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Hardcover Books: The Sketchbook of Wisdom & Boundless
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The first mobile phone I bought was in 2003. It was with my second salary, and it was a Nokia 3315. In fact, when I looked around, almost everyone had one, and for good reason. You could drop it or even throw it at a wall, and it would still work fine.
Back then, Nokia wasn’t just a company, but the company. If you’d asked me names of businesses that would last forever, I’d have said “Nokia” as one of them without a second thought.
And yet, it didn’t last. The world moved on. Apple arrived with the iPhone. Android followed. They rewrote the rules, and Nokia couldn’t adapt fast enough. Almost as if suddenly, the qualities we thought guaranteed its permanence, like brand loyalty, a strong distribution network, and rock-solid (actually!) hardware, mattered less than we imagined.
That’s one of the most humbling things about investing. The moment you start believing something is permanent, it isn’t. Markets change. Companies change. Moats that look deep today start filling in tomorrow. Even your own little “edge” as an investor is temporary. You can cling all you want, but change doesn’t ask for your permission.
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said:
You cannot step into the same river twice.
The market is that river. Always flowing and always shifting. In Indian and Buddhist philosophy, this idea is called Anitya or Anicca, which means the truth that all things are impermanent.
Look at history. In the 1990s, Hindustan Motors, Premier Automobiles, and Century Textiles were Sensex heavyweights. Today, they’re names most young investors don’t even recognise. In 2000, Infosys was the poster child of unstoppable growth. By 2003, its stock had dropped nearly 80%. In 2007, real estate companies were market darlings. By 2009, they were unrecognisable. And just as it happened then, the companies that dominate headlines and portfolios today will not hold that position forever. A few years or decades from now, they too will be replaced by new names that, right now, may not even be on our radar.
Yet, despite these reminders, we keep falling for the illusion that some companies are immune to change. We tell ourselves stories about “permanent moats” and “forever brands,” dressing them up with metrics like the PEG ratio or decades-long returns on equity, as though numbers could shield a business from the forces of reality.
Warren Buffett talks about moats, yes, but he’s also clear that they don’t last forever. Capitalism is designed to attack them. Competitors get smarter and consumers change their minds. And sometimes the problem is internal to the business, and often it’s its past success that breeds arrogance and complacency, as it happened with Nokia.
Part of why we fall into this trap is that markets have short memories. A company thriving today feels like it has always been thriving. A stock that’s compounded steadily for five years feels like it will keep doing so for the next five.
But businesses don’t operate on our mental timelines. A company can have a brilliant five-year run and stumble in year six. One or two bad strategic decisions can take years to repair, if they ever do. Entire industries can go from darling to disaster in a few quarters.
Impermanence doesn’t just apply to companies but to us as investors too. The edges that work for you now may fade away. Like, for a diligent investor or analyst, having access to management interviews or investor presentations felt like an advantage a decade ago. Today, they’re livestreamed for everyone. Reading annual reports closely once set you apart, but now AI can summarise them in seconds. Tomorrow, even those summaries will be a commodity.
An investor who assumes their process will stay relevant forever is signing up for irrelevance. The ones who last are those who keep learning, unlearning, and adapting.
The same principle runs through life. You might be at the top of your career one year and staring at a layoff the next. You might feel indestructible in your twenties and notice your energy fade in your forties. Titles, bonuses, and recognition are as temporary as bull markets.
But instead of depressing you, I believe this truth can free you. If nothing lasts forever, you don’t have to hold on so tightly. You don’t have to pretend to control every outcome. You can focus on what you do control, which is your process, your discipline, and your integrity.
The Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius wrote:
Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them.
I don’t see this as a warning but a reminder to live wisely and to stay flexible and adaptable.
That’s also good investing advice. It changes the way you look at businesses. You start to value adaptability over dominance, because dominance attracts attacks while adaptability enables survival. You give more weight to balance sheet strength, because in a changing world, liquidity and low debt are like lifelines. And you keep your own approach under review, knowing that what worked five years ago may not work now.
Now, this may sound like theory but it isn’t. Impermanence can shape how you actually build and manage your portfolio.
For example, when it comes to portfolio construction, it’s a good idea to do it with the awareness that leaders change. So, diversify across sectors instead of betting too heavily on the current market favourites. Keep a mix of businesses, some with proven adaptability over decades and others with high current growth but untested in downturns. If possible, add some global exposure (directly or through mutual funds).
Position sizing benefits from this thinking too. Allocate more to companies that have shown they can reinvent themselves successfully and moderate to small amounts to those with strong but short track records.
An ongoing review process is important too. Don’t just track performance but also a business’s adaptability. Ask questions like: Is the company still relevant to its customers? Is the management still evolving? Are competitors eroding its moat?
The idea of impermanence also helps sharpen your sell discipline. Exit when the reason you bought no longer holds, whether that’s due to technological disruption or a loss of competitive advantage. Consider reallocating when you find a more adaptable business, or when valuations are so high they assume permanence that reality rarely offers.
One particular exercise you can do is to take three companies you admire today and write down the reasons you believe they will last. Then imagine three ways each could falter.
Table 1: Company Impermanence Exercise
Do the same for yourself. Identify your edge as an investor today. Then imagine how it could become irrelevant in five years, and what you would need to learn or change to stay effective.
Table 2: My Own Investor Edge Exercise
You see, impermanence is not the enemy. It is the nature of the game. The companies you study will change. The markets you operate in will change. Even you will change. The question isn’t whether you can find something permanent, because you probably can’t. The question is whether you can deal with impermanence with humility and clarity. Investors who can do that not only have a better chance of surviving, but also tend to enjoy the ride a little more.
Just like the Nokia we once thought would last forever, today’s giants too will pass. The river keeps flowing. You can’t hold the water still. But you can learn to swim with it.
Two Books. One Purpose. A Better Life.
“Discover the extraordinary within.”
—Manish Chokhani, Director, Enam Holdings
“This is a masterpiece.”
—Morgan Housel, Author, Psychology of Money
