Years ago, I came across a saying from a Japanese philosopher – “When I am tired and the world is weary, there is the garden.” Throughout the years, I have followed the intent of that saying, meaning, when I felt pressed from the events happening around me, I would do some gardening.
Since I have become so involved with the market in the past few years, I am now find solace not in the earth and its fruit; rather, I am finding a sense of peace and optimism in science. More specifically, I am getting a lift these days from the innovation that is happening in this transformative period I have written about before. As a history buff, the sense I have of this transformation is that it resembles the Renaissance in both the qualitative aspect and the magnitude of change aspect.
We are moving into a new era, and the good news is that these moments in time are excellent moneymaking opportunities, reminding me of the late 1990s. The difference between then and now, though, is that the innovation happening today derives from some twenty-plus years of technological solidification. In other words, the technological revolution in the 1980s and 1990s built the foundation for what is happening now. Products are actually rolling out, products that utilize the theories and tools developed in that heady technological period. The “smoke and mirrors” aspect is gone and today the technology is very real and very productive.
A startup in California has developed a manufacturing technique that could substantially cut the cost of LED lightbulbs—a more energy-efficient type of lighting. LEDs are conventionally made on a relatively costly substrate of silicon carbide or sapphire. Bridgelux has come up a new process that takes advantage of existing fabrication machines used to make silicon computer chips, potentially cutting LED production costs by 75 percent, according to the company.
The above ties in nicely with the energy transformation that is upon us, and will continue to evolve much faster than mainstream analysts are predicting. The recent BP fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico and the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan are prime catalysts that will push this transformation even faster.
What I am doing now is turning one eye away from the daily grind of the market, the volatile and news driven reality that we are experiencing these days. I am turning my other eye toward finding and investing in companies such as the one identified in the above excerpt. This is a concerted effort on my part, as I believe more money will be made in more sectors than was made in the heyday of the “Internet” revolution of the 1980s and 1990s.
The simple reason is the aforementioned revolution produced a hype-based bubble and people poured money into what we used to call “vaporware.” Money went down many a black hole created from out and out chicanery. I know this first hand because I worked for a “company” whose sole purpose (I found out after it was over) was to create the illusion that a product was forthcoming. The game plan was to lure investors with promises of high returns, go public, push the stock price up, and then sell before the vaporware vaporized. Due diligence will pay off nicely this time around …
Trade in the day – Invest in your life …
