Later that week another investor in the same city had a very different experience.

Jesse Livermore returned home on October 29th to a wife who, seeing news of the day’s record market crash, was prepared to console her husband and return to a life of frugality.

Jesse said that wasn’t necessary. He was short the market and made more money in the crash of 1929 than during the rest of his life combined.

“You mean we are not ruined?” his wife asked, according to Livermore’s biography.

He replied: “No darling, I have just had my best ever trading day – we are fabulously rich and can do whatever we like.” He made, in one day, the equivalent of $3 billion.

Polar opposite stories. Germansky went broke, Livermore became the richest man in the world.

But fast-forward four years and the stories end up nearly identical.

Livermore made larger and larger bets, and went on to lose everything in the stock market. Broke and ashamed, he disappeared for two days in 1933. His wife set out to find him. “Jesse L. Livermore, the stock market operator, of 1100 Park Avenue missing and has not been seen since 3pm yesterday,” the New York Times wrote in 1933. He returned, but his path was set. Livermore eventually took his own life.

The timing was different, but Germansky and Livermore shared the realization that getting rich is one thing. Staying rich is quite another.

Everything in the economy is cyclical. Nothing great or terrible is likely to stay that way for long, because the same forces that cause things to be great or terrible also plant the seeds to push them the other way.

Bull markets make stocks expensive, expensive stocks leave little room for error, and little room for error increases the odds of bull markets ending. Same thing in the other direction. Recessions cause pessimism. Pessimism causes underproduction, underproduction leads to scarcity, scarcity leads to a new boom.

People and companies, whose behaviors are changed by their own success, are vulnerable to the same cycles.

I’ve noticed a pattern: Getting rich can be the biggest impediment to staying rich.

It goes like this. The more successful you are at something, the more convinced you become that you’re doing it right. The more convinced you are that you’re doing it right, the less open you are to change. The less open you are to change, the more likely you are to tripping in a world that changes all the time.

There are a million ways to get rich. But there’s only one way to stay rich: Humility, often to the point of paranoia. The irony is that few things squash humility like getting rich in the first place.

It’s why the composition of Dow Jones companies changes so much over time, and why the Forbes list of billionaires has 60% turnover per decade.

Andy Grove, Intel’s founder, put it this way: “Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction.” Scrappiness and the ability to think differently turns into complacency and the desire to keep things the same. Harvard Business Review wrote about Grove’s management philosophy in 1996:
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Not skill, or market insight, or even hard work. Fear and humility.

Humility doesn’t mean taking fewer risks. Sequoia takes as big of risks today as it did 30 years ago. But it’s taken risks in new industries, with new approaches, and new partners, cognizant that work worked yesterday isn’t what will work tomorrow.

IBM and Xerox did this when they shifted from hardware to services. Netflix did it when it cannibalized its DVD business to invest in streaming. GE has reinvented itself about every 20 years for the last century, going from a lightbulb company to a dishwasher company to a bank to a wind turbine company.

Each could have looked at their past success and concluded they were doing the right thing, patting themselves on the back. But they didn’t. They were, for the most part, paranoid, eager and willing to jettison past success in an attempt to keep up with where the world was heading next.
It’s not easy to do.

For decades people used Coke, Gillette, and American Express as examples of companies whose success was so solidified – whose moats were so deep and protected – that you could foresee their dominance indefinitely. But now all three are under attack. Coke’s is fighting 13 consecutive years of soda decline. Dollar Shave Club came out of nowhere to take 14 percentage points of market share away from Gillette. And as Charlie Munger, one of AmEx’s largest investors said this week: “If you think you know what the state of the payments system will be 10 years out you’re in a state of delusion.” Only the paranoid survive.

We don’t know much about Abraham Germansky – only that he went from rich, to broke, to disappeared. But we know a lot about Livermore, whose life was well documented.

Livermore was was one of the most skilled people in the world at getting rich. But few people in the early 20th century had a harder time staying rich. He made and lost at least four fortunes, never going more than eight years without flirting with bankruptcy.

After his third wipeout, Livermore recognized his mistake: Getting rich made him feel invincible, and feeling invincible led him to double-down with leverage on what worked in the recent past, which was catastrophic when the world changed and the market turned against him.

He reflected:
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We live in a disposable world. We tend to do anything and everything to achieve what we want (when we don't have it). I it holds such a high value in our minds before we posses it, but once we acquire the object or the person, we forget what it took to get it and the value slowly depreciates in our minds. When we acquire things like a cell phone,a computer, a TV; shortly after we want the newer, bigger and better model. Trading up has deprived our society of the appreciation we once had for what we worked hard to obtain. Holds true even for relationships.

This is because we begin to lose sense of the appreciation we have for the person or item and tend to stop doing the little things. If it's a cell phone, we stop cleaning it and keeping it scratch free; if it's a girl we stop telling her she's beautiful and we love her. If we were to misplace the phone we go crazy looking to find it; If the girl stops caring we go crazy trying to win her back. The key is to always appreciate the things we want most in life while we don't have it and even while we have it. That way we are always reminded of how special it is to us and will do whatever it takes to keep it feeling special and appreciated. The value of the person or item never changes, our appreciation towards them is what changes. So remember. the little things are what make up the big things, the little things matter most, the little things say the most.

I woke up today with the news of Rs 500 crore betting racket of IPL matches (I consider IPL matches a Business more than a Game) with Sreesanth, Ankit Chawan and Amit Singh admitting their involvement. But what caught my attention was this small footnote at the bottom which read : Boy Murdered to Pay for IPL Bet. The victim named Aditya Rankha, aged 13 was stabbed with kitchen knife several times by his cousins and finally burnt to death a little outside Mumbai after a ransom plan didn’t pan out the way his assailants had planned it. These muderers had lost Rs 10 lakh in illegal IPL bets and hence they kidnapped Aditya and demanded a ransom of Rs 30 Lakh for teen's safe return, to which Aditya 's father did not agree.

The killers are not strangers, but relatives Aditya had grown up with, trusted and perhaps loved. The accused are neither hard-core criminals, nor professional killers. They represent the aam aadmi on every level. So what is the malaise in our society that is leading such people to commit dastardly crimes? Do they really think they’ll get away with murder? Do they think at all? Or is the glitter and glamour of instant gratification far more compelling than the risk involved? What about the reactions of their young wives and children? Other family members? The shame and ignominy of it all?

We are used to such urban crimes and we find nothing unusual about such stories. Thats why such articles find place at the footnote at the bottom of Dailies which we wearily read, get bored and turn the page. These killers were reported splurging wildly at nightclubs and 'enjoying' themselves. This idea of “enjoyment” has become a social disease that recognises no bounds. From a slum in central Mumbai to a penthouse on Pali Hill — it is no longer a distant dream or fantasy. It is happening. It is achievable. It is worth murdering a cousin for.

The scary truth is the lure of a luxurious lifestyle has completely blinded young urban India to consequences — moral or otherwise. There seems to be nothing at stake anymore. Everybody is chasing some impossible dream that promises paradise. Sometimes, one looks at the TV commercials (especially the ones that are telecast during the ongoing IPL) and wonders. They are so clever, so subversive they startle and shock the unwary! Most tap into middle-class frustrations, with wives and children demanding more and more and more from harried husbands and fathers (exotic summer vacations, bigger TV sets, pricey air conditioners). Banks offer attractive zero per cent interest on loans (come on, guys! who are you kidding?) urging the gullible to splurge on the latest smartphone or even a beach villa. Irresistible and heady as such offers are, there is always a catch.

That’s where these killer typos get phasaoed. Unwilling to wait for goodies that require some effort to acquire, they start gambling, first with currency, then with life itself. Young Aditya’s murder is emblematic of this rotten syndrome. As of now, one can only see a further escalation of similar crimes. The stakes may get higher. But lives will definitely get cheaper.

We have an inner impulse to satisfy our desires. Eat what we want, when we want to, giving no thought how much we eat. Drink what we want,when we want to, listen to audio entertainment when we want to, giving no thoughts to the words or to how long we have been listening or to how loud it is. Surf the internet, and watch video entertainment giving no thoughts to the websites we visit, the sounds and images we take in, to how long we surf or to how straining it is to our eyes. Pursue the fulfillment of our lower desires whenever we want,with whomever we want,wherever we want, for how long we want........
In this world, there is utter, uncontrollable chaos.Nothing is controlled and no one is exercising any control.No one needs anyone else as everyone is concerned only about themselves.

Every one is on the brink of losing their hearing and sight due to intense and continuous exposure to loud music. television and computer monitor screen.The clothing industry is thriving because people have to buy new clothes every other day. Medical and other human service professionals are working overtime to address the near exponential rise in the demand for emergency medical care, counselling and endless therapy sessions for people suffering from IHLTCS(I have lost total control syndrome). The reason for this chaos is turning away from Almighty,our creator to satisfy our lower desires.Let it be rich or poor,No one is happy. Everybody is Under stress. Newspapers carrying the news of suicides have become the order of the day. Why do people who have all the means of good-livelihood and all the objects of enjoyment take this extreme steps?We are living in the world of TENSION.

In this so called fast-spaced life and modern era, people give lesser importance to their servitude(to the creator) than their servitude and services to man. the slaves and servants of man are generally fully devoted to their employers to do the work they consider as their duty. Under the employer's instruction, they run to and fro, not even concerned about their meals-whatever little comes to hand is consumed.

If you want to live peaceful life, I call you to islam.Turn yourself to ALLAH.You will be successful in this world as well as the world hereafter. Never love a woman, a man or a pet.They will all disappoint you one day. But ALLAH will never disappoint you, ALLAH is always ready to listen to your blight.Devote sometime in Tableeghi movement started by Moulana Ilyas(Rahmatullah Alaih) so that your eyes are opened before death.

Man’s urges for the satisfaction hunger; sleep and sex cover the entire spectrum of his living condition on earth. They were given to man for his survival and maintenance on earth.

The hunger and thirst that man could satisfy with a loaf and a glass of water or feeling contented with what is available to him/her at ease and at hand is destroying the human edifice in a continuous process and multiplying his problems manifold, making the human life unbearable of hundreds of millions in the developing and underdeveloped countries who have little or no access to get this natural urge satisfied at peace.  The colonial powers and the occupiers have robbed their natural resources ruthlessly to satisfy their own mania of ever-increasing life standard and are miserly holding their “robbed” capital shamelessly in their banks and financial holding companies. What a curse it is for the great powers of Europe and America!

He needs a few hours of sleep and that he could get even lying on hard stones if he is overpowered by his tiresome work. But man went on increasing the luxuries of life. He wants luxurious houses, foam or water spring beds, air condition living rooms and sleeping piles.   If he could live within the natural means available, he could live in peace. However, man is found running after these urges day in and day out, like a “mad-man”, crazy to fulfill them by hook or crook, by fare or foul means, by honest or crocked means. He never feels satisfied and always cries: more and more, creating lopsided economies in the world and in every human society, dividing it in “haves and have-nots”, affluent and deprived, rich and poor, making the scenario worst and worst with every day and night: the rich is getting richer and the poor becoming poorer even by hours.

The urge that was given to man for the continuation of his species on earth through the process of procreation and the institution of marriage between man and woman has seriously been endangered by man through his perverted behavior of having sex with the same gender or committing the most heinous crime of homosexuality, a crime against human race being committed by humans for the satisfaction of his sexual urges in the most unnatural, unhealthy and shameless manner that is worse than animal behavior. Man is again misusing his freewill to satisfy his urge for sex out of wedlock thereby belittling the institution of marriage and the future of humanity at large.

The freewill of man has a choice to do wrong as well as free to do good and there lies its accountability after death as how he acted, lived and behaved on earth to make it a hell or a heaven for himself as well as for his species. Accordingly, he will be punished or rewarded in the life Hereafter – the ultimate reality that each human being will face when resurrected after death.