Top five biggest wealth creators of Dalal Street: Adani Group rules the list!

Remember, in our childhood, we were told moral stories stating that patience is a virtue? How many of you still follow it? Hardly any perhaps! With the tendency of skipping queues or honking continuously in traffic jams or while exiting in trains or flights, hardly anyone is patient! We all want our things done quickly! The same scenario is seen in investment. People want quick results and often search for products that offer high returns with low risk and that too, in a short span of time!  

Today, we will tell you some stories about patience, which will rekindle your childhood memories, and remind you why one must avoid haste in any situation. We will draw a parallel to show you how similar investments are. 

Once upon a time, there were two companies competing for adult toothpaste and toothbrushes. A few years later, there was demand in the market for children's toothbrushes. Both companies knew that the company that first launched the product is likely to dominate the market. Company A proceeded in a logical way instead of doing field research. Adults have big hands and need a long & thick toothbrush. Children have small hands, but they need a small & thin toothbrush. So, with this logic and in a hurry to conquer the market, Company A developed & manufactured a children's toothbrush just in a few weeks' time and hurriedly, launched it in the market.  

Meanwhile, Company B was conducting extensive field research. They went to hundreds of children and saw them brush their teeth with a toothbrush. They also received honest feedback directly from the children. After conducting an extensive survey, Company B decided that it needed a toothbrush that was the same size as that of an adult with some grooves. Children were found not holding the toothbrush with their fingers like adults, but had just clung to the toothbrush. Instead of making small toothbrushes like Company A, it chose a large toothbrush to help make the ebb & flow of the tide effective. In addition, it added some colours and cartoon characters to the toothbrush to make it more eye-catching or appealing to the children. Finally, Company B unveiled its product and surprisingly, it sold a record number of toothbrushes and began to dominate the market.  

The moral of the story is that the more time, you spend on the preliminary stages, the more confident you will become in the long run. Never go for shortcuts; it may give you instantaneous success, but to make it consistent for a longer period, you need patience.

This reminds us of the famous words said by an American economist, who was also, the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in economic sciences, Paul Samuelson. He rightly said, “Investing should be like watching paint dry or watching grass grow”. This can be difficult for some people to digest but having patience is still considered one of the most important factors in generating wealth.  

So, here are the top five biggest wealth creators of Dalal Street in the past five years (2016-2021)*:  

*Start price is closing price of 2016.