Being Aware is important than to be right sometimes
Yes, you read it right!!
I didn’t intend to create a marketing one-liner so many of you would read the post, rather I mean what I said above. There are lot of commonalities between Market and Marriage, if one uses the principles of happy marriage into markets, they can actually work out very well.
Most of the married folks would have learnt it the hard way what makes the marriage tick. And unfortunate as it is the knowledge can’t be imparted from experienced folks to newbies. It can be told but they won’t be able to follow till they do it on their own (just like walking for the child).
The most important recipe of any successful marriage is “Respect”. Of course, what is new in this? And how does it apply to markets?
Respect comprises of two things:
(i) Listening
(ii) Don’t impose what you think
Yes, you read it right, Listen and Don’t impose – if done well in marriage and markets can do wonders for most of us.
Coincidentally, three mega billionaires filed for divorce this year (read about one news today) – the divorce club acronym is MAA (Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon) - I just hope MAA doesn’t grow as big as FAANG in characters.
Major reason cited in all divorce cases was “irreconcilable differences” – and root cause of these irreconcilable differences could stem from Lack of Listening what others want and imposing what we think is right and what should happen. I don’t intend to trivialize the personal travesty of couples going through divorce now rather if something from post can resonate with you and things improve that would be much bigger satisfaction rather than making money in markets.
Coming back to markets – IMHO we don’t respect markets enough (and yet we believe in wisdom of crowds). Seasoned investors who are very flexible in their mind and have gained the experience through boom-bust cycles are always vulnerable and unsure which is a great trait because this leads to their tendency to listen keeping aside their notion about what should happen.
Novices on the other hand are dictating “what market wants to say” and “what markets should say and do” – these two notions are NOT so secret recipe for disaster.
In the above two thoughts, there are lot of hidden presumptions and impositions of self-belief. These two sentences indicate the unwillingness to listen to markets and imposing what we think (even it shouts at us – I want to go down now, but we are in continuous pursuit to find bottoms).
In markets lessons are expensive than we think, courses sold to tame the markets are cheap (just like Glucometer) but the continuous learning has costs, it’s our financial and mental capital (just like gluco measuring strips). And if protecting and growing capital is the pursuit, we have no choice but to RESPECT markets (Listen More and Don’t Impose).
I know I am indulging in a futile exercise where the experienced one already appreciate this fact and novice will ignore this as a piece of garbage but a rant if it can do any good to anyone is worth a shot.
With a pledge to listening more and lesser imposition - Have a great weekend.