Ravishing

I have been eating a lot lately. This I am saying as compared to what I used to eat only some time back. So, in my first term, I used to have a “normal” diet. And by normal I mean, similar to what people here have on an average. But now I am definitely above the average. I believe that there come phases in your life such as these. Phases in which you sleep a lot or else you can do on very little sleep, others in which you eat a lot, and some others where things happened rather differently.

Here at my institute, I have a common mess for all students. In the morning, just before the first class, there is hardly enough time to grab something. So, I generally take two bread slices and a cup of tea and proceed towards the class. But having said that I eat a lot, you don’t think I would be satisfied with that kind of breakfast. So, as soon as the first class gets over, I and some 15 others of our class run to the mess to have our remaining share (many of these have not had anything since morning).

My friends keep teasing me about how much I eat. They say that I eat breakfast thrice. Just after waking up I run to the mess, according to them. Then after having my first helping I go back to my room to do my daily chores. Then have my second helping just before class and finally the third helping after the first class. The 15 other people that I talked about before are those which regularly use the first break for their breakfast. This number grows or diminishes depending on the time the first lecture gets over and the menu in the mess.

There was a time when both my neighbours (in the class) used to go to the mess and I did not, even though they asked me to come almost daily. They would say just come once and I would think of the distance to travel and wonder why these people went. And here I am. One of the things I enjoy in my daily schedule is that run to the mess after the first class. Yes, I do actually run and much more than the breakfast that is the real fun. I would say that a person has to go for the breakfast after the first class only once and then he would never look back.

The anticipation and the excitement builds as the class is about to end. As soon as the last words are spoken, some 10 of us (who have already been at the edge of their chairs) stand up and start moving (The others are more civilized and slowly follow). Some of these had been asleep all time long and had asked their neighbours to wake them just 2 minutes before the class is to end, for they did not want to lose any of the precious seconds. The experience for me is so good that when we do not have the first lecture and you have enough time to eat your breakfast, it does not feel complete or as much satiating.

So, on days when I know that the first class will be stretched and there would not be enough time to go to the mess, I do my breakfast early. But everyone is cursing the reason for the delay because it either made them wake up early or they had to miss their breakfast entirely. But my reason for cursing is that it has denied me of that joy or experience which I so like.

Probably, I am trying to find happiness in small little things. But one thing I realize is that you never know what will make you happy. I remember one of our lecturers telling us that people find happiness in the smallest of things, and we students have become such that unless we get that insanely paying job, we won’t shed a smile.

That one thing

Many a times it happens that, you might do all your daily work and whatever is expected of you, but there is that one thing which happens daily which you like the most. You wait for it the whole of 24 hrs; do all other things just so that you might reach that point in the day when that event happens. I am not sure how many of you have experienced this feeling but it seems to be something good.

That event may be playing something, doing voluntary work or just a plain walk. But that is something you like to do so much that the work to be done for the other time of the day looks bearable. Just the expectation of the event happening can be a big motivator. So, sometimes even if the actual event does not happen, you get sad. But then you realize that you have to just wait for another 24 hours and it will again be your favorite time of the day. The build up to the event has already given you such pleasure that half your sadness is already compensated for.

Switching topics, why is that you want to do things which some people tell you to do? While at the same time, you are indifferent to some other people. This thing is even more prominent when the motive of the other person is your benefit. And in no apparent way the other person is going to benefit. So, if someone (say, one of your parents) says to take care of your health, you want to do that just for that person. Knowing that someone cares for you makes you feel that your life is worth something.

I have mentioned previously of visiting a particular place in my institute. Actually, I did that quite frequently in the initial months when I came here. I would say it helped me a lot. I am beginning to believe that I would not have to visit this place again.

Good and Bad times

It is said that it is easy to find people to share joy than to share sorrow. So, generally when we are in a neutral or happy mood, we are surrounded by a bunch of people. The size and constituents of the bunch may keep varying but you will almost always be able to find such a bunch. There are people who make you laugh, who accompany you in parties, who dance with you, sing along or generally hang out. In good times, you pick and choose people you want to be; those that make your experience the best.

But good times may not last for long. At the first stroke of sorrow, your accomplices support you at the start. But then two things happen: they start to taper off or you do not find yourself in a position to ask them to stay for long. At that instant, either you want to be alone or you want to be with someone with whom you can behave in any fashion and can expect whatever comes to your mind. This person would be willing to listen to you for hours together, would not mind any of your actions etc. So, in bad times, you again pick and choose but the choices may be too limited to be actually called one.

Firstly, it is very difficult to find such a person. If I think how many people belong to this category (apart from family), I can count them on my fingers. Sadly I am not even able to go to my second hand. But the amazing part is even though you have so few of them, you take them for granted. So, usually, when the going is good, you are not very much concerned about them. You consider these people as one of the many who you want to be with, if not below in your priority list. You forget what they have done for you and the fact that you would not have been in this position, had it not been for them.

Even after all this, the best part is, these people have not gone anywhere. So, the next time you are in grief, they are still there, ready as ever to do what they do best. If that was not enough, they are unconcerned to the core for what you did or things you should have done. They did not expect those things to happen anyways. I wonder what these people do to be like they are.

Failure

Success is good. It is easy to handle or at least it seems easy to handle. But I need to learn to handle failure. A lot of emphasis has been laid on the various learnings from failure. However, the entire experience is quite dramatic. You feel that you won’t be affected, but you are.

So at my institute, I would say I was very well placed in terms of the number of opportunities I had after the initial round. I interviewed with a couple of companies and the results were not immediately disclosed. However, once I got the first result and that to a rejection, the sadness was clearly felt. I have written this an hour after the rejection. The sadness is dying down and now as I reflect, I am wondering if I was justified in actually being sad. If I get sad, I think I would be asking too much for remaining happy all the time. There are many who have just only shot where I have so many.

Thankfully, I had a very good friend who cheered me up. This friend was kind enough to listen to me and talk to me which helped a lot.

Not that this rejection was the end of the world for me, but somewhere subconsciously I was looking forward to getting a positive response. All the indications were towards that but finally what happened was not what was being indicated. Anyways, now I am over that (though not completely).

Now, something entirely unrelated but things which I found interesting …

Option-writing has been described as “picking up nickels in front of steamrollers”. This is in relation to the fact that it is a contract in which you can lose more than you have invested.

Booking losses at the right time is one of those qualities which are not easily found among people in general. People tend to get attached to their investments. So, even if the value of the investments is decreasing consistently, they keep hoping that the next bounce back is just around the corner. For all they know, the movement may be along a circle. A good quote pushing the idea of booking losses in stock markets or any other financial markets

“Stocks don't know you own them. You can sell them and they don't care."

- Craig Effron, a hedge fund veteran (taken from Bloomberg News hedge fund reporter Katherine Burton's book ‘Hedge Hunters’).

As relevant as you can get

Many a times random things happen as if there are meant only for you. So, people listen to scholars everyday and many a time we are in a situation where it feels that this lecture was specifically aimed at me. This is even when we perfectly know that the preacher may have no idea about our condition (though some may not believe that). We know that the lecture is meant for thousands of people, yet it is so much relevant to your condition/state that it seems like you were the only member in the audience for which the lecture was being delivered.

I have found this in my courses as well. Many a times we have cases talking of people and their conditions. These are so close to me that I am just awed by the timing of the course content. One of the courses we have deals with Interpersonal learning. We have a case for this week which is basically a conversation between two people. It portrays the feelings of one person and the other guy is trying to listen actively.

I can relate to this case very much. While reading, it was hard to distinguish whether I was going through what was written or whether those were my thoughts. The facts would be different from where I am but the general framework is as if the title of the case should have been my name instead of that of the protagonist. The major difference is that the protagonist does not want to share and I prefer sharing, given that I find someone to share with.

Finally, I will leave you with a very good post (in my opinion), I read recently. If you don’t want to go through the entire thing, read it from around the middle.

http://arvindc.blogspot.com/2007/06/that-funny-little-thing-called-love.html

And a good quote I found

Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them ...

- Francesco Guicciardini

Impressive

Today, around 2:30am I was getting bored of sitting in my room and had no urgent work at hand. So, thought of having a walk. So, I went to this place within the campus of my institute which is quite famous and is kind of the front face (in terms of places on campus) for the outside world. It is like being in open air theatre near where the movie is going on. I stayed there for some time and I have to stay, the experience was quite useful

On another topic, as I have said earlier, I get impressed easily by fundas which I come across. I have been accused of this by many of my friends and I completely agree with them. Some of the fundas which I came across recently are listed below

1. Each person tries to become a “brand”.

(This either came directly from my marketing course book or it struck me as I was reading it. I believe that just as a company wants to project its brand as having some particular characteristic and wants to associate it with certain category of people etc.; each individual tries to behave in a similar fashion and tries to project himself/herself as of a particular type or a “brand”.)

2. Truman Capote once defined love as “never having to finish your sentences”.

3. I am in the middle of the book ‘If God was a banker’ by Ravi Subramanian. Some from there

a. There are two basic things in life, which no South Indian will ever compromise on: The Hindu newspaper, and his/her morning cup of coffee.

b. Success is meaningless if you can’t take care of your near and dear ones.

4. Somebody speaking about people sleeping in the class (http://melodycalledlife.blogspot.com/2007/07/sleepy-hollow.html)

I see a friend…

His head tilted like the leaning tower of Pisa

O Leonardo!

Paint his portrait…Why do you need Mona Lisa!

5. A good blog I came across. Some really good posts. One of them I would recommend http://myafterlife.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/maria-and-the-dodo-story/

Why do people blog? - Addendum

A while back I wrote about what I felt were the reasons people blog. I still stick to those points but have found another strong reason for people maintaining blogs, diaries. Everyone needs someone with whom he/she can share all his successes, failures, feelings, emotions or anything one wishes to share. It can be a friend, a relative or anyone else.

The sharing is done because the person divulging (say, person D) knows that the other person (say, person P) is someone who would keep things confidential; who would not use things to his/her advantage; who would be willing to give you time when you want this individual to give you time. I feel that all these points are important. It should be the case that P should give time whenever D requires it.

Just speaking your mind sometimes does so many wonders that you are just amazed by its power. Keeping things within for a long time leads to unnecessary negative effects which can be easily avoided.

D should be able to speak anything and everything, anytime. In such cases, D can cry; can laugh; can talk; can crib; can curse; can praise; in short, can do whatever it feels like doing. P is patient; is supportive; is caring; understands; consoles; shares among other things. One more important thing which P does is to scratch through the surface and see what it can get which would make D share.

So, if P feels that something is troubling D, it would try to convince D to share what it is; but stops if D insists on not sharing.

A blog, though is far from being a P for every D, but it can be the best alternative available for the time being. Obviously, there are constraints to what you can write; still it’s a great medium of communication (though it’s pretty much one-way). With a person, you might take time to develop confidence, but once the trust is there, you can go as far as having blind faith.

Enron

I always wanted to know what all the story of the collapse of Enron consisted of. I had some vague idea but then I watched the documentary ‘Enron – The smartest guys in the room’. I will try to give my recollection of the same.

Firstly, why the name of the documentary as it is? Since that is what the people at Enron were called by others. And why am I asking these questions? Since the tag line of Enron was ‘Ask why?’ and as one of the ex-employees said in the documentary, this is precisely what was not done.

Enron was basically started with investment in some natural gas assets (like pipelines etc.). They wanted to trade natural gas and had some traders to engage in these activities. The entire basis of the vision of trading etc. was to have a deregulated market where the prices of all products (especially the energy related ones) to be determined “efficiently” by market forces. For this the executives used their contacts in the government and lobbied to have laws being made (or in some cases, avoid passage of laws) which would help them in following their vision.

The traders took huge risks and made millions for the company. The risks involved were much above what maximum they were allowed to take. Even when the management came to know of this, rather than taking action against the traders, they were appreciated for the money they had made. As you would guess, one day the traders lost almost all the money of the company.

Then a new idea was brought in “rather than be bound by the physical flow of the pipeline, Enron would become a kind of stock market for natural gas … transform energy into financial instruments that culd be traded like stocks and bonds” (direct quote from the documentary). The problem with this was that there can be scope for manipulation if the stock market actually owns a large part of the assets of the underlying commodity.

Then a big fault from the regulators; they agreed on the use of mark-to-market accounting by Enron. The auditors, Arthur Anderson signed off and the SEC agreed. That way Enron can book potential future profits on the very day the deal was signed (no matter how little cash actually came in). Thus now the company can show profits as much as they want.

The culture at the company was made very competitive and everyone was driven solely by money, no ethics, and no scruples. They had a strong liking for the stock market price of their company, as a large part of the compensation was being paid in the form of stock options. Thus, they came up with one story after another just to ensure that investors have faith in the company and the stock price continues to go up.

Meanwhile, some of the projects started making losses. For example, the Dabhol power project in India was by no means a success. However, the culture made it impossible to accept failures and they tried everything from buying companies to entering into newer markets like leasing of broadband lines. But the mark-to-market accounting methodology came in handy each time and any unsuccessful venture can still be shown as a profitable one.

At this time some of the people started smelling something fishy, though even they had no idea of how huge the fraud was. Any kind of speculation was blown off as mere criticisms which accompany a success.

However, as Enron suffered losses, it had to have cash flow from some place. So, it borrowed a lot. However, it cannot borrow more than a certain amount before people start driving them off. So, they had the problem of showing a lot of debt on their books. The way out was some “creative” accounting. They took refuge in some fake companies where the debt and losses can be buried. The big investment banks turned a blind eye on these wrong doings and agreed to fund these companies who further pumped in money into Enron. The collateral was Enron’s stock, increasing their dependence on stock prices remaining high.

A special event happened which was actually the first hint of the forthcoming earthquake. In an analyst conference call on 17^th April, 2001, an analyst asked “You‘re the only financial institution that can’t produce a balance sheet or cash flow statement with their earnings.” The reply from the CEO was “You, you, you … Well, uh … thank you very much. We appreciate it … a$$h***.” It said that something was bothering the CEO which he did not want to share.

And then was the whole issue of California. As I mentioned before, if Enron has control on a large proportion of assets for some particular commodity and you are also involved in the trading of this commodity, then there is a hell lot of a scope for price rigging. So, what Enron did was stopped generating electricity in California (they could do this since they owned one of the power producing companies and had successfully made the government pass the law for deregulation of the power markets). As a result, the power prices shot up and Enron was able to sell power at a much larger price. At the same time its traders had betted on power prices going up and Surprise! Surprise! the bets went in their favour.

The above issue has the whole angle of ethics where money was being made at the expense of the sufferings of people. The traders were involved and their conversations showed how inhumane they were. (There’s a reference to Milgram’s experiment about giving electric shocks to individuals, wherein it was observed that “… 50% of the subjects were willing to shock to the death so long as commands came from a seemingly legitimate source …”).

The result was price caps being introduced in California and Californians electing Arnold (The Terminator) as their Governor (as the former Governor had to face the wrath of the power-deprived Californians).

After that, suddenly the CEO resigned; the confidence plummeted; the stock price went down. The accounting frauds (related to the fake companies) started surfacing and only then did SEC wake up. Enron, along with companies like Arthur Anderson (auditors), Vincent and Alkans (law firm) tried their best to cover up but to no use. All companies collapsed (bankruptcy) as a pack of cards (in a matter of weeks).

Finally, think of the people who lost their money. And I am not just talking about the debtors. All money from the pension funds, retirement funds were lost. An employee of a company owned by Enron says that he had 348,000$ at the peak which he had to sell for 1,200$.

Bahut sahi funda hain

I generally am inspired easily by sentences/fundas which I come across. As part of the curriculum through readings related to the courses or through the mouth of the Professors, I have come across various statements which have made me say “Bahut sahi funda hain” (It’s a very good funda). I use this sequence of words quite lavishly, but I cannot help appreciate statements which I like but which may not impress many.

Some thoughts have also started surfacing in my mind. I guess these are probably due to a mixture of the environment in my institute, the syllabus, the Profs, my observations etc. I sometimes jot down these points so that I can have everything in front of me , rather than in the mind.

In one of our courses in the last term, we had a reading which said that people tend to listen and agree to things which are said by people who are not close to you. As it might have sounded to you, it did sound a little universal. It will depend a lot on what the context is. So, in some cases or for some people this might be true; and for others just the opposite might be true.

I came across an example of the same within our class. We had a heated debate about an issue in the class sometime back. Everyone had his/her opinion and not many were ready to budge. After a while, various events happened and many things were said by Profs and by students about things which might seem far away from the debate. However, the core issue people were trying to address/discuss was the same. You might get a hint of that from one of my posts.

Since the issue was the same people generally stuck to their initial points of view. But a lot was dependent on who raised the issue. So, if it was a Prof saying things against your stand and you did not like that Prof, you tended to defend your stand. While if it came from a Prof you liked or maybe from a student you were on good terms with, then even if the stand being taken by them was the opposite of yours, you tended to agree at least for that bit.

Another thought. Cursing and cribbing has kind of become a fashion. So, if you don’t crib, you do not “belong” to the general crowd. The best thing to do is to listen to someone cribbing and then agree to whatever is said. To add to that, you put in another 2-3 cribs and everyone is happy (or at least they seem to be happy).

I agree that listening to what others say is very important but if you agree, just for the sake of agreeing, then it might not be the best thing to do (as I see it). You can listen to them and may be try to remove the issues being faced by giving some other perspective (You do not have to do it always, but there can be times when you can). Obviously, doing this makes you the bad guy. The other person will not like it but if you are scared of that, assume you did not read this post.

Bragging and sympathy

Life is not as easy as it sometimes seems to be. You need to find ways to live it. You need to find happiness in small things. You might have to ignore things which are not behaving in a fashion you would like them to behave.

People employ various approaches in different areas to keep living and enjoying. Sometimes, it may get to the nerves of the inhabitants around them. However, these methods may be important for the intended performance/results of the former or sometimes for the mere survival.

I have this habit of speaking highly of myself. So, even if I achieve a small result, I tend to brag about it. Internally, I might not consider that as a big achievement, yet from outside I would show it as if I have reinvented the wheel (a little exaggeration). I do not know why I do this, but I feel sometimes it is important. Sometimes, it gives you a boost when you give yourself a pat on the back.

I believe, till the time you are clear about the magnitude of your achievement (internally) and the bragging does not go to your head, it is kind of healthy for yourself. I agree that, that might not be the case for people around me who have to listen to me praising myself. To them you might look as an arrogant self-obsessed chap, yet I have seen many examples of people who are just the opposite and still have this habit.

There was this guy at my workplace who was one of the hardest working guys I have ever seen. I had the opportunity to sit beside him at work. The good part was that he loved to do what he did. That was what kept him motivated. There are people who work very hard, but it seems that they are being made to work. Any chance they get, they just cannot stop cursing the job they are doing.

Coming back to the guy I was talking about, he used to help others a lot. The situation was such that if anybody wanted some help, the default name which came to one’s mind was that of this guy. However, jokingly this person sometimes asked whosoever came for help, to say some words for praise for him. For someone dealing with him for the first time, this would seem an indication of egotism. However, within no time you would realize that he was a very down-to-earth person.

I think the general populace would like a person (over the one described above) who keeps thrashing himself/herself, sometimes for no reason and sometimes just for gaining sympathy; Or a person who would keep on cursing the system; who would portray the system as the combination of all that could go wrong. I have nothing against this category of people but I believe it is important not to take the things at face value and give a thought to the intentions behind particular behaviours.

Finally, though this might feel as an attempt to defend my habit, I myself am OK with it. I feel I am erring on the right side when it comes to differing in the way I think and the way I behave (may be this statement is just a manifestation of my habit).

Names galore

There is a tradition of giving a nick name (henceforth, NN) to each and every student in my institute. Giving NNs is not an uncommon event. Whenever people work in groups, NNs spring up. The reasons for these may vary from convenience to liking to disliking. I have been given NNs in my various groups (and perhaps by others, in which case the NNs have remained unknown) before but this time it was more of a universal thing.

Many of the nick names given are just unmentionable, especially to people who do not know of this culture. We had an incident in one of our classes, when a Prof asked a student to tell his dorm name. The student avoided mentioning the same so that he is not embarrassed in front of the Prof. The entire class was in splits. However, to his dismay, the Prof got the name known from some other source and recited it in the next class.

The NNs tend to be of varying nature. Some are so catchy that people actually forget what the real names of the NN holders are. So, after a while, if a person with such a name is referenced by his original name, people tend to have a reaction (genuine!) of not knowing that person. Some other NNs are not so catchy and tend to wither off or not pick up at all. NNs of smaller length or those which are easy to speak may not guarantee their widespread use. In the end, though there may be speculations about different NNs getting different levels of popularity, the actuals are generally very different from what is forecasted.

As for my NN, it is not one which cannot be mentioned to people. In fact, I told my parents about it. They were quite surprised at such a tradition (and such a NN for me). However, I like my NN and in fact have started liking being called by it (at least in my institute campus). Actually, if you search this blog carefully, you will find a mention of it somewhere. (Hint: the mention was not by me).

A compliment which I received regarding my NN goes as “…it reminds me u know like in comics and cartoons they have a bulb that lights up on top of the head of the genius who gets brilliant eureka types ideas...”. (Disclaimer: The person was praising the NN and not me). Though the NN becomes quite revealing from this, it can take a while for people to guess.

I generally call only those people by their NN whose NN I like.

“Soft” skills

My first term ended a few days back and I am back to my hometown for about a week. In the final class for each subject, the instructors generally deal with a topic which is close to their heart and which they have not touched for the entire term. These give fundas away from academics, fundas of life. The theme running across all of them is to respect your personal life and not just get swayed away in your career or in your quest for money. The message was also to look beyond what was taught as part of the curriculum and think about the people you would be dealing with, both in work and personal life.

In my posts, I try to be ordered and present a structured flow of thought. But as a friend commented on one of my recent posts, “life does not have flowcharts in store for us”. And so I many a times digress a lot (This is also the reason why I am not able to find a suitable heading for my posts). I just write things which I have in my mind, and so, please bear with me.

I always remember a few quotes from the movie Good Will Hunting

1. Real loss is only possible when you love something more than you love yourself.

2. She is not perfect. You are not perfect. The question is whether or not you are perfect for each other.

For some, the latter one can also be interpreted as

She is perfect. But you are not perfect for each other.

These points actually say a lot, and are applicable in varied domains. One applicability is the context in which it was mentioned in the movie. It is said that love is blind and nobody knows when it happens. But one needs to be careful as the idea of being perfect for each other (some might like to include their families etc. in their definition of each other) need to be given a thought.

The other applicability can be in organizations. An interviewer might like a candidate a lot on a standalone basis. But whether he is good enough to be offered a job does not just depend on this. It involves looking at the candidate from the company’s perspective. Hence, if a company cannot afford to lose its employees in the first few years of their term, a potential employee who has ambitions of studying sometime in the near future may not make them an ideal pair (though on individual basis, the candidate may have been the best of the picks). So, the same interviewer should select or reject a candidate depending on the company the recruitment is being done for.

I feel that the above issue is very important in both the contexts mentioned above. You might have some short term benefits by ignoring this issue but in the long term, I suppose you would be better off thinking it through.

God

I had heard that many of the Professors in my institution were Gods. I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to be taught by one in my first term itself. Yesterday was his last class and it was one of the worst moments of my first term. I am scared that this post would be far from doing any kind of justice to what I want to convey. But I cannot resist myself from writing.

I have learnt so much from him, not just academics but general fundas of life. His examples always came from the real life. One wonders how can a person observe life to such a depth, analyze it from various angles and is able to get his point across to people like us who (at least a majority) have not seen life at all. He cannot be an earthly figure.

I can go on and on with the learnings from his lecturers. What amazes me is the applicability of these learnings in various areas, in your personal life, in your career, in your day-to-day dealings with people etc. His examples were such that the audience was able to relate to them instantaneously and from that he would bring in the academic funda in such a fashion that there was no chance of not understanding. He gave us a framework for everything in a subject which is known for being lacking in any kind structure. You require someone more than extraordinary to do that.

I want to go over all his teachings and the things I could grasp but there are some time constraints. However, I will try my best to post them sometime for the benefit of all (including me). How much one implements those in one’s life is left to the concerned person, but at least people should get an opportunity to know these fundas.

He said and I try to recollect…

… for a balanced life, we require four things family, career, friends and a religious side.

We have talked of so many situations where we face challenges and conflicts. And where our aim is to overcome them and emerge as winners.

In real life, you will find many situations in which you want the other person to win. In such cases, your win lies in yourself losing and more so, the other person winning …

I have wondered about this many times. In many situations people say that you would be used by others. I say, so what if I want to get used. People warn against others taking you for a ride. What if I want to be taken on a ride? People say that you are stupid. What if, I want to be stupid?

CP

In my last post, I talked about how I had so much to talk about the ‘Learning’ issue.

Not a day goes by when our batch is not told how “different” our batch is from all other batches. No professor looks satisfied with our batch. Sometimes, it may be a sense of making the people more committed. However, I feel that even as the first term is coming to an end, the commitment in our batch is not visible (at all).

I feel quite bad when a majority of the class has not prepared for the class. If this happens on some days, I can understand. Maybe there were some pressing issues or there was a large workload the previous day and so preparation was not possible. But this has become more of a rule rather than an exception. So, you have people who have decided that there is no use of preparing for the class and the breaks in between would be sufficient to do whatever it takes to get ‘prepared’ for the class.

As I am talking about this issue, it is important to bring the whole issue of the objective of coming to this institution. There is always the cardinal debate of the objective being ‘Learning’ vs. ‘Marks/Grades’. Though the two should be interlinked, the degree of linkage may not always be high and sometimes may be totally absent. Obviously, the approach of students would totally differ based on the objective they choose.

Personally, I had been following one of them. But then one of my friends made me realize that a bit of both is required. This helps not only sticking to your actual aim but also enhances it since giving some weightage to the other objective leads to better achievement of the first.

Anyways, whatever be the objective, I feel, a basic level of preparation for the class would help in getting to what you want. I have preference for one of the two and sincerely believe that everybody (or at least a majority or at least a few more of my batchmates) should have that having a major weight in their aim. But one thing I have realized is that you can force nothing on anyone. People only want to be taught what they like to be taught. So, if one does get an opportunity to gain from someone else’s experience, more often than not he/she would be reluctant to grasp/ask and might actually demotivate the other person to share.

I have talked so much about preparation; what actually is expected from us? We are not asked to get correct solutions before the class; we don’t have to be right to the second decimal place in our numbers. But what is expected is that we have read what has been told; we have dwelled into some issues/numbers and have some idea about what is happening. There are two advantages of this: 1. You will be able to understand what is happening in class 2. The discussion would happen at a much higher level.

But, as I was discussing with one of my friends, if you have one of the two above mentioned goals (‘Learning’ vs. ‘Marks/Grades’, and you are intelligent enough to guess which one of these I am talking about), the discussion cannot get above a particular level. But even that is fine, if we are actually able to reach that level. For the majority of the classes, this has not happened. And in most discussion based classes, we move to mediocrity.

I am no judge and probably I should not pass any judgments, but I am yet to see any kind of seriousness on this issue. We listen to all such kind of stuff and the next moment, we go back to where we belong. We start worrying about how to achieve our objective without considering if that is the “right” objective or we need to move around some stuff.

Learnings

I am an ardent viewer of the comedy series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I know I must have said this before, but it is the best series ever. Many a times, here are things which have a hype created around them. And when you actually encounter them, they are nowhere close to what was being said of them. For e.g. many books (like Alchemist, The Monk who sold his Ferrari etc.) are very famous and are selling in huge numbers even after being in the market for quite a while now. I have read the two books mentioned above and was utterly disappointed. I just could not understand what all the fuss is about. The books have a lot of knowledge about life, how to lead your life etc. I believe everyone knows what about these things. Mostly people are aware of what is good and what is not so good; what one should do (ideally) and what one should refrain from doing.

It is when one goes to the groundwork of implementing things (in their life or elsewhere) that people are not good at. So, whatever you are trying to teach them is redundant and the area where people have issues (namely, implementation) cannot be taught. It has to come from within. People are just being fooled when the authors and publishers mint money. The problem with the authors (and for that matter many of the modern sages) is that while they say that one should not run after the materialistic world, their aim of doing that is to get all the worldly pleasures for themselves.

I started the post to write about friends (not the comedy series) and related topics, but have somehow got drifted away from it. This is the reason I like to keep the topic of the post for the end, since even I am not sure what I would write about.

It has been almost a full term at the institute and everybody is ready to head home. I would say I have learnt a lot. I have been able to identify non-academic areas where I need to work on and am trying to work on those. Some of the learnings (I know I have criticized people for this very thing above, but I do not want to explain my point on this. I came across this insightful statement about explaining stuff.

Never Explain - Because Your Friends Don't Need It and Your Enemies Will Never Believe It)

1. It is not necessary to have a view on everything.

2. Be tolerant towards others’ habits and avoid ill feelings for them.

3. You need to pick and choose your battles.

4. You need to listen to people and not always comment (even after listening).

5. It is not necessary to defend yourself every time somebody says something about you.

I am at various levels of trying to internalize (one of the words I have learnt at my institute, mainly because of its liberal use) these points and am working towards them. I have to write a lot about the issue of ‘Learning’ but may be some other time.

Some thoughts

I got some criticisms for my posts, when my batchmates came to know of my blog. They said that the content was too serious/geeky to be put on a blog. Some of them were surprised on hearing that I have a blog. I think there is a great mismatch in how I project myself and how I actually am. But that would be a universal truth and everybody would face this mismatch, of different magnitudes and sometimes perhaps to their advantage.

I am in the middle of the book 'The Goal' written by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. At a point, the protagonist says ( which by the way sounds true and familiar)

"Isn't it strange to feel your own world is falling apart while those of the people close to you are rock steady?" (My addition: It is also strange when for a moment you feel everything is good and going your way, and a few hours later its just the opposite feeling.)

Some things I thought of recently (I would not like to take full credit for them, since that may be plagiarism):

"All qualities you admire may not be the ones you want to possess."
"We want our loved ones to always remain happy, though we may not like to do stuff to relieve their pain."

Some thought on the above and one might feel that they are obvious. But that is how various things are. Things do not get considered until they are brought to notice. This is actually true of many theories in various fields.

I remember an incident at my undergrad school. As usual, me and my group had not done much of studying before one exam (of Chemistry, which is one of the last subjects I like to do). So, our group started mugging some fundas and we came across this 'Hammond Postulate' (For those who have studied chemistry anytime in their life: It says that "the structure of a transition state resembles that of the species nearest to it in free energy"). It looked pretty obvious and I criticized this guy for coming up with something so obvious and the chemists for accepting it as a formal postulate.

The next day (or actually, the same day since we started studying only after midnight), we had our exam and guess what, we were asked to state what the Hammond Postulate was. I do not remember what the others in my group did, but I could not write a word for I did not remember what it was. Since I had thought of the postulate being intuitive, I had completely ignored it.

Finally, something which one of our operations Prof said in a class (not my section). May be intuitive but worth a read,

"A system designed to SUCCEED, SUCCEEDS if it SUCCEEDS.
A system designed to FAIL, FAILS if it FAILS to FAIL."

Decision tree

This chart is something which one of my friends sent me in February 2007 when there were fears of a global meltdown. With the fears of a serious bear market again coming to the forefront, this tree may come to the rescue.

Interesting Convocation Speech by Ajit Balakrishnan

Let me start by telling you a modern tale: Five private equity funds get together to buy a large international steel company. The seller states his price: he wants half the money that the first fund has plus all the money the other four have. He gives them other alternatives as well: he will sell his company for a third of the second fund plus all the money of the others, or a fourth of the third fund plus all that of the others, and so on.

The question is: what is the price the seller wants for the steel company and what size fund does each private equity player have?

Those of you who are mathematically inclined will recognize the problem as one of solving a set of indeterminate equations.

Those of you who are students of history will recognize this as one of the many problems from the Bakshali Manuscript This manuscript, written on pieces of birch bark, was found by a peasant in 1881 in a village called Bakshali near Peshawar. It is written in a language that was a precursor to Sanskrit and has been dated as from between the 2nd century BC and 2nd century AD

In the Bakshali manuscript, it was five merchants who set out to buy a jewel and not five private equity funds to buy a steel company. But otherwise, the formulation of the problem and the method of finding the answer is the same.

I can see from your faces that you are all eager to go on to the real world of business. I want you to remember that the Bakshali manuscript serves as reminder of the great intellectual tradition you come from.

In 1971, I remember waiting in cap and gown, like you wait today, eager to receive my diploma and set forth to conquer the world. It was on a day much like today, the romantic Calcutta winter had receded into memory but the dog days of May had not yet set in. But it was different in other ways. There was the sound of guns outside, some from a distance, some from quite close. They served as a humbling reminder that though we were armed with the latest tools of operations research and psychology, there were fellow citizens outside fighting more basic battles. It was the peak of the Naxalite uprising. The government, desperate to find a solution, called an Election. The usual election officers, the state and central government employees were wary of volunteering so they called for students. I was eager to contribute to a solution to the strife and volunteered for election duty.

Thus I found myself, Sonagatchi, the red light district of Calcutta, soon after graduation assigned the job of marking indelible ink on the fingers of voters while guns went off all around us

This is why I have boasted for years that I have held hands with most of the sex workers of Calcutta.

As I stand here today it is quiet outside. The social battles of the 1970’s seem so far away and quaint.

What is different in today’s India compared to when I graduated in 1971? I suppose the e big difference is that the world’s macro economic factors have swung India’s way.

It started with the Western world’s information technology industries developing in the 1990’s an insatiable demand for low cost English speaking manpower to convert billions of lines of computer code that had been patched together in the early days of the computer industry. India luckily had large numbers of such programmers idling because Indian trade unions at that time would not allow computers to be introduced Smart entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to ship these programmers abroad and moved on from there to build IT services companies that are now the envy of the world

This labour cost arbitrage opportunity has continued. Western financial service, health care and customer service industries have started a transition from a craft mode to an industrial mode. During this transition, they need a large supply of reasonable skilled, low cost, English-knowing workers. Low telecom costs have made it possible to serve this need long-distance from India When that transition is complete the arbitrage opportunity will disappear but that is still some time away

A second fortuitous wave that is propelling India farther forward- the tremendous liquidity surplus in the world. Capital today is gushing out and finding its way to Indian equity markets, into real estate, into almost anything that you can name.

But big questions stare us in the face and yours is the generation that will have to find the answers to these questions.

What if the rupee that today trades at about Rs 45 to a dollar goes to Rs 20 or even Rs 10 per dollar in the next decade?

What if the current excess liquidity situation in the world tightens and capital becomes risk averse and expensive ?

What if millions of our countrymen say we too want to be part of this Shining India that is currently available only to the sons and daughters of people already in the middle class .

Remember, one day, one of you will be invited to make a Convocation Speech just as I have been invited today. If it takes the same time it took me to be invited, it will be the year 2040.

By that date, some say , India’s GDP in US$ terms will exceed not only the European countries and Japan but also perhaps the United States.

But what these reports also say, and this part is often overlooked, is that in 2040, , India’s per capita GDP will be just 15% of that of the United States and a third of that of even Russia.

Another way of putting it is that even thirty five years from now, the average Indian will earn just Rs 5000 a month. On this income he will have to feed and educate his children, look after their healthcare needs, afford entertainment and life insurance. This means he must have a place to stay with clean water supply at say Rs 200 per month , un-interrupted electric power perhaps at 50 paisa per unit at the consumer level, medical insurance at say Rs 10 per person per month and Life insurance perhaps at Rs 5 per person per month.

If we have to achieve this we need to convert our economy to one that has the lowest transaction and transformation costs in the world.

These seem impossible targets to achieve using the current management methods and present economic institutions. We need to devise new paradigms that achieve these targets without any subsidies, and one that allows businesses that provide these services excellent returns on their capital.

In finding answers to such challenges, in the past, all of us in Indian management have borrowed paradigms from the west and force-fitted them into the Indian situation.

For example, we often hear calls for reducing “labour rigidity” in India. Every such call should remind us that we are trying to force fit Henry Ford mass manufacturing system to India. We forget that this paradigm assumes a social system in which business cycle down-turns can be dealt with by lay offs and production cuts. It assumes both a labour shortage economy where people who are laid off quickly find jobs and a social security system that pays you for the time in between jobs.

Similarly, when people cry to “improve quality” as a panacea for competitiveness problems ,they forget that the Six Sigma Quality paradigm was developed by Deming in the context of the 1960’s Japanese consumer electronics boom It works very well in industries like electronics and auto where efficient assembly is the key to success. Transplant it to creative software product development, for example, and it becomes merely a marketing gimmick and makes little difference to results

Finally, a third example, the much admired US National System of Innovation as it applies to the healthcare industry. We forget that it assumes a State that lays out vast amounts of money in research, allows private companies and individuals to own the patents that rise out of this research, employers who bear the cost of the resultant high-priced health care system. US companies in the older industries find themselves in an impossible situation today and American business and political leaders are desperately trying to find a way out of this debilitating system.

In a few years many of you will head large corporations and will be responsible for producing the vast array of products and service that our fellow country men will need. Others among you will hopefully join academics and contribute to theory. Whatever you do, please remember the inheritance you carry within you and the obligation that you owe to your less fortunate countrymen.

Please remember that each management paradigm has its societal context and cannot be that easily borrowed. Original management paradigms to address the Indian challenges have to be developed and it is your generation that will have to do that.

Be inspired by the early examples that demonstrate such a possibility:
The Aravind Eye Care System that treats over 1.4 million patients each year, two-thirds of them – or almost a million patients – for free is often cited as an example. They apparently succeed because they have improved surgical practice and invented low-cost eye implants

If you succeed in doing this you will release a tsunami-like demand that will not only create jobs for the millions coming on to the job market but also allow them to live a fulfilled life in which life’s necessities are within their reach.

If you succeed, Indian managers and management theory would have made its own unique contribution to the world and you will personally have lived a worthwhile life.

Our ancestors have been doing cleverer things and for very long. The Bakshali Manuscript is evidence of this.

If you occasionally wonder whether this immense task is within your talent, remind yourselves that you come from ancestors that created the Bakshali Manuscript. If you ever doubt the power of ideas to transform the world, be inspired by the Bakshali Manuscript- it’s written on crude birch bark, the language in which it is written has been long extinct, but the power of its methods is relevant even today.

Thank you very much for inviting me today - I wish you all a very successful management career.

India - the ant and the grasshopper story!

OLD VERSION...

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha
Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising
Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance). Opposition MP's stage a walkout.Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter. Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational Insititutions & in Govt Services. The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV. Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden'

Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly. Many years later...The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley. 100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ... As a result loosing lot of hard working ants and feeding the grasshoppers India is still a developing country...... Can any one dare to bring India out of this clutches...

Award winning cartoons

Suicide Scenario
Leader
LOC (Drawing lines, trapping free birds)
Terrorism (That is the flag of peace)
Humanity (Modern)
Population

Poverty
Environment

Some facts about the greatest investor of 20th century

At only six years old, Buffett purchased 6-packs of Coca Cola from his grandfather' s grocery store for twenty five cents and resold each of the bottles for a nickel, pocketing a five cent profit. While other children his age were playing hopscotch and jacks, Warren was making money.

1. He was the son of a stock broker and made his first stock purchase at the age of 11 buying 3 shares of cities services for $38 per share for himself and his older sister Doris.Shortly after buying the stock it fell to just over $27 per share.A frightened but resilient Warren held his shares until they rebounded to $40. He promptly sold them - a mistake he would soon come to regret. Cities Service shot up to $200. The experience taught him to invest in good companies for long term.

2. At the age of 13 in 1943 he filed his first income tax return deducting his bicycle as a work expense.

3. At the age of 14 he spent $1200 he saved from delivering newspapers to buy 40 acres of
farmland which he then rented to tenant farmers.

4. At the age of 15 he and one of his friend spent $25 to purchase a second hand pinball machine,
which they placed in a barber shop.within months they owned three machines in different locations.
At the age of 17 he passed high school he had then a personal savings of $5000 from delivering news papers. He never wanted to go to college.

His father had other plans, and urged his son to attend the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. Buffett stayed two years, complaining that he knew more than his professors,he managed to graduate in only three years. Warren Buffett approached graduate studies with the same resistance he displayed a few years earlier. He was finally persuaded to apply to Harvard Business School, which, in the worst admission decision in history, rejected him as "too young".

5. 1950: (20 years old)
Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business school after learning that Benjamin Graham and David Dodd two well-known securities analysts, taught there.
He obtained a Master's degree in economics in 1951 at Columbia Business school , studying under Benjamin Graham, alongside other future value investors including Walter Schloss and Irving Kahn. Another influence on Buffett's investment philosophy was the well known investor and writer Philip Fisher. After receiving the only A+ Benjamin Graham ever handed out to a student in his security analysis class, Buffett wanted to work at Graham-Newman but was initially turned down. He went to work at his father's brokerage as a salesman.

6. 1951: (21 years old)
Buffett discovered Graham was on the Board of GEICO insurance at the time. After taking a train to Washington, D.C. on a Saturday, Buffett knocked on the door of GEICO's headquarters until a janitor allowed him in. There, he met Lorimer Davidson, the Vice President, who was to become a lasting influence on him and life-long friend.
Buffett graduated and wanted to work on Wall street. Buffett offered to work for Graham for free but Graham refused. He purchased a Texaco gas station as a side investment, but that venture did not work out as well as he had hoped. Meanwhile, he worked as a stockbroker. During that time, Buffett also took a Dale Carnegie public speaking course. Using what he learned, he felt confident enough to teach a night class at the University of Nebraska, "Investment Principles." The average age of the students he taught was more than twice his own.

7. 1954: (24 years old)
Benjamin Graham offered him a job at his partnership at a starting salary of $12,000 a year. Here, he worked closely with Walter Schloss.

8. 1956: (26 years old)
Graham retired and folded up his partnership. Since leaving college six years earlier, Buffett's personal savings grew from $9,800 to over $140,000. Returned home to Omaha and created Buffett Associates, Ltd., an investment partnership.

9. Buffett established Buffett Associates, Ltd., his first investment partnership in 1956. It was financed by $100 from Buffett, the general partner, and $105,000 from seven limited partners consisting of Buffett's family and friends.
Buffett created several additional partnerships which were later consolidated as Buffett Partnership Limited. He ran the partnerships out of his bedroom, adhering closely to Graham's investment approach and compensation structure. These investments made in excess of 30% compounded annually between 1956 to 1969, in a market where 7% to 11% was the norm.

Buffett employed a three-pronged approach:
Generals: undervalued securities that possess margin of safety and meet expected return-to-risk characteristics
Arbitrages: company events that are not related to broader market changes, such as mergers and acquisitions, liquidation, etc.
Controls: build sizeable holdings, ally with other shareholders or employ proxies to effect changes in companies

10. 1959: (29 years old)
Buffett was introduced to Charlie Munger, the man who would eventually become the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and an integral part of the company's success. The two got along immediately.

11. 1962: (32 years old)
Buffett discovered a textile manufacturing firm, Berkshire Hathaway, that was selling for under $8 per share.(below its working capital) Through his partnership, Buffett eventually purchased 49% of the outstanding shares.
At the time,Charlie Munger, Berkshire's current Vice Chairman, remarked that purchasing the company was a mistake, due to the failure of the textile industry. Berkshire, however, became one of the largest holding companies in the world, as Buffett redirected the company's excess cash to acquire private businesses and stocks of public companies. At the core of his strategy were insurance companies, due to the large cash reserves ("float") they must keep on hand to pay out future claims. Essentially, the insurer does not own the float, but may invest it and keep any proceeds.

12. 1965: (35 years old)
Took control of Berkshire Hathaway at the board meeting and named a new President, Ken Chace, to run the company.

13. 1967: (37 years old)
Berkshire paid out its first and only dividend of 10 cents.

14. 1973: (43 years old)
Berkshire began to acquire stock in the Washington Post Company.

15. 1979: (49 years old)
Berkshire began to acquire stock in ABC. Trading at $290 per share, Buffett's net worth neared $140 million. However, he lived solely on his salary of $50,000 per year.
Berkshire began the year trading at $775 per share, and ended at $1,310. Buffett's net worth reached $620 million, placing him on the Forbes 400 for the first time.

16. 1988: (58 years old)
Buffett began buying stock in Coca-Cola company, eventually purchasing up to 7 percent of the company for $1.02 billion. It would turn out to be one of Berkshire's most lucrative investments, and one which it still holds.

17. 2002: (72 years old)
Buffett entered in $11 billion worth of forward contracts to deliver US dollars against other currencies. By April 2006, his total gain on these contracts was over $2 billion.

18. 2006: (76 years old)
Buffett announced in June that he would give away more than 80%, or about $37 billion, of his $44 billion fortune to five foundations in annual gifts of stock, starting in July 2006. The largest contribution will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

19. He never invests in technology stocks and internet stocks not even in MICROSOFT
his logic is he dont invest in companies where he can not forsee the balancesheet
after 20 years.

20. Management style
Buffett views himself as a capital allocator above anything else. His primary responsibility is to allocate capital to businesses with good economics and keep their existing management to lead the company.
When Buffett acquires a controlling interest in a business, he makes clear to the owner the following:
He will not interfere with the running of the company.
He will be responsible for hiring and setting the compensation of the top executive.
Capital allocated to the business will have a price tag (a hurdle rate) attached. This process is to motivate owners to send excess capital that does not return more than its cost to Berkshire headquarters rather than investing it at low returns. This cash is then free to be invested in opportunities that offer higher returns.

21. KEY FACTORS IN HIS INVESTMENT APPROACH

A. Sector, Brand loyalty for the company, can any company with abundance of
resources compete successfully with the company.
B. cash flows of the company to repay debt when the earnings are below average.
C. the business should not have high maintenance cost of operations.
D. is the company free to adjust prices for inflation.
E. does the company retain earnings for growth.


HIS FAMOUS QUOTES

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised.
I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
Our favorite holding period is forever.

----------------------------------

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:

1. He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!

2. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.

3. He still lives in the same small 3 bedroom house in mid-town Omaha that he bought after he got married 50 years ago.

4. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.

5. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.

6. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.

7. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.

8. He has given his CEO's only two rules. *Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holder's money. Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.*

9. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch television.

10. Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.

11. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.

12. His advice to young people: *Stay away from credit cards* and invest in yourself.