, wealth management and wealth distribution.

The method of aanvikshiki is the science and art of thinking. In Sanskrit, anu means atom or the smallest particle and ikshiki means one who wants to know. Chanakya explained aanvikshiki in Arthshaastra as constituents of Sankhya (concept of Shiva and Shakti and relating to numbers or mathematical thinking), Yoga (ability to keep our mind steady and firm under stress), Lokayata (worldview of people, who believes in data and the reality). In essence, clear thinking is necessary to earn money and run a business.

One can only earn big money through right and legal process. Who become rich through shortcuts are bound to have troubles in the long run. The Vedas has guided us about the ethics and dilemmas of good and bad. It is better to ask the experts of the field before taking such ethical decisions. Studying the business plan by experts, government policies, annual budgets of the government, SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) analysis etc can help.

The real principle of wealth is to give

A steady mind is required to have better clarity in thinking. You become whatever you think. Therefore, think before you act. Also, be mindful of your duties and respectful of laws of the land.

There exists common patterns that we can learn from wealthy people to become rich.

They love their work, committed to it and don't show off stuffs to look rich, instead they are rich.

They do social work, charity and contribute to the welfare of the people.

There are 4 stages of wealth that have been observed for long time

Wealth identification : Idea + application = money. What is the one thing with which you can make money? Identify your natural talents and the skills that you can gain from practice.

Wealth creation : talent + hard work + being active + intellectual property rights and patent

Wealth management : saving + invest, also investment > saving.

Wealth distribution : for social norm among rich, for the love of donating and helping the poor.

Keeping tracks of money coming and going out is very important. There are various accounting systems that one can follow. The financial health depends on this accounting. Few examples of accounting systems are the balance sheet and profit-and-loss (P&L) statements, Enterprise resource planning (ERP) etc.

One should never be dependent on any one source of income.

Defining accounting requirements and reviewing the accounts are important. This can be done from daily to yearly basis.

It is mandatory to have a mentor for teaching you the methods and the way towards your goal. Your mentor should be himself expert in your field, here the finance and management, should be rich enough, genuine background, integrity towards moral values.

Chanakya says it is better to have upto third opinion from 3 different experts but not more than them, non-expert opinions should be avoided.

Age and maturity are not synonymous. Maturity comes from knowledge and deep thinking.

Three principles of becoming rich:

1. Be trustworthy,

2. Don't break promises,

3. Repay any debts or loans with interest and when giving money, don't belittle them for taking money from you.

Chanakya also mentioned about partnering with other firms to do a part of the business which otherwise takes lot of effort and time. 

Generalizing all the rich people as selfish or demeaning towards everyone won't help you becoming rich. You have to identify the good ones among them, follow their footprint and learn from them. The rich leaders stands out among the rich individuals and they can make people around them rich as well. The rich leaders started alone, didn't give up to the atrocities and in the path of his glory, he picked everyone around him rise up the ladde

Think from different dimensions

1. Directly seeing and understanding: just looking around for opportunity
2. The unseen: by consulting with experts and listening to their ideas
3. Inference: conclusion from logical thinking of association, intuition

Do research on trends. Think deep and wide, analyse, infer, develop own insight and foresight.

Once a businessman met Chanakya when he was working under a lamp. After finishing his work, he turned off that lamp and lit another one to discuss with the businessman. When asked why he didn't use the same lamp, Chanakya said that the first lamp was given to him for his official work only and the second one was his personal. He never mixed up his official belonging to personal benefits. He taught us that self regulation is more important than being regulated by the government, you can cheat the world, but you can not cheat yourself.

Chanakya emphasized on filling the treasury before serving the country. The food for the labourers and the armies for their work should not be exhausted. He made sure the corrupt officials get punished and the genuine and devoted workers get rewards and promotions.

Chanakya made regulations for textile industries to give economic freedom and financial empowerment to women. He personally interrogated any problems women in these days faced and took appropy actions against atrocities.

"Empower a woman and you can be sure her family will be empowered too."

Wealth should free us from worldly challenges. Instead, most of the time, wealth and money get us more and more entangled in them.

Money should give us not just comforts, but dignity to ourselves and to others.

Kosha Or treasury is the fund that is required to run the state. It is extremely important to keep our financial situation strong and steady.

The 4 steps in finance in a project are creation, completion, maintenance and sustainability.

The author had listed few questions to develop one's financial status.

1. What is your current financial status?
2. What are your financial goals?
3. Who are your financial mentors and gurus?
4. What modern knowledge of finance do you lack?
5. Why do you want to become rich?
6. What is stopping you from becoming rich?
7. What will you do with all the extra wealth you have?
8. What is your idea of spirituality and wealth?
9. If you were to decide the financial policies of the country, what would you suggest?
10. What would you like to teach others about wealth and money