Long Term — Really?

As Indian companies roll out their quarterly numbers, the collective market mood seems stuck in a loop:
📉 *“Consumption is slowing…”*📊 *“Revenues missed estimates…”*🔻 *“Earnings downgrades incoming…”*🌍 “Global macro is a mess…”

And then, without fail, the morning meetings start sounding like therapy sessions:

“Did we make the wrong call?”
“Should we trim exposure?”
“Is this business really built to last?”
“The stock hasn’t moved in months—why are we still holding this?”
“Let’s look at XYZ—it’s up 50% in a month, they must be doing something right!”

You get the drift.

And yet—many of the same voices claim to be “long-term investors.”

Truth is, if one muted quarter shakes your conviction and has you questioning everything, you’re not playing the long game. You’re walking off the pitch because there were no boundaries in one over.

Warren Buffett puts it best:

“You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

In other words: Great businesses aren’t built sprinting quarter by quarter—they’re marathons, not 400-meter dashes. Some outcomes just take time—and compounding needs patience, not panic.

Here’s the truth:

The real magic happens before you even buy a business:

1. Are you betting on people you genuinely admire and trust?
2. Is the business exceptional—and committed to continuous improvement?
3. Are you buying at a price so reasonable that, even if you mess up the analysis, there’s a safety net?

If you’ve done that hard work—guess what? You’ve earned the privilege to… (drumroll please): sit back and do absolutely nothing.

Now: Pour yourself a coffee, mute the financial news for a few hours, stop refreshing stock prices, and let your businesses—and your humour—compound peacefully over years and decades.