An amazing story on Marvan Attapattu Srilankan Cricketer which leaves behind an unforgettable lesson in personal finance.

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An amazing story on Marvan Attapattu Srilankan Cricketer which leaves behind an unforgettable lesson in personal finance
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Making his debut in Test cricket for Sri Lanka, Marvan scored a duck in his first innings. And again, in his second innings.

They dropped him.

So he went back to the nets for more practice. More first-class cricket. More runs. Waiting for that elusive call.

And after twenty-one months, he got a second chance.

This time, he tried harder. His scores: 0 in the first innings, 1 in the second.

Dropped again, he went back to the grind. And scored tonnes of runs in first-class cricket. Runs that seemed inadequate to erase the painful memories of the Test failures.

Well, seventeen months later, opportunity knocked yet again. Marvan got to bat in both innings of the Test.

His scores: 0 and 0. Phew!

Back to the grind. Would the selectors ever give him another chance?

They said he lacked big-match temperament.
His technique wasn’t good enough at the highest level.

Undaunted, Marvan kept trying.

Three years later, he got another chance.

This time, he made runs. He came good. And in an illustrious career thereafter, Marvan went on to score over 5000 runs for Sri Lanka.

That included sixteen centuries and six double hundreds.

And he went on to captain his country.

All this despite taking over six years to score his second run in Test cricket.

Wow! What a guy!

How many of us can handle losses as well as he did?

Six years of trying, and failing.

He must have been tempted to pursue another career. Change his sport perhaps. Play county cricket. Or, oh well, just give up.

But he didn’t. And that made the difference.

The story of SIP investing in equity markets is just like Marvan's journey.

You may earn next to nothing in the early years. Sometimes you may even see your hard earned wealth erode.

And then suddenly after some years of lull, your SIP can produce a stormy performance.

Nobody can say when? That's the TEST.

We call this uncertainty 'RISK' and allow TIME to tick away and lose a one time opportunity that life provides to create wealth.

Marvan Attapattu despite failures was persistent. He had the conviction to rise above his early bad performances.

He did not think of RISK. He had self belief because he knew his own mettle. He knew himself.

Likewise if we educate ourselves in personal finance, our belief in our economy ( the wealth making machine ) will rise and will give us the conviction to stay put with patience and persevere.