What is the one word we all need?, page-54

The problem is people are naive and most have rose coloured corneas. They see the oasis in the dessert! The mirage of dollars and riches sitting there in the middle of a barren and bleak dessert landscape. But they don't see the dessert! They see the share price that should be, rather than what actually is and has been for the last 3 years. They assume that people will see the business for what it is. They say the stock is being oversold or accuse the market of being wrong about the business etc etc. And they all cling onto the hope that one day the market will wake up and realize how great the stock actually is and come stampeding! But most of the time it doesn't!

What these pink-eyed folk have trouble seeing are the facts. Yet they like to pretend that facts are important and occasionally they will demand facts! And when facts are presented, whether they are facts about the failure of some gel to stop bacteria infecting lady parts, or facts about how long it is taking for a company to complete their phase 1 clinical trials, facts about the high failure rate of clinical trials in general, facts about the monumental challenges that lie beyond phase 1, and of course the fact of the scoreboard that has remained the same for the last three years... When such facts are presented they accuse the presenter of being stupid or having some axe to grind, or they play semantics (which is akin to pointing out spelling errors) or they hugely exaggerate the significance of the insignificant so as to divert attention away from the failures and challenges that lie ahead. They pat each other on the back and encourage each other to have patience and perseverance. To keep the faith! All to bolster their own optimistic, naive and perhaps even deluded picture of reality. Yet somehow this is supposed to be consistent with upholding the facts!?

Oh yes they're good at demanding facts and pretending that facts are important but that's because the stock has turned them into masochists! And sadists like Mukesh are all too happy to be their dominatrix!