Three pillars of life

Three pillars of life

Friday, July 17, 2015

Addiction - The story of Narendra

Today a friend of mine (we will call him Narendra) borrowed some money from me to clear his MINIMUM AMOUNT OF SETTLEMENT FOR HIS UNPAID LOAN EMI's. That amount was required to postpone the foreclosure procedure for one month. The minimum amount was approximately equal to my 3 months total income, and no one knows Narendra's income.

In 30 days or less, Narendra must sell his parents house (a one bedroom hall and kitchen i.e. 1BHK Apartment) or his bank will seal it after that period and auction it to recover their loan plus interest plus processing fees for the whole process.

How did Narendra get in to this financial state?

A one word answer would be ADDICTION.

What is addiction?

'Addiction is a state characterised by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences.'

- Wikipedia

Rewarding stimuli means the stimuli which is the brain interpret as intrinsically positive or as something to be approached.

- Wikipedia

The rewarding stimuli for Narendra was not that of alcohol or any drugs or cigarette or any other form of nicotine or any other substance abuse but, the attention from his friends and the members of the opposite sex whenever he bought a luxury sedan car or fancy expensive branded clothing, or fancy fashion accessories. The list even included living in a rented flat which was no less than a five star hotel villas, hosting parties to friends, using his car for everything and anything (like Narendra passed 90,000km on odometer in less than 2 yrs.). Usually the cars are made to last around 100,000 to 150,000km depending on the manufacturer. So you can guess the depreciation in the value of this car.

You must be thinking Narendra must be having ridiculously high income to support his lifestyle. But you are wrong, Narendra doesn't have much income. Rather he spent all the savings of his parents, And now on the verge of bankruptcy.

This is a real story, though the name is changed and I don't know some part of it.

But how did Narendra reached this far? Was Narendra gone mad?

This scenario perfectly fit in the definition of addiction mentioned above. Narendra first got in to some marketing company, probably MLM kind of company where they taught him that show off of the high status attracts recruits. Narendra wasn't successful in that venture so he soon quit but the teaching and his experience that show off of high status catches the attention of people including that of the opposite sex, a rewarding mechanism started giving him sense of pleasure whenever he got that attention. The feeling got reinforced as he did more of such things, and then there was no turning back. Narendra wasn't that wise to earn money with it. Soon his reserves of money diminished then someone suggests him the option of loans. Whenever one loan was defaulted he opted for another larger loan from other source to clear the previous one and fund the increased demand for purchasing still higher cost fancy items, do custom modifications to his car etc. Narendra was hoping that he will get a big business opportunity and will clear everything.

So Narendra is in compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences.

Narendra is blindly hoping for something which is not possible. He is not that smart or educated and financially powerful enough. Rather he have lost most of his financial power because of this spending addiction. After going through all this Narendra is still living in a costly rented house which is still draining a lot of his money.

Well this is an extreme case of addiction. The case shows that even a normal person like Narendra can convert in to an addict. He doesn't know it neither his parents or wife. No one knows what kind of addiction we are catching.

I guess women are more prone to spending addiction, cause women just love shopping.

Many times in the marketing world some addictive techniques are used. For example lacing the packaged food with Mono Sodium Glutamate or MSG. This MSG is like a clone of proteins and we have a system in our body which prompts us to eat the food containing the needed nutrients, we automatically start liking the foods containing the essential nutrients. For example ever ate any hated food after doing a lot of excursion? If you do it you will start liking that food. Our body need proteins everyday, proteins are like building blocks of our body. They are needed to repair any damage or wear or growth in the body. So when food is laced with MSG our body is tricked in to considering it as protein rich food. That is why we start liking the food laced with MSG. There are adverse effects of MSG too, but it is not the topic of discussion here. MSG is banned in many countries because of the adverse effects.

Other addictive things used for marketing include - lucky draw schemes, different competitions like slogan writing etc. Basically they make the consumer do the things associated with the product which are rewarding. So be careful when indulging in it.

Do you want to know about my compulsive engagements in rewarding stimuli?

I am fond of reading... I love cats.. I love doing exercise.. I enjoy writing this blog..

I am compulsively engaged in these acts but hey to call it an addiction, it doesn't fit in the later part of the definition i.e. despite adverse effects. My compulsive engagements don't have any adverse effects. Rather they give me happiness, piece of mind and money too. (reading financial literature helps a lot in earning money through investing). Loving cats gives me piece of mind and happiness. Exercise gives me good health. And writing this blogs gives me a sense of social service, resulting in to more happiness.( do join me and help me make this blog better, more useful and do spread the word, thank you.)

Do you know about your compulsive engagements?? Are you catching any addictions??

Think over it and write your thoughts in the comments section..
I will be glad to read it.. I want to make this blog useful to you.. Help me helping you..


Sumit
The POWER is when,
You use ODDS,
To get EVEN.

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