AM isn't dead! It is merely resting.
I've actually witnessed a few AM's in other industries.
I've been attached to them in the same ways I am attached to AM.
Minority shareholder.
Cheerleader.
(Fatal) Optimistic.
I love my fucking underdogs.
As a MS, you're helpless.
You can't help. Your voice doesn't count.
You can watch everything unfold.
It doesn't make sense to get further involved, enough to help.
In half the cases I've been involved, it turns out alright.
They fight through. They get it figured out.
I just talked to one of those last week.
In 2014, they had the highest net year in their history, and became marketshare leader.
In the other half of cases, crash and burn.
They usually stop returning phone calls.
They stop responding to emails.
I mean, really, when there's nothing good to say, who wants to have their nose rubbed in it.
There's usually a very recognizable point where that one guy gives up. He says fuck it.
He stops trying to be nice. He stops trying to win. He submits.
He just plays the rest of his cards out, and he disappears.
There's usually no soliloquy - just a fade-out.
The sad thing is - the marketplace is so forgiving.
You come with a bit of humility, and we'll forgive you.
But, when you don't ask for it.
And you decide you don't need it.
The market will shed you like a dead raccoon.
I don't know though.
These people in China are confusing.
Their cultural stuff is so different, I can't get a read on them.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure this could go either way.
Still as speculative as when I first got involved.
This industry will never get any of my real investment money when it's still in this phase.
Here's to AM not saying fuck it.
Here's to AM getting their shit straightened out.
Here's to AM become marketshare leader.
Here's to AM winning.
