1 billion seconds old!

Ta Da! I've almost touched the landmark!

Not a bad achievement, not a great one considering all you have to do is live, but courageously or cowardly, I've seen those moments through.

World @ War

The figure below tells us how much of US tax payers money goes into military and related expenditure. Seems, the world has been engaged in war for a while...



The following figure shows Military spending distribution around the globe.



The following figure shows increase in Military spending distribution around the globe.



Sensing a lack of balance around the globe in military attention. Putting money where the mouth is.

Geo-politics and Macro-economics

If these mega words interest you, have a look at this presentation, prejudiced maybe, but good stats compilation! See Here.

See what The Firm has to say about world economies and international power shifts:


Be amazing to see what happens in 40 years. Also, should probably invest in India.

However, the figure doesn't suggest China/India will look like the US in the decades to follow, remember, Asian countries have very large population bases. That'll make large divisors for per-capita computation.

However, India has a pyramidal population age profile (i.e. a young crowd), US has somewhat of an inverted pyramid, while China was like India before one-couple-one-child, but over decades of birth control is fast approaching US age demographics. Citizen contribution shows in the GDP grow rates in the above plot.

Entrepreneurship is a Humbling Experience

I am a firm believer in fate. The bias may reflect from previous writings too. I just cannot turn away from it.

The period of establishing a small business is make or break, where you nurture the baby till you see it crawl to the outside world. When you stand in the marketplace alone, you realise that when the winds blow in your direction, you are lucky to experience your ideas and the ecosystem align and bear fruit to a desire. You could be standing there for a long time before the winds blow in your direction or the winds may never blow in your direction and you may just be standing there taking the heat and dust.

There is no guarantee that your product/service will sell, then again a great salesman once said "you can sell anything if you want to". MBA case studies, like hindsight, is 20/20, and what will go up tomorrow or what will come down is anyone's guess.

I'm glad there are people like Warren Buffett or Steve Jobs who stand for firm self belief which may create unprecedented extraordinary wonders.

This World is Governed by the Whims of the Few

No matter how we see it, but this world is run by the whims of those who have deep and strong intent and will, be it Heads of States, Corporations or Religious Institutions. The ambitious rise to positions where their will prevails, till they are replaced by someone whose desire today is stronger and deeper than their incumbents' has become. Everyone else is drifting, idling, feeling helpless/hopeless, living day-by-day. Which one is better, who am I to comment, but the recent stock market crash or rampant global terror isn't a natural phenomena, it is the collective intent of the few who assume power by sheer belief in themselves and the "correctness/righteousness/importance" of what they stand for.

In the country I reside, everyday that passes peacefully, it is the saints that must be making up for the chaos caused by the ambitious. There must be those whose intent and will are deep and strong but don't crave cash, following or media frenzy to balance out those who do.

Rent

Capitalism. Those who own the assets and charge rent for usage, those who own nothing and pay. Land/real-estate, the most basic asset, whether for shelter, agriculture or industry. Capitalists charge rent. They don't create value, they simply have a piece of the pie. Good thing about charging rent is that the asset gets to be used in projects that generate high RoIs. However, what about the others? What about the 20 year old, just literate male who moves from rural to urban, to make a living, he is forced into labor, nothing he'd ever have signed up for at the age of 5, and he can never get out of it, wages only cover rent/food/clothing.

There is a huge purchase power parity across this nation. Families in Rural India live off a few thousand rupees an year. That means everything, life. Urban India and that amount is blown up on 1 restaurant meal. Wow! So whether it be rent/food/clothes, the rates sore from Rural to Metro. What goes into the price? Capitalist rent pervades everything as we move from Rural to Metro. So the 20 year old male now in the city makes 10X what he did in Rural, but he spends at the same levels too, yes, he saves some to take home, but the vicious cycle lives.

Only 1 way out of this vicious cycle. Equity investment seems a way. Currency is losing value pretty fast, do interest rates even cover actual inflation? In a market relatively stable, share prices reflect the profits that industries see. Invest in one, and you own a part of that profit stream. Lock in prices early, and hang on.

Last Day at Work

Today I'm having a humbling experience. 3 weeks ago, I gave in my notice to leave work, and today is it, my last day, in this job and hopefully in any. I figured, it's about time to stand up on my own and do something.

It's humbling. You never know what tomorrow has in store now. The predictability is gone. No more looking up corporate profiles and modelling your career on other's successful resumes.

But the freedom, the ability to, now, do what you want to, the heart-felt immersion in activities that just seem like the right thing to do, the hopeful better allocation of time between work, personal affairs, family and friends, doing what you feel you can do best and not being told what to do, being responsible/ accountable to no one but your self, all seems quite romantic.

I will miss the discipline that a job brings, and the company of smart colleagues that makes sure you are more or less moving in a certain direction in life and will sooner or later reach somewhere. But after having been among scientists, academicians, engineers, and finance-analysts in the past, it's become obvious, if you do what you do well, you will find yourself part of an eco-system, people who will guide, advise and help you and just make sure that you, as part of that system, progress along with it.

Duality - Fate or Action?

Think about it, we have a fragile body. With all the arms/ammunition, bombs, planes, motorcycles/cars/trucks, heavy machinery, etc. around us, the elements - fire, rain/floods, earthquakes etc, the new mutated viruses/bacteria, any excuse, and period, it's over. Not that we're born with super abilities to always stay safe from death the lurks around us. I'm beginning to sincerely believe that everything is foreknown, written, and we are simply "actors in this staged drama". No matter how deeply we believe we've done this or that, it probably isn't our doing, we're just experiencing the life made for us. We just happened to be at so-n-so place at the right (or wrong) time.

Those who believe in action, in creating their own destiny, may also be right, simultaneously, I cannot deny that more straightforward cause-n-effect view to life. Maybe both, believers in fate and action are right, like light's wave-particle-duality, simultaneously. For each, his/her own.

I'm also beginning to believe, it's not what we do, but how and why we do it that's writing our Karma. That's the only way I can reconcile fairness into this otherwise skewed distribution of conveniences and comforts. I'm also beginning to believe in the power of desires. It's ultimately our desires that are taking us through life. Desires don't manifest immediately, nor do they always manifest in the form we envision, but many, the deeper ones, are realized, and when they are, they remind us of what we asked for. So we should be grateful for what we have and careful for what we ask for.

Promoter Run Firms and Inheritance Laws

Inspired by discussions, and not factually verified, but Inheritance Laws seem to be an important reason why such a large number of Indian firms continue to be promoter controlled. Laws in the US cap what can be bequeathed to offspring/relatives, and force excess possessions to be governed by trust. Because of this, capital returns to the system instead of being at the mercy of someone born with a silver spoon in his/her mouth. A sizable portion of Indian cos. are promoter run, and barring some big names, most have stunted growth/existence because of the same reason. Promoters are weary of letting go of their share of the pie, seldom realizing the pie can grow very large with more brains, eyes, hands and vested interests managing/ governing/ monitoring, from different vantage points, the health of the organization.

Compare this with US firms. Even small/mid sized firms have more professional processes/ standards/ practices/ protocols than some large firms in India. It's because ownership and control are properly separated, the shareholders dutifully play their role and the management plays its. ESOPs were used to align management/ employee and shareholder interest and came by virtue of service/ performance and not birth or lineage.