Is Musk’s becoming the richest man a blessing from God?
In fact, Hong Kong itself does not necessarily need to take any risks. It may be enough to provide enough space to allow people from Hong Kong and all over the world to make various attempts at their own risks with the help of the Hong Kong financial market platform.
Author: GUDORDI | 2023-09-05
Musk recalled that SpaceX’s first three launches ended in failure. In 2008, he could only use the remaining funds to give it a try and finally succeeded. (Shutterstock)
“I am an idealist without illusions.”
-John F. Kennedy
In the last chapter, the author mentioned Lin Zexu’s famous saying: “The sea embraces all rivers, tolerance is great, a wall stands thousands of feet high, and no desire is strong.” and mentioned that these sixteen words may be the most important qualities that make an international financial center and international city possible. white.
What is the current level of satisfaction among companies and investors?
Basically, the capital market can be understood as a market composed of three major entities—enterprises, governments, and individuals—among which enterprises are the most important, and these three can be both demanders and investors of capital at the same time. Is a provider of capital. Relatively speaking, other capital market participants, such as investment banks, fund companies, etc., are actually intermediaries attached to the market and will not be its soul. From this perspective, if we follow Musk’s concept of “first principles”, a question worth asking is: What is the overall satisfaction level of the protagonists of the current global capital market?
This is not an easy question to verify. However, the author’s observation is that the current global capital market mainly serves a small number of major companies in the United States and global core markets. At present, the total number of listed companies in the world is less than 60,000, accounting for a very small proportion of the number of global companies. Among listed companies, only a few are truly valued. It is estimated that there may not be 6,000 companies outside the United States that have the ability to raise funds in the international market, and most of them are in development markets such as Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan. In Asia and other places, there are many companies that are in a relatively marginal position, do not have much recognition in the international market, and have limited fund-raising capabilities.
Relatively speaking, the situation of the final provider of funds may be even worse: the funds invested are extremely huge, but a closer look shows that this funds may mainly be transferred between different funds and different stocks. Among investors, Some people make money, and some people lose money, and the source of money earned is often the losses of other investors. According to estimates by Buffett’s partner Charlie Munger, most of the profits provided to investors by the entire American corporate world are Eclipsed by transaction fees and various charges from intermediaries, overall, the corporate profits shared by investors are actually quite limited. What the entire financial market is really doing may be to continuously create different stories and excuses to continuously “redistribute” the wealth of global investors.
"I don't know if people will still have illusions about me..."
From this perspective, the current financial system may really serve more intermediary institutions than enterprises or final providers of funds. This is not an ideal or reasonable situation. Does this mean that if a financial center can provide companies and investors with products that are of real value to them, it should have room for development? If London and New York have not yet achieved 100 points, and the current global financial system center has shortcomings, will this be a space that other financial centers can explore?
Of course, the existence of the relevant space is one thing, and whether it can be developed is another. For a moment, the author was reminded of Musk’s experience. During the development process of SpaceX, the first three attempts ended in failure, and he was in an extremely dangerous situation in 2008. According to his recollection, he could only use the remaining funds to choose to save either SpaceX or Tesla. However, as the “father” of the two companies, he could not bear to watch the other company collapse, so Therefore, he finally chose two companies and never gave up.
As the “father” of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk naturally does not want either company to go bankrupt, so he will not give up on either company. (Shutterstock)
God is still kind of favoring Musk. SpaceX’s fourth launch was successful, Tesla also weathered the difficulties, and Musk became the world’s richest man. According to his later reflection, if SpaceX’s fourth launch ended in failure, it would be impossible for him to turn around. Musk’s experience at that time should be very inhumane, right? In any case, in interviews in recent years, he once said casually: “I don’t know if people will still have any illusions about me. If they know what I have gone through…” He also once said: “Society should not respond People who pursue dreams are so cruel… If society punishes people who pursue dreams too harshly, then no one in society will make any new attempts…”
Can Hong Kong's financial market be regarded as a platform?
Yes, the path of those who insist on their dreams is difficult. Looking back suddenly, how bumpy was Van Gogh’s life? Fortunately, his paintings and letters were preserved, and history finally gave him justice. Just imagine if the above did not appear, how would history describe Van Gogh, a great and talented painter? A worthless lunatic? Or what?
But despite this, there are still some people in history who do whatever it takes to follow their path. If they succeed, they can bring great benefits to mankind, but if they fail, they will only pay a heavy price. If you think about it more deeply, from the perspective of society as a whole, what else is more cost-effective than this? We may not be able to help these warriors in life, but should we at least give them a little more understanding, respect and tolerance?
It is very important that these people can exist. President Kennedy said it well: “In each of us there is a private hope or dream which, if realized, will benefit everyone…” (in each of us there is a private hope or dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone…)
From this point of view, can we think boldly about the future of Hong Kong’s international financial center? The important thing is that in fact, Hong Kong itself does not necessarily need to take any risks. It may be enough to provide enough space to allow people from Hong Kong and all over the world to make various attempts at their own risks with the help of the Hong Kong financial market platform. . From a certain perspective, this may also be the “business model” of the entire American society. It only provides a relatively transparent and fair platform to attract talents from all over the world to come to the United States to realize their dreams. Is this also a direction for Hong Kong to consider?
“Hong Kong’s Legendary Future” Series 37
Contact the author: Gudordi@proton.me
