Vignesh Rajagopalan wrote an good article on why few IITians end up doing startups. While he does try to address the issue, I think he misses a few points. I thought I would try to explain that from the prespective of an IITian. But first things first, a disclosure from my side:

I am an Alumnus of IIT Delhi. I left the well trodden path of working for a consulting company to get into entrepreuneurship. After a couple of failed attempts, I started BookStreet.in, an online textbook rental company with 1000+ textbook titles in over 35 courses.

Now, to the main issue:

To be fair, I believe IIT Delhi has been the most entrepreneurial of all the IITs. The founders of Flipkart,  Zomato and Yebhi are IIT Delhi Alumni. My hostel junior is changing medical technology in India. The awesome actor in this mentos advertisement who wears a watermelon as a helmet to escape the cops is my junior. My batchmates have even directed & produced a movie! So the question now is pretty simple what separates them from the rest. Why did they decide to do something different while others didn’t.

To understand this, we need to get a little background of IIT students. I remember when I was a student at IIT Delhi, I casually asked 10 of my friends sitting at the lunch table “Were you guys toppers is school?” I was shocked when all of them replied to the affirmative (Disclosure: I was never a topper). In fact if you go to the IITs it is very difficult to find students who haven’t been toppers through their school days. While its fantastic to be a topper, the primary drawback of this is that most of these students have never faced failure. Society has always seen them as impeccable machines and entrance into the IITs strengthen that belief. Though most will not admit it, they hate to fail, primarily because they don’t know how to cope with it. On the other hand, a startup is actually designed to fail. Successful startups are actually an exception to the rule. With the risk of failure being so high, most of these students don’t want to leave success to chance. Most of them wouldn’t know what to do if they failed, since they have never faced failure before. So, they leave the risky option and decide to take up a high paying corporate job where they slog their asses off.

Another issue is what is perceived to be successful in campus. In the final year, getting a high paying job in an investment bank or a consulting company or getting through the IIMs is seen as cool. Starting or joining a start up is seen more as a desperate move to save one’s career. Everyone in the campus. therefore, wants to be seen as doing something cool.

Do you know that the Bansal’s of Flipkart weren’t toppers of their department in IIT Delhi? When you think of it what stopped the toppers of Computer Science department from starting something like Flipkart? I am sure they would have been as good, if not better than the Bansal’s at programming. The real reason is that the Bansal’s weren’t afraid of failure. They had an aim a kept at it until they built what is India’s largest eCommerce company and they seem to have no sign of stopping. On the other hand, 8 of the top 10 students in Computer Science department in my year of graduation went on to pursue careers as investment bankers, a safe and richly rewarding career path in 2006.

I often hear many of my classmates telling me that they are now envious of my position as an entrepreneur. I ask them “What’s stopping you?”. Almost always, I hear an excuse as a reply. It’s either I have just gotten married (isn’t that actually better? your wife can support you) or I will do it as a side business (they almost never work) or I will do it when I am forty (yeah right!). So, there you have it. That’s the real reason… no one wants to fail.

PS: I don’t intend to hurt anyone. This article is my personal views. I really want to see more of my batchmates doing start ups. They were way more capable than me and I really would like them make small dent in this universe

Addnl PS: Do upvote my article on Hacker News & Hacker Street so that it reaches a wider audience. Thanks!

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I generally hate to start of a post in a negative tone. But i did have a really bad evening yesterday. I really hate all this advise talk that elders give. I am kind of a rebel myself so I am not surprised that people keep advising me. But frankly I don’t want any of it. i have found out that I am the best judge of my situation and it others easily wash their hands off when they know something they told did not work.

So enough of this advise talk. It’s MY LIFE & I wanna live it MY WAY!

PS: Sorry for the rant guys. I really needed to get it out of my system. 🙂

Well looks like I am starting a new life. I am right now using the wordpress app for Android. And though typing is something I need to get used to, I think I will get used to it in time. However I did find the app response to be a little slow.

This is, unfortunately, a very frequent question asked by young professionals who are in their first 3-4 years of work life. I know its very frequent because I have heard 95% of my friends (and myself) say it at least once. In fact, I am almost done working 4 years since I finished college, yet I hear this statement at least once a week. It’s a wonder that this question does figure the FAQs of these Big Multi National Companies!

So now the big question is ‘why does this happen in the first place?’ It looks to me that one of the biggest challenges that new professionals face is expectations. They expect that the job is going to be terrific and they are in some way going to change the world. the only problem is that this is not entirely true. In fact, it’s rarely true. Unless you are really lucky, you will generally end up some really menial peon type job the first few weeks or even months in your job. I remember that one of the first things I asked to do when I joined my so-called ‘Big 4 Consulting’ company was to go to the client and collect a cheque! Now, this is definitely not something that a new professional who has just passed out of 4 years of hard engineering math expect.

The other reason for this feeling of unwantedness is that companies are generally wary of new employees and especially freshers to do something. The reason is that they feel that they will wreck whatever they are supposed to do and then the company will have to spend a good effort redoing the whole thing again. To be fair, I have seen this happen. But again, there’s no gain without any pain.

But hold on, there is another question ‘why aren’t companies doing anything to fix this?’  Well the reason is pretty straight forward. Companies are generally no good at identifying talent. Politics in a company will ensure that even the most talented person the company has arrows all over him. This becomes even worse if the new comer is a talented guy since it will make the older, more experienced people the office looks like a bunch of donkeys. I have actually seen this happening in not one or two but multiple companies or varied sizes and industries.

So whats the way out of this? Its simple. Keep trying to find a job where people respect talent and are not prejudiced by their fears. Such companies are few to find but they definitely do exist. Until then, keep trying 🙂

Its been a really long time since I have put up a post on my blog. But I think its finally time for me to keep updating it regularly… to start with, atleast once a week.

I believe writing is a good way to get your emotions out and relax yourself. Of late, I have been having a kind of swinging emotions. I have felt great in the morning, and in a few hours I feel that the whle world has turned against me. Hold on, I am not an emotional maniac, but the kind of problems I face these days are nothing like what I have ever faced. Its possible, since as humans, we generally like to control things. Though we may actually not have control over where we are heading, we prefer to believe that everything is under control and is working out as we want. But there is always a point in time when we come across something that is almost entirely out of our control. When soething like that happens is when we tend to feel helpless and our emotions overcome us.

So how do you overcome this kind of situation? Honestly, I do not know. But I believe that everytime an event pushes down, we just need to ensure that we get up and walk again as soon as possible. When you continue to do that a time will come when you overcome all your problems and your goal is with in sight.

Well, that’s the theory atleast. Let’s see how does it work in practice. More on this soon.

I am really suprised that there is hardly any coverage of India’s unmanned moon mission. It is historic to say the least and a huge step for India in its space mission. Unfortunately, there is hardly any coverage of this. Any references to the moon mission is in the inner pages of a paper rather than on the front page. I was suprised when several people including a few of my collegues told me “Why are we doing a moon mission, when we haven’t fixed the problems back on earth?”. He had a good argument. Should India have gone for this moon mission in the first place? I put some thought in to it and the result is a blog post (finally!!) after a really long time. One more thing before I start my argument though, I am pro-space research, hence there is some bias to my argument.

Now for some facts, this is India’s first unmanned space mission. The total cost incurred was around Rs. 350 Cr. The idea first came up in 1999, was passed in the cabinet in 2003 and completed in 2008. I don’t know how many of you are aware of this but these are staggering numbers. A moon mission in Rs. 350 Cr is phenomenally low and have no doubts that some fabulous thinking has gone behind keep the costs that low. If you still think Rs. 350 Cr is huge then lets think in national terms. The cost of this moon mission is only 1. 75% of our annual railway profit.

Secondly the enitre moon mission has been completed in 5 years since cabinet approval – Talk about quick service! It has taken DMRC longer to make the Delhi Metro line!! When you achieve so much in such little time with hardly any spending, it is fabulous execution. 

Thirdly, many say that moon mission is doing what other countries have already done. This is not completely correct. Though other countries have put a man on moon, they haven’t explored the moon completely. One of the goal of this mission is to revolve around the moon to obtain as much information as possible including information on the minerals available on moon. 

But why is all this necessary? It has to do with long term vision. Today space is virtually unexplored. By exploring we obtain more and more information about it which may at a later date help us solve our future problems. We will not have immediate benefits from this moon mission. But 150-200 years later, our countrymen will reap its benefit. In medival ages, the kingdoms that controlled the land and sea were the most dominant of their times. Today, the nations that have most control on air are the most dominant. Simialrly, a century or so later, the country that has control of space will be the dominant one. And India is heading in the right direction.

I found this article on a website and I think it is worth a read. so go ahead and enjoy!!

Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of the Reliance Industries, was no ordinary leader. He was a man who gave management a whole new “ism”.

There is a new “ism” that I’ve been meaning to add to the vast world of words for quite a while now. Because, without exaggeration, it’s a word for which no synonym can do full justice: “Dhirubhaism”.

Inspired by the truly phenomenal Dhirubhai H Ambani, it denotes a characteristic, tendency or syndrome as demonstrated by its inspirer. Dhirubhai, on his part, had he been around, would have laughed heartily and declared, “Small men like me don’t inspire big words!”

There you have it – now that is a classic Dhirubhaism, the tendency to disregard one’s own invaluable contribution to society as significant.

I’m sure everyone who knew Dhirubhai well will have his or her own little anecdote that illustrates his unique personality. He was a person whose heart and head both worked at peak efficiency levels, all the time. And that resulted in a truly unique and remarkable work philosophy, which is what I would like to define as Dhirubhaism.

Let me explain this new “ism” with a few examples from my own experiences of working with him.

Dhirubhaism No 1: Roll up your sleeves and help.

You and your team share the same DNA.

Reliance, during Vimal’s heady days had organized a fashion show at the Convention Hall, at Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi.

As usual, every seat in the hall was taken, and there were an equal number of impatient guests outside, waiting to be seated. I was of course completely besieged, trying to handle the ensuing confusion, chaos and protests, when to my amazement and relief, I saw Dhirubhai at the door trying to pacify the guests.

Dhirubhai at that time was already a name to reckon with and a VIP himself, but that did not stop him from rolling up his sleeves and diving in to rescue a situation that had gone out of control. Most bosses in his place would have driven up in their swank cars at the last moment and given the manager a piece of their minds. Not Dhirubhai.

When things went wrong, he was the first person to sense that the circumstances would have been beyond his team’s control, rather than it being a slip on their part, as he trusted their capabilities implicitly. His first instinct was always to join his men in putting out the fire and not crucifying them for it. Sounds too good a boss to be true, doesn’t he? But then, that was Dhirubhai.

Dhirubhaism No 2: Be a safety net for your team.

There used to be a time when our agency Mudra was the target of some extremely vicious propaganda by our peers, when on an almost daily basis my business ethics were put on trial. I, on my part, putting on a brave front, never raised this subject during any of my meetings with Dhirubhai.

But one day, during a particularly nasty spell, he gently asked me if I needed any help in combating it. That did it. That was all the help that I needed. Overwhelmed by his concern and compassion, I told him I could cope, but the knowledge that he knew and cared for what I was going through, and that he was there for me if I ever needed him, worked wonders for my confidence.

I went back a much taller man fully armed to face whatever came my way. By letting us know that he was always aware of the trials we underwent and that he was by our side through it all, he gave us the courage we never knew we had.

Dhirubhaism No 3: The silent benefactor.

This was another of his remarkable traits. When he helped someone, he never ever breathed a word about it to anyone else. There have been none among us who haven’t known his kindness, yet he never went around broadcasting it.

He never used charity as a platform to gain publicity. Sometimes, he would even go to the extent of not letting the recipient know who the donor was. Such was the extent of his generosity. “Expect the unexpected” just might have been coined for him.

Dhirubhaism No 4: Dream big, but dream with your eyes open.

His phenomenal achievement showed India that limitations were only in the mind. And that nothing was truly unattainable for those who dreamed big.

Whenever I tried to point out to him that a task seemed too big to be accomplished, he would reply: ” No is no answer!” Not only did he dream big, he taught all of us to do so too. His one-line brief to me when we began Mudra was: “Make Vimal’s advertising the benchmark for fashion advertising in the country.”

At that time, we were just a tiny, fledgling agency, tucked away in Ahmedabad, struggling to put a team in place. When we presented the seemingly insurmountable to him, his favourite response was always: “It’s difficult but not impossible!” And he was right. We did go on to achieve the impossible.

Both in its size and scope Vimal’s fashion shows were unprecedented in the country. Grand showroom openings, stunning experiments in print and poster work all combined to give the brand a truly benchmark image. But way back in 1980, no one would have believed it could have ever been possible. Except Dhirubhai.

But though he dreamed big, he was able to clearly distinguish between perception and reality and his favourite phrase “dream with your eyes open” underlined this.

He never let preset norms govern his vision, yet he worked night and day familiarizing himself with every little nitty-gritty that constituted his dreams constantly sifting the wheat from the chaff. This is how, as he put it, even though he dreamed, none of his dreams turned into nightmares. And this is what gave him the courage to move from one orbit to the next despite tremendous odds.

Dhirubhai was indeed a man of many parts, as is evident. I am sure there are many people who display some of the traits mentioned above, in their working styles as well, but Dhirubhai was one of those rare people who demonstrated all of them, all the time.

5. Dhirubhaism: Leave the professional alone!

Much as people would like to believe, most owners (even managers and clients), though eager to hire the best professionals in the field, do so and then use them as extensions of their own personality. Every time I come across this, which is much too often, I am reminded of how Dhirubhai’s management techniques used to be (and still remain) so refreshingly different.

For instance, way back in the late 1970s when we decided to open an agency of our own, he asked me to name it. I carried a short list of three names, two Westernised and one Indian. It was a very different world back then. Everything Anglicised was considered “upmarket.”

There were hardly any agencies with Indian names barring my own ex-agency Shilpi and a few others like Ulka and Sistas. He looked at the list and asked me what my choice was. I said “Mudra”: it was the only name that suited my personality. And the spirit of the agency that I was to head.

I was very Indian and an Anglicised name on my visiting card would seem pretentious and contrived. No further questions were asked. No suggestions offered, just a plain and simple “Go ahead and do it.” That was just the beginning.

He continued to give me total freedom — no supervision, no policing — in all my decisions thereafter. In fact, the only direction that he gave me, just once, was this: “Produce your best.”

His utter trust in me was what pushed me to never, ever let him down. I guess the simplest strategies are often the hardest to adopt. That was the secret of the Dhirubhai legend. It was not out of a book. It was a skillful blend of head and heart.

6. Dhirubhaism: Change your orbit, constantly!

To understand this statement, let me explain Dhirubhai’s “orbit theory.”

He would often explain that we are all born into an orbit. It is up to us to progress to the next. We could choose to live and die in the orbit that we are born in. But that would be a criminal waste of potential. When we push ourselves into the next orbit, we benefit not only ourselves but everyone connected with us.

Take India’s push for development. There was once a time our country’s growth rate was just 4 per cent, sarcastically referred to as the “Hindu growth rate.” Look at us today, galloping along at a healthy 7-8 per cent.

This is no miracle. It is the product of a handful of determined orbit changers like Dhirubhai, all of whose efforts have benefited a larger sphere in their respective fields.

In a small way, I too have experienced the thrill of changing orbits with Mudra. In the 1980s, we leapt from the orbit of a small Ahmedabad ad agency to become the country’s third largest ad agency — in just under a decade.

However, when you change orbits, you will create friction. The good news is that your enemies from your previous orbit will never be able to reach you in your new one. By the time resentment builds up in your new orbit, you should move to the next level. And so on.

Changing orbits is the key to our progress as a nation.

7. The arm-around-the-shoulder leader

I have never seen any other empire builder nor the CEO of any big organisation do this (why, I never adopted this myself!).

It was Dhirubhai’s very own signature style. Whenever I went to meet him and if on that day, all the time that he could spare me was a short walk up to his car, he would instantly put his arm around me and proceed to discuss the issues at hand as we walked.

With that one simple gesture, he managed to achieve many things. I was put at ease instantaneously. I was made to feel like an equal who was loved and important enough to be considered close to him. And I would walk away from that meeting feeling so good about myself and the work I was doing!

This tendency that he had, to draw people towards him, manifested itself in countless ways. This was just one of them. He would never, ever exude an air of aloofness and exclusivity. He was always inviting people into sharing their thoughts and ideas, rather than shutting them out.

On hindsight I think, it must have required phenomenal generosity of spirit to be that inclusive. Yes, this was one of the things that was uniquely Dhirubhai — that warm arm around my shoulder that did much more than words in letting me know that I belonged, that I had his trust, and that I had him on my side!

8. The Dhirubhai theory of Supply creating Demand

He was not an MBA. Nor an economist. But yet he took traditional market theory and stood it on its head. And succeeded.

Yes, at a time when everyone in India would build capacities only after a careful study of market expectations, he went full steam ahead and created giants of manufacturing plants with unbelievable capacites. (Initial cap of Reliance Patalganga was 10,000 tonnes of PFY way back in 1980, while the market in India for it was approx. 6000 tonnes).

No doubt his instinct was backed by years and years of reading, studying market trends, careful listening and his own honed capacity to forecast, but yet despite all this preparation, it required undeniable guts to pioneer such a revolutionary move.

The consequence was that the market blossomed to absorb supply, the consumer benefited with prices crashing down, the players increased and our economic landscape changed for the better. The Patalganga plant was in no time humming at maximum capacity and as a result of the plant’s economies of scale, Dhirubhai’s conversion cost of the yarn in 1994 came down to 18 cents per pound, as compared to Western Europe’s 34 cents, North America’s 29 cents and the Far East’s 23 cents and Reliance was exporting the yarn back to the US!

A more recent example was that of Mukesh Ambani taking this vision forward with Reliance Infocomm (which is now handled by Anil Ambani). In India’s mobile telephony timeline there will always be a very clear ‘before Infocomm and after Infocomm’ segmentation. The numbers say it all. In Jan 2003, the mobile subscriber base was 13 million, about 16 months later, shortly after the launch, it had reached 30 million.

In March 2006, it has touched 90 million ! Yes, this was yet another unusual skill of Dhirubhai’s — his uncanny knack of knowing exactly how the market is going to behave.

9. Money is not a product by itself, it is a by-product, so don’t chase it

This was a belief by which Dhirubhai lived all his life. For instance when he briefed me about setting up Mudra, his instruction was clear: ‘Produce the best textile advertising in the country,’ he said.

He did not breathe a word about profits, nor about becoming the richest ad agency in the country. Great advertising was the goal that he set for me. A by-product is something that you don’t set out to produce. It is the spin off when you create something larger.

When you turn logs into lumber, sawdust is your by-product and a pretty lucrative one it can be too! It is a very simple analogy but extremely effective in driving the point home. Work toward a goal beyond your bank balance.

Success in attaining that goal will eventually ring in the cash. For instance, if you work towards creating a name for yourself and earning a good reputation, then money is a logical outcome.

People will pay for your product or service if it is good. But if you get your priorities slightly mixed up, not only will the money you make remain just a quick buck it would in all likelihood blacklist you for good. Sounds too simplistic for belief? Well, look around you and you will know exactly how true it is.

A few friends of mine have requested me to comment on stocks. Now technically I have no interest in stocks, but I do find it interesting to analyze the underlying business. Anyways, stocks are part ownership of businesses. Plus analyzing businesses gives me the opportunity to analyze private businesses as well. Now for the disclaimers, I might have made mistakes on my analysis and I would be glad if people could spot them out. But remember, just spotting it out won’t do. You must also carry it forward and show how the entire analysis and the end result changes through your observation. Further, I am not here to spurt out textbook stuff to you. I will explain things how I see it. So don’t be surprised if you get some shocking results at times.

Today, I will analyze the ‘Mall Phenomenon’ – why some malls do better than others. For starters I will analyze Atria Mall in Worli, Mumbai. The mall is in troubled time compared to other malls in the city. A few shops have shut down as well. I visited the mall for 15 minutes yesterday and I made the following observations:

1. The Mall is made up of all niche and luxurious brands i.e. it has been made for the rich
2. 75% of the shops are related to women’s clothing, fashion accessories and shoes
3. There are just 2-3 shops for children’s stuff
4. The remaining are shops for electronics and men’s clothing and accessories
5. There is no movie screening halls there
6. There is no place made for children to play
7. The mall is made in such a way that it maximizes the area for the number of shops
8. It’s one of the few malls in the city that actually charge for parking

So, what does this tell you? First, it’s clear that they want only the rich or the ultra rich. It’s almost impossible to go to a shop and come out with a bill of less that Rs. 5,000. This automatically reduces your market to sell the goods. There are no movie screens and no hang out place which means you also eliminate college groups. Men generally don’t like to shop much. Plus men don’t like paying too much for their clothes. Thus you have narrowed your market even further. All this leaves you with is rich women, daughters with rich parents and obviously rich families as a whole.

But there’s a catch here. In Mumbai, it is the current generation of parents that have made the money. Hence most of these “rich families” or “rich men” are married and have kids. When such families go out for shopping they would any day prefer a place where their kids can enjoy too. When you enter Atria mall, you can immediately say that it’s the most unfriendly place to kids. Kids will start getting irritated because there is nothing interesting for them there. Parents are not that addicted to shopping that they will go out Atria to buy expensive stuff and make their kids suffer. They will not mind going to a place like Phoenix Mills where your stuff is probably of a little lesser quality but your kids can have a ball of a time at McDonalds.

So, now that we have eliminated most of your families. All you are left with is rich girls/women as your potential market at Atria. Now 75% shops are for women. That means she has a huge variety. And due to that each shop losses its unique selling point. Thus the average turnover of the shops will reduce and most shops will struggle to remain profitable.

All this analysis was done in a 15 minute walk in the mall. It’s amazing how you can find so much information in such a short span of time when you pay attention to your surroundings.

Sorry guys. This blog has been silent for some time – primarily because I have been a little busy working and enjoying. I assure you that you will have a lot more interesting posts soon.

It finally happened. The D-day arrived. Pancreatic Cancer took its toll on Randy and he passed away on June 25. We all know it feels unfair that such a great guy should encounter such a bad fate. But just as Randy says ‘We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand’. Few have Randy’s courage and will to have fun even in the terminal stages of his life, but the least we can do is learn from him.

Prof. Randy Pausch, we all miss you deeply.

Well its actually been a long time since I have read this book. But I thought that I should post a review of the same. I am sure you can find hundreds of reviews for this book but still I will put forth my views Ubiquitary style!!!

Well Freakonomics not exactly for freaks but it does explain about he freaky things that go on. You can say that the book is made up of several case studies backed up by fact and figures explaining day to day occurrences through an economist’s point of view. Some of the case studies are fairly simple and quite frankly speaking more or less obvious. But, the rest are purely breathtaking. Some of his insights absolutely amaze you. The paradox existing in this world leave you speechless. But more importantly, he brings out three important points:

1. Two events occurring simultaneously does not imply that one caused the other.
2. There is an incentive behind almost every human action in the world. Incentive is also the main cause of people’s behaviour
3. The effects of certain actions take considerable time to occur – even decades or centuries.

On the whole, it a wonderful and definite read. It will give you a completely new perspective and take on life – a must read for everyone.

Life has become very confusing of late. But I guess that is normal if you are used to taking weird decisions at most critical junctures of your life, in spite of the fact that if you take the normal course you will definitely end up doing well in your professional life. Some of you might be able to understand what I mean and even fewer would have faced a situation such as mine. For those who don’t understand the situation let me set it forth with a typical Ubiquitary example 😉

Most of us do what we are doing because we have been put in to the situation or environment. Some of us have chosen to do what they are currently doing because others have told them that it is the right thing to do. For example, most students rarely get to select the course and college of their choice. Most of them have no other option but to join a particular college/ course and hence are pursuing a particular field. Few students, thanks to their exceptional grades in the examination, have the ability to choose the course and college of their choice. But, in reality, most of them do not choose it on their own. With experience I can say that most of these “elite” students do not make the decision themselves but make a decision based on what others’ opinion is. There are very few of us who make their own decisions and pursue what their interests.

Most people continue living their lives until there comes a day when they realize that they have achieved everything but unfortunately it means nothing since it is the field they have no interest in. They suddenly realize that if they had put the same effort in something that they liked it would have been much more meaningful and sensible. It is then they realize that they need to shift lines but they are unsure of the line that would be good for them. So they leave their jobs and sit down to ponder where their interests lie. This my friends, is typically, what is called a mid life crisis.

Am I in one? I don’t know. But I do know that it is essential for me to channel my efforts to something that I will enjoy doing not just for the next 10 years but for the next 50 years. Though this is a tough decision to make at the start of the career, I believe that it is essential. Postponing something that you like doing is, just as Warren Buffett says, “Saving sex for old age”.

The key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them.

I think you have to learn that there’s a company behind every stock, and that there’s only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies.

In this business if you’re good, you’re right six times out of ten. You’re never going to be right nine times out of ten.

You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don’t understand that’s going to happen, then you’re not ready, you won’t do well in the markets.

When stocks are attractive, you buy them. Sure, they can go lower. I’ve bought stocks at $12 that went to $2, but then they later went to $30. You just don’t know when you can find the bottom.

I’ve found that when the market’s going down and you buy funds wisely, at some point in the future you will be happy. You won’t get there by reading ‘Now is the time to buy.’

Go for a business that any idiot can run – because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.

A week ago I had a written a post on keep things simple and logical rather than complicating them (See here). As an example, I described how companies nowadays ask for minimum degree requirements such as an MBA. Now all I did was use this as an example. In fact, I also mentioned below that this is just an example. Today morning when i open my Inbox I was pleasantly surprised to find a comment from a wise guy. For your easy reference, I am mentioning the comment below:

Your post clearly indicates a point of view of a person who is not an MBA, all the lamenting about the imposed necessity of the degree by MNCs. Lets first put us in the position of the recruiter, How should they trust a particular person for that particular post. The legendary MBA degree does guarantee that the holder possesses the soft skills demanded by the Job.
Its a reliable system these B-schools much unlike graduate schools here in India. Its not that a non MBA might not do all these things. But you can make out the probability calculation and find that the system is justifying itself.
So, the logic still remains in its place. I have a suggestion for you, start using that 730 score somewhere. Consultancy is a thing for engineers. Managing is for their bosses.

Now, let me state some assumptions which seem to be obvious from the post

1. Mr. Mistry (author of this comment) is very pissed that I with me since he feels that I have hurt his ego by telling him that an MBA is not necessary
2. He is, possibly, an MBA
3. Has a unidirectional thought process (“Consultancy is a thing for engineers. Managing is for their bosses” – What rubbish is this! You cannot state what a person should do just because you perceive it in a screwed up manner)

Frankly speaking I don’t think that Mr. Mistry has understood the point of my post. The MBA thing was just an example. Unlike what Mr. Mistry says I do not believe that “The legendary MBA degree does guarantee that the holder possesses the soft skills demanded by the Job.” Let me take another simple but weird example. Can a dog learn quantum physics? Even if you enroll it in the best Physics school in the world it will not learn Quantum Physics? Why? because it does not have the capability. Similarly, how you use the B-school depends on the your capability to adapt and learn from it. Mr. Mistry is right, I have not attended a B-school. But I have played crucial roles in many successful negotiations when in fact I haven’t attended a single class on negotiation! But I have never said that you should not go do an MBA. All I am saying is that MBA might not be required for everyone and hence it cannot be generalized.

I still hold on to my point of view that we complicate things too much and forget to stick to the basics. If that labels me a Contrarian – I accept it. Because some of the most successful people did things that were considered outrageous in their time.

How many of you think that the world is a fair place? I am sure the most people who are currently doing well feel that the world is a fair place, while those who are currently struggling or not able to realize their full potential feel that the opposite is true. As for me, I believe that the world is not entirely fair. There are times when you see someone getting more than what he apparently deserves, while some guys get much less than what they deserve. This, I have seen, is especially true in terms of professional life. Is this sad? I believe so? But can we do anything about it? Is it all fate or can our “destiny” be changed? Can equity be re-established in the world?

Well, it’s a complicated question to start with. I truly believe that though we may not be able to establish complete equity in the world we can do a great deal to bridge the gap. But for this you need the rich and powerful to intervene and actively participate to fill in the void. We are extremely lucky to have the 2 richest guys in the world also playing the role of philanthropists. Unfortunately, as you go down the list, the density of such philanthropists decreases. It is up to the ‘haves’ to make sure that the bridge between them and the ‘have nots’ is reduced. The world unfortunately rewards only certain acts. For example, an i-banker who just trades in shares earns much more than a nurse in Afghanistan. You would think that a nurse’s in war-ridden Afghanistan deserves to be better recognized, but its not so.

But what about the people who are currently down and don’t have much resources? I think that the best thing for them to do is continue striving hard without worrying about the pitfalls involved. We must remember that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett themselves were not rich when they started out. yet they have managed to climb up the ladder and reach the top. There is no point brooding over what you don’t have. Better to put that amount of effort in thinking positive and working hard to improve your position