Who is an entrepreneur?

Recently I wrote this post. And since yesterday, I have been reading Capt. Gopinath’s “Simply fly”.

Its a good book, though it could have been written better I felt.

While reading, Ct.G quotes Peter Drucker’s definition of an entrepreneur.

A true entrepreneur is one who creates wealth where it did not exist earlier by creating a new market and a new customer. They create something new, something different; they change and transmute values;

I liked the definition, but dont adhere to it 100%. This is fringing on Blue Ocean kinda strategy.. creating new markets. But not every innovator can manage to be successful and I believe sometimes being early is bad. Early birds get cooked many a time! Many a time, the first player is not the one who makes a business out of it, but the subsequent player who is a better executor of the same idea.

I am a firm believer that the team and its execution capability is far more important than the idea itself. It is nice and great to innovate, but it is far more important to execute it better.

Now, keeping the above opinion aside, I re-read my own post mentioned above. What would I do if I had a million $?

I had written things like “Start an online book store like flipkart.com”. Now, now…when I read it now.. I feel stupid!

Why would I want to be another flipkart.com? Or the next amazon.com?

Thinking within a box!!! How often we think of doing things the same way.. same style..

Capt. Gopi thought out of the box. He started a helicopter company when none existed. He built a low cost airline when the idea was considered unviable.

We need to think out of the box… for heavens sake, atleast while creating a wishlist.

I need to revisit my wishlist again!!

Why do you work?

I read this post today by Simple Dollar’s Trent.

This is an age old thingy! Why should you work? What would you do if you had a million dollars? Or if you had unlimited resources?

I know its old, its cliched.. yet, let me try to answer that one for myself.

• Start an online library chain (I love books!). Start an online book store like flipkart.com
• Travel all around the world and indulge in photography
• Run a mountain side farm with a stream running through it
• Develop a cutting-edge data integration / data quality tool and release it under open source
• Find and fund at least 10 diversified startups in areas within my circle-of-competence
• Manage my investment portfolio myself based on Ben Graham’s / Warren Buffett’s principles
• Develop a personal finance tool that is easy to use, flexible, reconciles with investment and bank accounts, calculates tax on the fly, has online and offline data entry…. and has flexibility to create meaningful / useful reports and dashboards. (I use GNUcash today. I love it. But its reporting features are not that great.. and its a lot of work to keep data updated)
• Write a book on Nilgiris (www.Neilgherries.com is a domain that I own)
• ……………… the list goes on

Financial journey since May 2007

Well, I seem to be blogging very little about finance these days. My time is mostly consumed by my new interests.. photography, bird watching and wildlife.

It is a surprise even to me as to how a strongly left-brain oriented person like me has taken to right-brain activities like photography and birding (ok.. they are not entirely right-brain).

But finance has been a favorite topic since a long time. As a kid I used to love monopoly. As a student, I loved math and numbers. Now as a BI (business intelligence) expert, I love charts. I like to ponder over monthly savings ratios, net worth growth rate, expense pie charts, etc. Though I am struggling to balance a few unrelated interests, it is but natural for me to keep returning to my financial interests.

I decided to break the jinx and blog a bit on finance, on my journey since May 2007. (Please read my disclaimer too).

Why May 2007? Because I made a major change in my investment style at that time. I consciously made a decision to go passive, go large cap. Index funds (actually exchange traded funds) were in. Most of my individual stocks were sold. Active stock picking was mostly out except for a few niche holdings. Mutual funds too were reduced to a few concentrated large cap holdings. I chose steady performers (like Franklin India taxshield, HDFC Equity) over star performers. I chose to focus more on my career and kept my finances on auto-run. I opted for SIP’s, made regular purchases of Nifty Bees and slept peacefully most of the time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Inspiring story: Madhavan, IIT grad, now successful farmer

This story is highly inspiring. Please read the entire story here.

Farming in India is one area in which innovation and best practice implementation is a bit sore.

I come from a family of farmers and I have seen first hand how far behind we are compared to our Western counterparts. Our methods are archaic. The yield per acre in India is low. Wastage is high. Storage methods do not leverage the facilities available today. Transportation losses are horribly high.

Also, middle men are a menace. The typical small scale farmer lives a hand-to-mouth existence. The middle men enjoy the fruits of the farmers hard work.

Simply put, this industry needs a lot of professionalism. Farming needs to be run like we run a company. Our approach itself to farming needs to be revisited. We need to plan, prepare, implement, experiment and learn from mistakes better. And we need more people like Madhavan. Kudos to him. People like him are the real heroes.

Books an investor should read

“Which are the best books that any investor should read?”

Many people have this question.

I have attempted to answer that question in this post. I have read almost all the books listed here. But have included a few which I haven’t read too, because the reviews of those were very good and from very reliable sources. I have indicated the ones I haven’t read yet. Okay, here we go!

Basics
Any investor who has a strong hold on the basics is leaps and bounds ahead of the one who doesn’t. I would say every single book in this basic section is a must!

1. One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch. An amazingly well written book, one of the best for both the novice and the expert.
2. The Intelligent investor by Benjamin Graham. The bible! Miss this and you can’t be an intelligent investor.
3. Common stocks and uncommon profits by Philip A Fisher. Great book on long term growth and focus oriented investing
4. The essays of Warren Buffett. The master at his very best!
5. The interpretation of financial statements by Benjamin Graham. A simple book on balance sheet basics.
6. Richest man in Babylon by George Clason. A timeless classic on personal finance.

Further reading
Once you have completed the basic books and are thirsty for more, please choose from this list. Read the rest of this entry »

Fantastic interpretation of world statistics

Please have a look at this video.

Be patient for the first 3-4 mins. The real show begins after that!

I was really thrilled seeing the way the speaker had handled data… intertwining it with design!!!

You will love statistics if it is presented this way.

And the other thing is the clarity the data throws on issues like poverty, GDP growth, internet user growth, life expectancy curve, etc.

Who said data is boring?

This video is a must watch!!!