3 ms·

Please define ‘succeed’. How many billion dollars do you need to lose to be a ‘success’ ?

As_You_Wish 4y ago
Definition of 'succeed': Greater fool theory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory Start company, let's call it "GreaterFoolTheory Company." Get many investors. Lose money right and left but the business "has promise" even if losing money. Owners sell GreaterFoolTheory Company. for $5 billion to a bigger company, let's call it "Spooge-gle." Success for me, made billions from selling GreaterFoolTheory Company. GreaterFoolTheory Company keeps losing money as a division of Spooge-gle. Spooge-gle's stock price goes up because they have acquired a company with "promise" and Spooge-gle "growing" through acquisition. Purchase price of GreaterFoolTheory Company is drop in bucket for Spooge-gle, and it extremely small percentage of company. Spooge-gle closes GreaterFoolTheory division but does not mind because they have purchased more money-losing companies with "promise" and these new companies make investors not notice the original purchase of GreaterFoolTheory failed, or doesn't mind because Spooge-gle has so many hot new companies - and so Spooge-gle's stock price goes up. Stock price goes up so investors' portfolios goes up. CEO, CFO, CMO, COO's paychecks go up vastly because stock price goes up and their contracts reward them if the stock price goes up. Success for Spooge-gle, Spooge-gle's investors, and Spooge-gle's C suite. Win-win all the way around. Know the game. Any questions?
- erik_landerholm 4y ago
  What about all the ones that ipo like DoorDash?
  - As_You_Wish 4y ago
    Same same. The people buying the stocks are the greater fools and the original owners still succeed as their stock is now trading publicly and they can sell their stocks and make a bundle. In this case, the investors do get hosed, so not a win-win, unless they sell it to the next greater fool before it collapses. Kinda like bitcoin. One could always sell it to a greater fool, until one can't. And hopefully that ain't you. If it is....suckk-ker...
- dotcoma 4y ago
  Sad but true.

Definition of 'succeed': Greater fool theory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory Start company, let's call it "GreaterFoolTheory Company." Get many investors. Lose money right and left but the business "has promise" even if losing money. Owners sell GreaterFoolTheory Company. for $5 billion to a bigger company, let's call it "Spooge-gle." Success for me, made billions from selling GreaterFoolTheory Company. GreaterFoolTheory Company keeps losing money as a division of Spooge-gle. Spooge-gle's stock price goes up because they have acquired a company with "promise" and Spooge-gle "growing" through acquisition. Purchase price of GreaterFoolTheory Company is drop in bucket for Spooge-gle, and it extremely small percentage of company. Spooge-gle closes GreaterFoolTheory division but does not mind because they have purchased more money-losing companies with "promise" and these new companies make investors not notice the original purchase of GreaterFoolTheory failed, or doesn't mind because Spooge-gle has so many hot new companies - and so Spooge-gle's stock price goes up. Stock price goes up so investors' portfolios goes up. CEO, CFO, CMO, COO's paychecks go up vastly because stock price goes up and their contracts reward them if the stock price goes up. Success for Spooge-gle, Spooge-gle's investors, and Spooge-gle's C suite. Win-win all the way around. Know the game. Any questions?

erik_landerholm 4y ago
What about all the ones that ipo like DoorDash?
- As_You_Wish 4y ago
  Same same. The people buying the stocks are the greater fools and the original owners still succeed as their stock is now trading publicly and they can sell their stocks and make a bundle. In this case, the investors do get hosed, so not a win-win, unless they sell it to the next greater fool before it collapses. Kinda like bitcoin. One could always sell it to a greater fool, until one can't. And hopefully that ain't you. If it is....suckk-ker...
dotcoma 4y ago
Sad but true.