The whole thread has got way ahead of itself/the market, but it...

The whole thread has got way ahead of itself/the market, but it is an interesting and most valuable situation to consider.

I must say that I am ultimately with the dividend camp. There are all sorts of risks in that, as the company has to deliver year on year.
But there are also big risks in finding new opportunities to invest in, for sure.

Ultimately, I would say that there's an awful lot of luck in finding a 'real' company as so many are about the share price and short term gains rather than creating a steady, reliable, long term profitable business that is well run. If this is a 'real' company, then for me it is worth sticking with as the potential dividends on top of the potential capital gain are worth it.
I don't tend to get this lucky often, so will I get another opportunity for long term successful passive investment than this?
Do I really want to sit there, hunched over my screen, year after year, desperately trying to cobble double digit annual returns together? I choose to leave the sexy top of the returns table to the true talented enthusiasts and recognise my own limits.
People jump from one investment to the other, searching for some sort of Holy Grail. In business, unless you are one of the very few whizz kids out there, in my experience it doesn't work like that as generally you pick your area and stick with it and look to establish a niche and grind out profit from it. I reckon I can take a lesson from that.
Potentially an income from a steady business where I don't have to turn up to work? That is an outstandingly privelidged position that I can certainly live with.

We might, just might, be onto a super long term story here, and if so my own opinion is to ride it all the way to the end of the tube.

And may I add a thank you to the thread contributors, because until now I had been eyeing possible exits and possibly repeating the pattern of a lifetime and the takeover v dividend chat gave me pause for thought. So, for me, it's great that this line of conversation has come up, as it has clarified some things for me. It also reminds me of when I started in a private bank, straight out of university. I asked a septegenarian client if she wished to sell her holding in a company as it was looking rather toppy. She laughed and said 'young man, I take more out every year in a dividend from this stock than my husband ever put in for our initial investment. So, no thank you, the ups and downs do not bother me one little bit.' She was a pretty cool lady - absolutely minted and so down to earth; smoked Lambert and Butler fags and drank Special Brew, yet her husband and her were officially Lord and Lady xxxxxx. They were rich enough to make lifetime passive investments, and profited handsomely from it. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is a similar opportunity for those of us without the silver spoon or who have simply razzed everything up the wall so far.....