Scuttlebutt: Philip Fischer “The Great Economist”

In “Common Stocks Uncommon Profits” Philip Fischer has beautifully explained how, when, what stocks to buy and everything required to make a profitable investment.

One of the most important concepts in that is “Scuttlebutt”. In this concept he tells investors to go and meet various stakeholders of a company in which you want to invest. You need to meet former employees, current employees, customers, suppliers etc. (as per issue you want to inquire about).

E.g. If it is a Retail business you need to take into account “customers” view regarding why they buy this brand? Are there any stock-outs? How much brand loyal they are?

But I think this highly admired concept is not only applicable on “Capital Market”. It can be used everywhere. For instance: I want to do Engineering and want to know about a college. This is my investment of Lacks of Rupees (as fee) and 4 precious years of my life.

I firmly believe it’s up to you what you want to learn and how you want to implement in your life. I was benefited by this concept in my stock picking decisions as well as in my other decisions.

Have Attitude of Gratitude

THANK god for everything you possess. You will feel more confident & constructive in life.

As we have observed that, whenever anyone thanks someone for its support they both feel great about it. It brings smile on their faces and smile makes you effective in sorting out things.

Gratitude brings a feeling of satisfaction about what you possess. It with a correct vision will give a direction of success.

Gratitude gives you POSITIVE VIBES and above all it also makes people around you attracted towards you. This attraction will definitely facilitate you in your endeavors. Your subordinates for instance will always respect you behind your back as well, your peers will support you willingly & your boss will mentor you to make you successful.

This attitude is not only helpful in professional life but also in your personal life. Be it your folks or your friends.

If you don’t believe in this “Attitude of Gratitude”, just stopping thanking everyone and you will then face ill feelings of others and post that you will realize its importance and surely a change in your Attitude.

Left handers are stylish and rare

Does it matter that you use which hand often to do your work? I have observed that be it a sport, movie or any show performer’s with the use of left hand seems to be stylish.

Be it Amitabh Bachchan way of tilting on left side and standing or his running by bending slightly on left hand side or clapping from left hand. There is charm in all of them. It is a style statement.

R. Nadal, the tennis icon has poor records than Roger (world no. 1) but is quite popular due to his style. In cricket it is Yuvraj Singh whose batting style seems very interesting due to him being a left hander batsman.

But what about people who can use both the hands with equal efficiency (ambidexterity). They are stylish as well as more “resourceful”, similar was a friend of mine. He use write with right hand if someone is sitting on his left side and vice-versa. This use to help him cheat quicker and sometimes beat the person he is copying from.

Happiest people in this World

If we have to find which “set of people” in this world are happiest? It may be by their country, continent, caste, creed, religion, profession, gender etc. it would be interesting to know. People on the earth do different things, even if they do same thing they might do it very differently. In a country like India we find so much of diversity in culture, customs, and lingo after few miles only. People are so different from each other that just with the accent people can identify your region and in your name they will find your religion or country.

If, I talk about happiness, it is a universal need. Whenever, I switch to any radio station and listen to its young and flamboyant RJ; I find no one is so much enthusiastic about things in this whole world as much as they are. They have answer to each and every question anyone is perturbed with in their lives. Listeners having issues in their love relationship, sex life, ewe teasing or however big or personal it may be RJ thinks they would resolve it with snap of their fingers.

Though it is only about link-ups they want to talk about. I think it would be an interesting study that “How many people after implementing advice of any RJ feel HAPPY?”

While my daily commutation I use to hear various shows on different radio stations for 10-15 days consecutively. Daily there were different guests, different callers, different songs, different RJ’s but 1 thing was same “The level of Enthusiasm was always 10 on 10”. Someone rightly said, “Food with lack of salt can be improved by adding salt but if it is extra you can only spite that”.

I am also quite energetic and zealous person but as everyone believes be it energetic & enthusiastic girlfriend or manager a bit of Calmness is always appreciable. And I believe it goes for a RJ as well.

My dream school for Talent

I want to start a school/training institute where talented kids would be brought to train in skills like various forms of dance, gymnastic, Malkham. When I saw many financially poor kids rolling & jumping in Bandra, Mumbai; I was amazed by their flair. When I talked to 5-6 of them I found that they were not taught about all this and they just do this for fun. One of them was 6 years old but the way he was rolling upside down took my breath away.

I still remember in my childhood days, I daily use to meet an old man on my way to school. He always uses to talk about his childhood days of 1950s and morning Malkham that he use to do for physical fitness cum fun. Though, at that point of time I use to prefer late morning sleep over Malkham (or any other physical exercise). When I saw people doing this I was amazed and after talking to them I realized how much dedication it needs to perform it so beautifully.

In many reality shows on television we see people appearing these days. When I hear the pain they have been through I feel it is quite sad. We have talent, we are growing @ 8% P.A. (GDP growth) but then also we celebrate for winning ONLY 1 medal in Olympics. It is upsetting. More than that, it is pain to know that people with so much of talent and passion for their talent struggle economically their whole life. In a country like US they become Michael Jackson and in India such a poor chap would get nothing except SYMPATHY from society and government.

I wish to open a school for people in need for this. I would not insult them by saying it is for FREE because you are POOR. Rather it would be on deferred payment. I believe that if I would get them trained, they would be able to entertain people and make a good living out of that. There would not be any fee but whenever someone succeeds and feels that it was due to this training can come and give whatever he feels like. This institute would not be with an intension to earn any money because after commencement of this institute it would surely take years for any student to succeed or pay anything. They may teach their juniors or any monetary help they would like to do for making this training institute bigger and better.

My 5 Favorite Wrestling superstars of all times (as a Kiddo)

SHAWN MICHAELS: Heart Break Kid (HBK) or Mr. Wrestlemania what ever you call him, one thing that he possess no one can even touch him i.e. RESILIENCE. His match against Hitman in Wrestlemania 1995 made him known as Mr. Wrestlemania. It is among the Top 5 matches of WWF (WWE) of all times.

Entertainment factor of HBK has made him so much popular. And with such powerful entrance music till the time match is over (despite he wins or loses) audience is with him. The way he gets everyone involved before super kicking shows his attraction factor.

DX is one one the most popular teams of all times and is still loved by people and it is quite visible on walls of streets. The issues with The Rock, Chairman, Shane and many other superstars pulled millions of eyeballs in last decade.
16 times world champ, Ric Flair, career was finished by HBK and Ric also said that he is happy that a great entertainer like Shawn did that and Ric is proud of it and me too.

Undertaker: What to say about The Dead Man and his Tombstone. A signature move which no one can escape. The best fighter and dream of each and every superstar to beat this 6 ft 10 giant.

Undertaker Vs Undertaker was one of the most interesting & innovative matches. TWO UNDERTAKERS had double thrill for audience.

The way he use to hold hand of opponent and walk on rope or his deadly chalk slam whatever it may be it was unbelievable.

18-0 in Wrestlemanias makes him tuffest and the most consistent of all.

Stone Cold Steve Austin: Stunner of Austin was something which make everyone to fall in love with him. Though in early stages of his career he was not liked by audience but with his makeover by Vince made him one of the biggest superstars of late 1990s. His 3 consecutive wins of Royal Rumble is next to impossible.

Rivalry with Chairman of WWF (Vince) is undoubtedly the most popular contention of all times. More than his fights or stunners he was known for his talking’s, unique competitions (like: Burp match), and of course BEER.

Hulk Hogan: Many call him OVERRATTED superstar but I think he deserves all of it. His love for United States shows his patriotism.

The way he beat The Giant is a legendary match. 1980s was ruled by this great wrestler. He gave new dimension to the wrestling industry and made it more entertaining by rocking entrance music, tinted shades, pointing opponent, glare and drop kick.

Rey Mysterio One of smallest and lightest wrestlers ever in the history of sports entertainment but surely one of the best. Winning Royal Rumble becoming World Tag Team champion & World Champion exhibits the flair this little man posses.

Rey’s friendship with Addie is one of the most liked teams of WWE. It unfortunately got over with death of Addie in a road accident.

“619” is not merely a number but finishing move of this superstar. It is beautiful to watch Rey coming from between the ropes and hitting right on the faces of opponent and then falling on his neck. And is a move which puts giants like Kane also on the ground.

Wants are unlimited & Resources are Limited?

The first lecture of Economics says that, “Wants are unlimited & Resources are Limited”.

I believe there is no SCARCITY of Resources. There exists enough joy, wealth & creative ideas. A lot is yet to be explored.

If we are dwindling of anything, we develop better technology to attain more of it. There is no limit. It’s a lie to stop us from thinking bigger. Those you think with LIMITING themselves only succeed.

Life is meant to be ABUNDANT. Live It!!

“We think we lack because we don’t open our vision to see what is around us”, Dr. John F. Demartini D.C. Bsc., Philosopher.
There is enough for everyone because someone wants money & someone wants happy family.

We use less than 5% of our human brains. Imagine if we use 100% of it. We can do anything. Where exists the LIMIT??

Experience, not Talent

It is said that the problem with MBA in India is they also take fresher (who don’t have any experience of working in corporate world). And that is absolutely true. There should be a ratio of work experience and non-work Ex people.

But it has been consistently seen that freshers are better as far as communication skills, scores in exams and energy level are concerned. This is because work-Ex people in entrance test score less in written Test, GD/PI but have extra marks for work Ex.

Instead of having No. of years as work Ex there should be a test to check the maturity and business acumen of candidates. The oldest 5% (No. of years of Work-Ex) candidates in majority of cases are worse on other fronts like: communication skills, use of technology, creativity, zeal. Undoubtedly there are exceptions to it.

One way to make your path to a premium B-school easy in India

How to get into IIM, S.P. Jain, NMIMS & such top-notch B-schools of India?

Candidates don’t get call or are not able to convert even after having good performance in GD/PI.

What else the selection committee is looking for? It is DIVERSIFICATION in education background. If we read profiles of all the students in these B-schools and put in excel sheet we will find people from almost all kinds of Graduation degrees like: LLB, Zoology, Botany, Pharmaceutical, statistics etc. though there will be B.Com, engineering graduates in greater number.

This is done to provide knowledgeable people but of DIVERSE education background.
Note: There are many Part of it was explained in my earlier article on “know the rules of the game before you get into it”.

Think HATKE

Should a company try to give “cheaper product, same quality” to increase its market share against the competitors?

I think the better strategy would be to develop a product which is finding the gap.

E.g. Paras Pharma found the problem of back ache among middle aged women and introduced Moov similarly Krack cream. Whenever anyone had back ache the only brand use to come in mind was Moov. They also identified problem of getting stain on shirts due to black and brown balms. But MOOV was of white color which was not having any stain on shirt.
The time for “cut throat competition” is gone. It’s time to find the gaps which do exist. And go and capitalize on the gap.

E.g. Anurag Kashyap found an audience for themselves which appreciate his work commercially as well as critically. Against this many film makers making comedy flicks which are not appreciated by the customers over good comedy film directors like Aneez Bazmee. NICHE is the word.

Failure is GOOD

No one want to fail in life. But it would always come at some point or the other. Should we try to avoid it or pray to god?

Failure is good because:
It pushes you to have a sense of incompleteness.
That makes you do self-analysis.
This further makes or FORCES you to IMPROVE and DO SOMETHING which you are AFRAID of doing.

This short term sadness/loss helps to gain long-term profitability.

"Be Optimistic & Opportunistic"

Know the RULES of the game before entering in

Last night even after giving the best dance performance a team stood 2nd. The reason was they dint give attention to story/theme, which had good weightage.

This reminds me of last year, when my friend came n told me that there are points for story/theme as well. Just 1 day before the final showdown we put in some tracks n made a story. I owe her that award for the 1st position. Otherwise, I also would have been the 2nd one like the team the other day, unfortunately.

Hard work, flair, dedication everything is a waste without knowing what all things or mix of things are required to WIN.

Human beings should learn from ANIMALS

Fortunately or unfortunately people think they are superior than animals. But it doesnt hold true all the time.

Lion is not the Tallest, Heaviest, Largest in the forest but still he the KING. Giraffe, Rhino, Elephant still comes after him in the forest. It is the ATTITUDE & CONFIDENCE which makes him more powerful than anyone of them.

Bird who can fly up to 3-5 miles of height : Eagle.
An army of Pigeons led by an Eagle is better and more powerful than an army of Eagle led by Pigeons. It is the CHARISMA and MOTIVATION in one selves make a human being successful individual.

A corporate magnet's son or daughter might get a business empire but not success or revenues because his own hard word, passion, attitude will help him/her survive in the industry and their skill sets will be the only reason for people(in and out organization)to appreciate them.

Learn from everyone and bring change in your behavior, value & confidence level.

You can be a leader without followers

I don’t think you need to be a boss or rich employer to become a leader. You by your DEEDS become a leader. First you need to become a good follower and rest will follow you automatically.


Follow not only great people like: Carlos Slim, Sachin Tendulkar, Nadia Comaneci, MJ but also follow your DREAMS, your PRINCIPLES, your PASSION.


First lead your dreams & passion in the right direction rest (success, money, fame, peace of mind, people) will automatically follow.

Courage is the first thing to be an entrepreneur

Many people in the world have business ideas but very few succeed. It is not that other fail. It is just that they don’t try. They get involved in something which majority does. 9 to 9 job at some MNC and following rules & regulations blindly. And regretting every single moment of their life that, WHY I DIDN’T DO THAT?
Courage to go out of way is something which leads to most of the ideas not getting converted to execution. An idea/business plan may be 1000% profitable on paper but it is crap without any execution.

Life is a viscious circle

When we are in X standard we are told to score good to get PCM because if you will get arts or commerce its not accepted. You have to score good in XII and entrance exams like: IIT, CET. Graduation CGPA/percentage has to be great to get into any co. or a premium MBA institute like: IIM, NMIMS. If its MBA then people dont go as per their wish/profile (even after watching and appreciating 3 idiots). MONEY is the only criteria. why?
We are not doing anything of our interest may be its arts, B.com, entreprenership etc.
Unfortunetly, we just praise movies or people like 3 idiots, Warren Buffet but still have that heard mentallity.

Leadership

Attitude + Action + Attribute = Successful LEADER