Hi
@quartear,
yes, the Apple story is a great one for young minds to think on (& older ones, too). Passion will get you through times of no money, better than money will get you through times of no passion, IMO.
But a thing which I think is never quite given its proper weight, until one sits down & reflects carefully - from all angles - on the genesis & evolution of a success story, is the opportunistic actions that were taken. The passion helped, of course. But looking at things with hindsight, we tend to skip over them, or treat things as business as usual or just simple or easy decisions made at the time. But I believe many of those decisions are nail-biting, sleepless night creating, & because we weren't there at the time we miss the nuance, the full background to the 'gutsy' calls.
I can assure you, personally, that my greatest successes in life - including my marriage - were a result of seizing opportunities. Crazy leaps from the viewpoint of conservative wisdom. A door opened out of nowhere, or an opportunity presented itself out of left field & you seize it. By my reckoning, more than half the time I made it. Amazingly. Other times, well...I learned (a lot, I think).
I've seen similar things in Mesoblast's history, on occasion, and while I've been a holder e.g. having Dr Verdun step into OTP just in time to shepherd our BLA away from the rocks. Or TEVA's departure, the payout and handback to MSB & management's conviction to take CHF on itself, regardless, is one example that springs to mind. Here's a link to Fin Review's 'take' at the time -
https://www.copyright link/companies/healthcare-and-fitness/mesoblast-shares-plunge-25pc-as-teva-withdraws-from-heart-failure-trials-20160614-gpief8. The other very obvious one for me was the persistence with pediatric SR-aGVHD despite the unknown assay replication problem, despite the criticism of inexperience, despite the CRLs, and the 'tall poppy' character assassinations in media (including HC).
And I think as holders we would do Mesoblast management and employees - especially the CEO -- an injustice in assuming that they haven't had their own share of worried decisions on many occasions e.g. do we spend money on broad multi-platform research that we believe in or let go our personnel & focus on just one thing, or again, do we have our employees accept shares in lieu of the salary that'll pay their bills. That kind of thing.
Anyway, I look at Mesoblast now & see the success of my investment in the SP and I think 'Gee, wasn't I clever'. In reality, others were clever, seized the opportunities & made and are still making all the worrying decisions. I just had to make one.
Cheers
Have a good one
(20min delay)