When you are on your own you achieve less than a team. Well that is the theory. I am not getting into whether it is right or wrong, but that is what one hears.

To be successful in certain industries – films, television, sport,…it is far more difficult than say investing, what you need is persistency and grit. Imagine being rejected again and again. Then getting a chance – and you do a good job, but the movie bombs.

How does your positive attitude help? Well, it does not. You need grit and persistency. The ability to keep a smiling face when you are rejected again and again. More importantly you do not have an inexhaustible supply of money.

Now see why a Tushar Kapoor or a Abhishek Bachhan are considered “successful”. They are successful compared to about 99.99% of the Indian population in terms of money that they make. That is awesome is it not? Largely a big bank to support them in case something goes wrong. A lifestyle which is ASSURED whether they succeed or not. Now take the case of animals – if an elephant loses its mother, its aunts and grandparents give it shelter. If a leopard loses its mother it becomes prey. If a Guernsey calf is orphaned it tries getting milk from another cow – which rejects it, so the calf dies. However if a Brahman calf is orphaned it persistently tries getting milk – and the older cow gives in. What protects it is persistency aka grit. Positivity fails when you are under pressure. Look at Vinod Kambli – he was 23 when he decided that he could not play Courtney Walsh’s bouncers. End of test career. Where was the grit? Persistency? learning?

To succeed you need persistency – and that is far more difficult if you come from a modest background, and unsupporting family. Imagine the son of a bank clerk  staying in Bhopal who wants to become an actor in Mumbai. It can’t be easy. Take MSD – the biopic shows how his family was not too keen on his cricket. Of cours once you are successful, the rejections are nicely hidden.

What does this have to do with investing (or doing business?)? Clearly you need grit and persistency in LEARNING. Honestly when I analyze my investment decisions I realize how much role luck has played. I met people like Suraj Kaeley who spoke about the “investment process” rather than the returns in the next quarter. I did equity research for one of India’s greatest investors – and all the companies that I choose to do research turned out to be multi baggers. One of the companies turned out to be a multi bagger which then turned out to be a huge fraud. Luckily for me I had sold the shares. Sheer Lakshmi’s blessings, surely not skill.

I had the phone numbers and personal contacts of India’s biggest scamsters. Only recently I deleted them. All of them ended in jail. What helped me stay away from them for doing business? No clue, just luck. I was about to take up a job even in Subhiksha. I would have been in some jail now. Sheer luck that I did not.

Get a good educational degree – IIT, CA, …something. Then show your persistency. Equity market tests you for patience, persistency, far more than positive attitude. Of course you need positive attitude, but you need persistency far more. We underestimate what we can achieve over a long time, and we underestimate what we can achieve in one year. Therefore we look for 36% return. We underestimate what 13% cagr can do over 50 years. To achieve that you require the patience and persistency. I am holding on to Tata Motors DVR over a long period of time, and have given myself 2 more years. Yes it may have been a poor decision to buy it at 90 and not sell it at 300, but that is done. I have to think TODAY. Patience.

I have invested in Franklin India Bluechip, Franklin Prima, Hdfc Top 100, Hdfc Equity. You think I invested in big fund houses? NO. I actually invested in Pioneer and Zurich. Lol. Only fund scheme which I invested because I liked the fund manager was Icici Pru Discovery, when Naren joined Icici Pru Amc. I have other schemes also but all these are around for 15+ years in my portfolio. You need to sit it out. Patience.

Similarly in my equity portfolio I have commodity companies which have created wealth – like Coromandel International (1986), Eid Parry (1986) – however one needs to trade in these shares REGULARLY. I do not trade in PnG, Gillette, Col pal, Nestle – simply because I lack the ability to see charts, and so does my broker. So different parts of your portfolio require different strategies. Worse is when strategies go wrong. You need the ability to check out the decision making process AND THE ABILITY to accept mistakes.

Ha…mistakes is a different post!!