I recently presented on the Alibaba Group & its founder Jack Ma (lovingly known as Crazy Jack) at FoF. While reading about the culture of the firm, it was obvious that they’re heavily influenced by their founder’s love for martial arts and historical Kung Fu Fiction. It’s so much woven into their culture, that Jack Ma’s nickname in the company is “Feng Qingyang” which comes from a character, who is a reclusive, unpredictable & aggressive swordsman.
True history of the world is the history of great conversations.
– Tyrion Lannister (Game of Thrones)
A Pensive Tyrion, Picture from HBO
If you have caught up with the last week’s episode of Game of Thrones, you’d have noticed Tyrion drop this line. It’s one of those moments when life connects with art.
The fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the consumer’s goods, the new methods of production or transportation, the new markets, the new forms of industrial organization, that capitalist enterprise creates.
– Joseph Schumpeter
I love Apple products. But that’s not what this post is about. It’s about a very interesting concept which we all fall prey to at some point in time. We (humans) always crave new experiences. In fact as Schumpeter says in the quote above, making new things is a sign of growth. What he doesn’t mention there & is perhaps hidden between the lines is that it only works when we’ve mastered the other things we’re previously good at. New for him meant incremental.
“We’re in the oil business & as in any business the probability of success must always be greater than the risk incurred.”
– sourced from Google Images
These were the words of Captain George Pollard from the Ron Howard film, “In the Heart of the Sea”.
Before I go into the why, here’s the what –
The Ultimate Productivity Tool for an Investor, surprisingly, is “Commuting”
I have been working out of an office for the past 7 years now, which means, each day I spend 1 hr 20 mins one way (door to door). Fortunately I don’t have to juggle multiple modes of transport. In the beginning this routine was non-intrusive, then it became a nuisance & then suddenly it became invisible.