"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to
stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying."
-Friedrich Nietzsche (German, 1844-1900)
Word for the day
Atrabilious (adj)
Gloomy; morose; melancholy; morbid.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Malice
towards none
The political narrative in Bihar is expectedly full of
humor, satire and sarcasm.
Some elite are taking it too seriously as reflection of the
political standards in India.
Better late than sorry!
Every morning, newspaper report pouring of millions of dollars in Indian
start ups - mostly ecommerce related. Valuation in all these cases is just a
number "XYZ invested so much USD in ABC assigning it a valuation of so
much US$" is the usual narrative.
Reading all these astronomical numbers accompanied by numerous
"rag to riches" stories, a common man like me does obviously feel
exasperated. The question "Am I missing the once in a lifetime
opportunity?" keeps pestering the conscious mind incessantly.
To be precise, I feel like standing behind a large circle of crowd
gathered on a busy road jumping and sweating to see what is happening inside
the circle. When you join the crowd, for once it feels like you are the only
one ignorant of what is going on; everyone else appears in the full know of
happenings. 'Loser" is the word which first comes to the mind for
self-condemnation at this point in time.
After sometime when you settle down a bit in the crowd, you try to
enquire from other people, and realize that there are many who share your
ignorance. The feeling suddenly changes, like the weather on hills, when more
people join the crowd behind you and ask you "what happened?" You
brashly feel important and enlightened, for the moment.
The usual denouncement to each episode is that the ruffled crowd
disperses from the venue with numerous versions of an event that perhaps did
not took place at all.
Fully knowing you have been fooled by your inquisition and
excitement to join the crowd, you nonetheless take the story home and transfer
your guilt to some innocuous audience.
All those who had been part of the crowd in mid 1990s (Financial
sector IPOs), late 1990s and early 2000s (ICE bubble) and mid 2000s (infra,
reality and credit bubble) would certainly sympathize with what I am trying to
say.
However, the new blood in the market, like each earlier episode,
want to experience the things first hand; even if it means burning their hands.
Most of these start ups yet have no defined revenue model. The
business models are still sketchy and evolving with the market developments.
They are burning cash at crazy pace without creating any asset - physical or
intangible.
If my experience is any guide, at least 75% of these start ups may
die prematurely.
I have written this before also. The day is not far, when the
swanky offices, fancy salaries and ambitious dreams would all lay devastated
and we would need a startup that would cremate the remains of the unfortunate
kids. Wonder, when the job is done, who would cremate this last startup!
On my part, I am resisting hard not to join the crowd this time. I
would like the crowd to disperse and assess the market conditions at peace.
Would leave the bounty for the adventurous and invest in ecommerce for annuity
returns after all weak players are strained out.
No comments:
Post a Comment