About 15 years ago I bought shares in a British technology company.
This company was developing software that is actually part of today's digital world.
The problem is the company in question was ahead of its time and was poorly run.
As a listed company there was an easy route at the time to raise funds through share placings.
I built up a modest holding. The shares went up and I could have paid off my mortgage. I was 35 years of age.
I didn't sell. I bought more as I was (wrongly) believing that the share price would go even higher. I held on and held on as the price of the shares dropped and dropped. Eventually the company went into liquidation. I lost all the profit I'd built up as well as my original investment.
My problem at the time was blindness to the real situation developing around me. I was caught up in the hype.
Posters on financial bulletin boards were talking the company up saying that they'd developed the killer app.
But when the realisation of imminent failure was on the horizon, those more sensible than me saw the real picture unfolding. I learned a big lesson and I've used that experience ever since to look beyond the hype and bullshit that others peddle to see what's really going on.
I have followed the demise of printed media very closely over the years.
Amongst other stories, I've successfully predicted the demise of Yellow Pages.
Blind to what's going on
This brings me on to Trinity Mirror's decision to launch the New Day newspaper.
I know we can all be experts in hindsight but did the owners and editors really think that they could launch a new newspaper in today's digital world when our respective news digestion is coming evermore increasing via hand-held devices? This is typical business blindness.
Probably what's most bizarre is that when the New Day newspaper was launched, the objective of the owners was to lure back readers who'd stopped taking newspapers. Smell the coffee people, these consumers stopped taking papers for a reason.
Now comes the (not so) shocking news that the New Day will print its last run this coming Friday, just nine weeks after its launch.
Staff are said to be 'shattered'. It may sound harsh but these staff may be a little out of touch if they expected to be a apart of a renaissance in printed media.
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