Here are a few traits of Dhoni that investors would do well to emulate.

Captain Cool

Dhoni is famously known as Captain Cool. There is an imperturbable quality about him. He doesn’t get worked up in tense match situations. These qualities of grace under pressure and not buckling under the weight of expectations have helped him achieve great heights in his career.

A calm temperament is a great asset in the field of investment as well. When the markets tank, most investors lose sleep as they see the value of their portfolios shrink. Warren Buffett has said that you should be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy. In a bear market, investors should be able to coolly evaluate which high-quality stocks have become available at a bargain and snap them up. Instead, most of them are either unable to invest more in equities, or worse still, sell their equity holdings altogether.

A calm temperament is a great asset in the field of investment as well

Persistence

The game of investment requires similar tenacity. If most of your investments are in equities—as they need to be if you wish to build wealth over the long term for goals like retirement, children’s education and marriage—then the ride is not going to be smooth. Equities typically do well for one spell and then underperform thereafter. Sometimes the bear market can be prolonged. But the long-term course of equities is upward. Only investors who have the strength of character to stick to their asset allocation and persist with their systematic investment plans [SIPs] when the markets are doing badly will build wealth over the long term.

On the other hand, those who hop from one asset class to another, i.e., from the one that is doing badly to the one that is doing well, will always end up buying assets when they are expensive and selling them when they are cheap. This is the exact antithesis of the approach you need to adopt to build wealth.

Not buckling under the weight of expectations has helped dhoni achieve great achieve heights in his career

Calculated bets

Dhoni does take risks but they are well-calculated ones. He does not have a reckless, all-or-nothing approach. This is reflected in the composition of the teams that he fields. Depending on the sort of pitch that the team will play on, he may take an extra spinner or an extra pace bowler. But he rarely goes with an all-pace or all-spin attack.

An investor too should make calculated bets. Warren Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger often give the analogy that they have mastered the art of vaulting over small obstacles rather than very high ones. Mohnish Pabrai of Pabrai Funds also says that investors should make bets only when the odds are overwhelmingly in their favour.

As for an investor who follows the asset allocation approach, the strategic allocation of his portfolio should be determined by the nature of his goals. Within that he may make some tactical variations. For instance, a typical investor may have an 8 – 12 per cent or 5 – 10 per cent strategic allocation to gold in a long-term portfolio. He may tactically shift his weightage depending on the performance of the asset class, moving to the upper end of that range when the asset class is performing badly [buy low] and to the lower end when it is performing well [sell high].

Dhoni does take risks but they are well-calculated ones. He does not have a reckless, all-or-nothing approach

The Finisher

Dhoni is known to be one of the finest finishers in one-day cricket. Given his position lower down the batting order, he often comes in to bat in the wake of a collapse in the middle order. He has the art of being able to pace his innings well. For the greater part of his innings, he will steal singles and twos and hit the odd boundary. But he rarely goes for fireworks at the start of his innings. It’s only towards the end that he breaks the shackles and accelerates with towering hits.

The ordinary investor, too, needs to pace his investments well. But here things work in the opposite manner. When you are young and are many years away from your goal, you have the liberty to take higher risks. You can put a larger part of your corpus in risky assets like equities. The reason: even if the markets fall and stay down for a long time, you don’t need to worry as time is your ally. In a year or two, the equity market will recover and resume its upward journey.

As you get closer to your goal—say when you are five years away from retirement—you need to reduce the risk in your investment and move a larger portion to fixed-income assets, so that a downturn in the equity market does not affect your retirement plans.

When you are young and are many years away from your goal, you have the liberty to take higher risks

Know your limitations

Dhoni has stuck to his primary role of wicket—keeping throughout his career. Despite being regarded as a good batsman—he has an average of above 50 in his one—day career and nearly 40 in his Test career—he has stuck to the lower middle order and has not promoted himself up the order. This is the sign of a man who knows his strengths and weaknesses and works well within his limitations.

Investments too require you to have an acute awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses. Buffett advises all stock market investors to invest within their circle of competence. He says that they should not invest in sectors or industries that they know very little about.

Often, investors over-estimate their abilities, oversimplify the investing process and adopt a do-it-yourself [DIY] approach. Investing is difficult and they would do well by having a competent financial advisor. Remember, it’s for a reason that even the best sportspersons have coaches.

A version of this article was first published in the November 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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Doesn’t the pressure of performance affect you personally?
Yuvraj Singh: I am a cricketer… that is my job. And that job comes with a price; it always gets into my personal life. But over the years, I have reconciled the fact that being a cricketer comes with a lot of responsibility. I have learnt to deal with it and not let it affect my personal life.

Similarly, do you also manage to keep your emotions in check when you are on the field? [we’re referring to the Flintoff episode]
Yuvraj Singh: The Flintoff incident was because he made me angry and I decided to tell him off by performing with the bat. I am glad that he got the message when I hit a six for each of his six balls in an over.

I try not to get my emotions involved in the game; cricket is a mind game and emotions can ruin that sometimes. However, we are all human and sometimes our emotions do take over us.

So does your heart guide you or your mind?
Yuvraj Singh: My mind; there are many things my heart desires, but I have to make sure that they are right for me. So, my mind always makes my decisions. And I have a very strong mind. When I decide that I want to do something, I make sure it happens. For instance, when I decided to be a cricketer, I set my mind to it and put in my 100 per cent.

Is your body equally strong? What do you do to maintain your fitness levels?
Yuvraj Singh: For me, physical fitness is crucial, as I have to maintain my stamina to run on field. For that, I exercise at least for 30 minutes every day—it could be running or swimming or weight training [thrice a week]. I also am careful about what I eat on a daily basis.

Does that mean you have to make a lot of compromises in your food habits?
Yuvraj Singh: Not necessarily; I eat whatever I want, but in moderation. Eggs, chicken—in fact, any form of protein—forms a large part of my diet, as it helps in muscle strengthening. Having said that, I also include carbs in my diet, as they too play a key role in an athlete’s life due to the energy they provide.

Does it also help you cope with injury?
Yuvraj Singh: When you are injured, physical rest is the most important thing, as your body needs time to recover. It is also important to be happy mentally as that makes your mind stronger for recovery. Along with the medical treatment and rest, I always find that being at home and spending time with friends and family always helps recover faster.

Moving on…you had said in an interview that you “learnt a lot about life” during your Vengsarkar academy days. What were the lessons?
Yuvraj Singh: Yes I had said that. At that time I used to travel by the local trains in Mumbai and that’s where I learnt how hard life is for some people. I also learnt that each one of us has his/her own struggles in life… it taught me to appreciate the good that I have in my life and I always thank God for that.

Coming back to your game… you get high praise for playing well and a good thrashing when you don’t. How do you handle such opposite reactions?
Yuvraj Singh: I have learnt to ignore them. I don’t take either the praise or the thrashing very seriously. At the end of the day, my game is what matters the most. I just have to continue focussing on my game and let my game talk for itself. If I let the trash talk get to me, I won’t be able to concentrate on my game.

But the outcome must be affecting you to some extent…
Yuvraj Singh: Cricket is a religion in India and the country has a lot of expectations from cricketers. So, when I don’t play well, I do feel like I have let a lot of people down. But at the end of the day, even I am a human being just like everybody else and only capable of so much.

Still, I try my best to stay mentally strong to keep doing my best; that is all I can count on.

Is that how you tackle tough times?
Yuvraj Singh: When I am going through my rough phases, my family and friends help me in staying mentally strong. Especially my mother—she is my biggest support system. I turn to her for everything. She has been my greatest strength so far.

What about the rest of your family?
Yuvraj Singh: It is during rough times in life that you realise the importance of family. My family members have always supported me for everything I have done. I get my inspiration from them.

But your dad didn’t support your passion for skating…
Yuvraj Singh: I was so young that I didn’t understand fully what I was getting into. Things just started happening for me with cricket and I leant to enjoy the game with time. When I look back now, I thank my father for pushing me so hard to become a cricketer. If not for him, we wouldn’t be having this conversation…[laughs]

A bit about your other relationships…
Yuvraj Singh: We all have are our relationships; you learn so much from all kinds of relationships and I give great importance to having good relations with everyone.

Your advice to readers of Complete Wellbeing?
Yuvraj Singh: Tomorrow is a new day, let yesterday go and look ahead.

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