[TED talk video. Running time 17:49]
I was reading an interesting article in The Economist Market.view section about what keeps growth investors going, despite the market disappointments. We buy stories. People are seduced by stories.
Tell me a great story and I will be totally captivated, to the point of believing that the story can be true. Substitute growth stocks with the day to day activities that are part of what makes a life - and what you have is stories. Stories are made of language, and language makes the world we live in. Nigerian writer Chris Abani says that “what we know about how to be who we are" comes from stories.
What are the stories we tell ourselves about us?
Now let's go back and take a look at the story of growth, compare it to that of value. What do you see? The story of value is not as sexy as that of growth, yet when represented side to side, it is clearly the winner. Yet, growth investors keep going.
Is the story of growth the same one we tell ourselves about our business?