There was a sad news on Sunday 14th of August. In the morning Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (RJ) called the 'big bull of Sensex' or the 'doyen of Indian stock market' passed away at Mumbai Breach Candy Hospital. He was obese and was suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes for a long time.
RJ Started investing in the market in the mid-80s came off on his own in the early 90. Either individually or through his company Rare Enterprises, he was an early investor in many of the current blue chips like Titan, Karur Vysya bank and others.
Millions of retail investors follow him and make buy-sell decisions based on whether he bought or sold stakes in a company.
This article is not about stocks or Investments even though you cannot separate them from RJ as a person. It is about personal change.
Change can be of two types; minor change is like changing the route you normally take to the office or ordering something different in restaurant that you go regularly (that's a big one for me)
Major changes affect the direction and flow of your normal life. They could include changing your job or relocating to a new city, marriage, divorce, birth of your child etc.
Or, starting a new airline, if you were RJ
RJ has always been an investor who invested in shares of company and grew his wealth as the company moved from start-up to small cap to Midcap to large cap and finally to becoming a blue chip.
In his book ‘The cashflow quadrant’, author Robert Kiyosaki, discusses four sources of wealth. He calls them EBSI. E stands for Employee, who earns income through salary. S stands for self-employed Professional, like doctor, freelancer etc. B stands for business owner, and I stand for investor. The investor (I) creates wealth investing in businesses created by business owner (B).
All these days RJ remained an investor. In the meantime, his colleagues who started investing almost at the same time as RJ, had gone on to establish highly successful business enterprises. For example, his compatriot Radhakrishnan Damani created a highly successful retail chain DMart, that he launched in the market recently. The share price of the company has grown five-fold since launch (IPO).
RJ must have felt an emptiness somewhere. He decided to start a business.
I don't know what it is with these Indian Businessmen, whenever they have cash the first business that day think of is Airlines. Vijay Mallya did it, owner of a successful company wanted to do it (investors brutally punished this move by almost halving the market price of the shares of his company. It is yet to touch its earlier high) ...
Globally Airlines have been a loss-making industry since Inception. The high level of competition, government oversight, price conscious passengers, high employee acquisition and retention costs, all of which makes it a perennial loss-making industry.
But Indian Businessman can't have enough of it.
Maybe it is Katrina Kaif modelling for Kingfisher that did it. Who knows?
RJ decided to start his airline company, he named it Akasa - Sanskrit word for Sky - airlines. The airline completed its Maiden flight on 7th of August. Many newspapers published pictures of a jubilant Rakesh ji travelling in the maiden flight. Flight was from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. On 14th August, airline had its first flight from Bangalore to Kochi.
By then RJ had left for his heavenly Abode.
As I said before, he passed away early morning on the 14th.
I was sitting in my hotel room in Ahmedabad when I read the news on twitter.
Starting a new airline was a major change for RJ.
Culturally Indians are wary of major changes. They strive for the security of the predictable. The belief is that major changes almost never come alone, they come in threes. In Malayalam they say 'onnu thottal moonnu', meaning 'if it happens once, then it will happen thrice'. They know that the first major change is under their control,but unpredictability of the remaining two makes them wary of changing anything.
There is this story of an Indian businessman who continued construction of his house because an Astrologer told him that as soon as he finishes construction he will pass away. His house was an eternal work in progress.
He passed away anyway.
Now we come to the end of the story.
Launching an airline was the first change for RJ. This was followed by unfortunate event.
I guess the third change is for his family not to have him at the breakfast table.
One final unrelated thought.
RJ passed away on the 14th. 15th August was a holiday.
On Tuesday 16th of August, the market closed up by 200 points.
Was it a mark of respect for RJ or was market
showing who is the boss?
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