The ABZ Framework

Amar Pandit , CFA , CFP

Amar Pandit

A respected entrepreneur with 25+ years of Experience, Amar Pandit is the Founder of several companies that are making a Happy difference in the lives of people. He is currently the Founder of Happyness Factory, a world-class online investment & goal-based financial planning platform through which he aims to help every Indian family save and invest wisely. He is very passionate about spreading financial literacy and is the author of 4 bestselling books (+ 2 more to release in 2020), 8 Sketch Books, Board Game and 700 + columns.

Have you heard of the ABZ framework?

Before I get to it, let me share with you a part of my Investor Nano “The Next Two or Three Feet.

Anne Lamott in her book “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, has written some amazing lines. They are not only relevant to investing but also to every walk to life.

Read them once. Read them twice. Reflect. Read them again. Reflect once more.

E.L. Doctorow once said that “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice on writing, or life, I have ever heard.

Don’t you agree?

This is exactly what the ABZ framework is.

Shaan Puri, an entrepreneur and investor said, “With any project, you need to figure out the ABZ – A is where you are today, B is the next smallest step and Z is where you want to go.” He says that you don’t need to know all the steps between B and Z, just knowing ABZ is enough. You will eventually figure out the rest.”

I just have a small tweak to the above. Always begin with your Z (your desired future state). Next figure out your A and only then move on to B. You don’t need to figure out everything. Rather you won’t figure out everything unless you start doing something. Waiting to figure everything out means not doing anything.

Try this and let me know how this goes for you.

I can stick my neck out (or better yet guarantee) that you will make progress with this approach- provided you take action.