Funny buisness 25: Empty promises

Having experiences investing in the market have made me a skeptical person when judging the success rate of a project. Especially so when it comes to empty promises. Don’t get me wrong, I was once the enthusiastic techie who’d jump at a chance to participate in some grandiose research project. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, if I put in 120% of my efforts, the spill over will be enough to make it successful.

I’ve since learned that the success of the project is a correlation between its complexity and the health of its parent company. Take the first major project I participated in for example. It was an exotic product that will probably be a game changer in terms of how things are done in the medical field.

However, the price of the company’s stock had been falling for 2 years straight. Back then, I didn’t see that as having any correlation with the project that they are working on. I was wrong. That can only be true in companies with solid foundations.

As the number of quaterly and annual financial report I read increases. I can extract more and more from the numbers in the maze that they provide. With each pitfall around the corner that I stumble upon, I gain the ability to see one more secret hidden in these numbers. My dad always tells me to leave that to the analysts who are better at it and I was content at doing that for a while.  Until the recent market crash taught me one important thing. Most of these big shots in the financial world got through their studies because their parents paid good money to the universities which they attend. They got there through inheritance.

Take an acquaintance of mine in Ottawa for example.  Who’s now working in the treasury for example. His math skill is questionable and he had no experiences in a similar position. I have to say that his family’s influence was the major reason he got the job. Now think about his credentials and think about the fact that he is now responsible for your tax dollars in the government you will understand why I don’t trust the big financial heads.