This essay was written for Money in business course in 8.10.2020.

The book I read was called “Psykopaatit Ympärilläni”, translated psychopaths around me. You might know or have heard the author of this book, or you might have even read his former book called “Idiootit Ympärilläni”. Now you might be thinking why I picked a book related to people’s personalities, when the topic is supposed to be regarding money. I will tell you why. Because knowing people’s personalities, equals knowing how they will think and act in situations, like under pressure, for instance. With that kind of a knowledge, you can benefit greatly.

When I was at the bookstore just randomly seeking for something that could caught my eye, I came across this book. I saw the tittle “Psychopaths around me – How to recognize and avoid getting manipulated”, I was hooked. I had to read the book, because of a previous feeling, that I have had a problem with being easily convinced or manipulated into something. I always got frustrated afterwards, when I have recognized what had happened. But I said NO MORE! As it turns out, I got much more value and gained a wider perspective to people’s behaviour, from reading this book. I was able to apply these same perspectives into why and how these different types of “characters” make money, and how they position themselves within the team. With this knowledge, I can now take upon and start observing the same patterns in our own co-operation. In fact, I was already able to find & connect similar behavior patterns, mentioned in the book, from our own team.

There’s a great quote in the book, which goas as “Psychopaths accomplish those crazy ideas, which only stay as thoughts for the rest of us”. I loved that phrase & it got me thinking. As we now, we will be launching our own companies at the start of the year 2021, and this is the time when we really do need to be scaling our ideas. I remember during the start of our school semester that couple of our group members, probably myself included, were making “big talk”, about how we are going to crush every single profit record made in the Proakatemia’s history. That is quite a big record to be broken to be honest. As I was saying, we can not only be thinking small and starting our own lemonade stands, if we want to accomplish this goal. I am the kind of person who needs to match my actions to my words. Because without your word you’re nothing.

Probably the most efficient and long-term decision, is to base your company towards something you feel passionate about. Right there, you will find your pot full of gold. Because you won’t only be filling up your bank account, but as well as your soul. At least that is super important for me personally. I think the passion shows in everything we do and thus will benefit us, in broader ways than we can ever imagine. Good example of this kind of success, comes from an entrepreneur called Jooel Vatanen. He is a bodybuilder, social media content creator and the owner of hardcore gym chain, called PTV GYM. He as well now has a thriving supplement and accessory webstore. But what we need to notice is that he was not always this successful. I don’t mean that in any submissive way at all, his story is inspirational.

He was young guy in his twenties who had worked his entire life doing mcjobs and hated every single second of it. At those jobs he was only trading his time in exchange for money. But the important thing was that he had a dream & a concept behind it. Finally came the day when he decided to invest all of his savings, that he had earned over the years. From that day on, PTV GYM brand was established. Opening the gym was a passion project for him. His main objective was not about becoming a millionaire, but instead, getting the chance of pursuing his dream. He has stated that, he would have been just as equally happy, even if his business would not have become this enormous. I truly believe his statement. In a situation where a person becomes extremely successful, and all of a sudden, then their business crashes and they lose everything. Even in a situation like that, I truly believe, if they have the right kind of attitude, they will have a satisfaction of knowing that at least they tried and gave it their all.

These were some of the thoughts this book raised within me. Hope you got something out of it.