Are there any true business owners?

For vast majority, stock ownership is just a mathematical game to be in the green daily

Stock market has always been considered by a vast majority as just a ticker tape of numbers, nothing else. If you have seen Severance on Apple Tv, you will see how employees are severed to just see numbers on their computer screens, while they have no clue of what’s happening behind the numbers in their lives. For almost everyone focused solely on the business of stock prices, the situation is not dissimilar. Newspapers and mainstream media, being in the business of generating peak emotions, add fuel to the fire exceptionally well by creating panic and greed for investors with stock prices.

Stock ownership, by definition, is part ownership in a business and is a vastly misunderstood, least appreciated and an unbelievable democratic tool in the hand of an investor. The real business owners are promoters behind the companies whose stock prices common man and mainstream media play with on a daily basis. If one’s daily fortunes are to be impacted by daily share prices, no-one is a bigger gainer or loser than the largest business owners (the promoter family themselves). Most investors , including those who have hardly invested any material capital, are raising hue and cry over sharp volatilities. If anyone must be the most depressed by the falling share prices, it should be the promoter of the companies whose daily volatility make them rich or poor by millions of dollars.

The reason real owners don’t bother on stock prices is simply because their companies (whose stock prices are displayed daily) have bigger purpose- to take care of their customers, employees, suppliers and position their business for growth and durability, while the rest of the players (whether fund managers, or individual investors) are just focused on keeping their capital in green on a regular basis. Our school mindset keeps us obsessed to our scores in every test be it the unit test, or the semester exam , no matter how much they matter in the long run.

Think of your stocks as ownership stakes in real businesses with a purpose. If you invest only in businesses or people with whom you identify their purpose, you would value your investment in a different way. You will not be swayed by the judgments of the daily unit tests which won’t matter in the long run.

For those select minority of long-term thinkers and business owners left (beyond the promoter family), there has never been a better time than today’s instant gratification culture to think about real businesses and generational long-term wealth building. As Ben Graham used to say, use Mr. Market for your benefit once in a while and rest of the time be focused on the businesses you own in form of share ownership.

Think of your stocks as ownership stake in real business with a purpose.

Akhil D.