Ep. 36: Vinod Sethi on Market Being a Great Guru

Vinod spent over thirty years in Indian markets. He was the India head of Morgan Stanley Investment Management in the 1990s, and since then has been investing his own capital, teaching, and thinking about markets in a way that very few people do. I recorded this conversation with him in August 2025 while working on the book. Vinod talks about: Pain, patience, and intention as the three things you actually control in investing and in life. Why hard work has almost nothing to do with returns. Return on time mattering more than return on money. Reading people rather than spreadsheets. The age we live in — which, Vinod argues, is not an age of ignorance but an age of stupidity, and why that's actually a good thing if you know how to see it. The market as guru, as mirror, as sadhana. It's one of the best conversations I've had on this show. I hope it finds you at a time when you can sit with it properly.