Tejas Gutka

12 Learnings from 12 Years in the Capital Markets. What follows is more of a ‘note-to-self’, rather than a blue-print of success. In fact, as the process of learning continues, these values will undergo refinement over time.

The investor who made money in 2010 and the market of 2010 are both gone. Replaying old strategies in new conditions is the most common way experience becomes a liability. #QOTD

No child learns to walk by studying biomechanics first. The information you need to refine your direction only becomes available once you are already moving. #QOTD

Expertise doesn't cure blind spots - it trades the old ones for new ones that are far harder to see. Is your specialisation clarifying your world, or narrowing it? #QOTD

Most people wait for the right conditions before committing. But perfect conditions rarely arrive before the window closes. Friction isn't the detour - it's the foundation. #QOTD

"If you do not know which port you are seeking, no wind is favorable." — Seneca [Letters to Lucilius (Epistle 71)] Speed without direction gets you somewhere. The question is whether anywhere you reach was worth going to. #QOTD

Market intelligence tells you what others are doing. Self-knowledge tells you why you do what you do. One is a tool; the other is the foundation. Which one are you actually developing? #QOTD

"What's vice today may be virtue, tomorrow." — Henry Fielding What the contrarian does today, the consensus will celebrate tomorrow. Where exactly is the line between ahead-of-the-curve and too early? #QOTD

"In the sky, there is no distinction between east and west; people create distinctions in their own minds and then believe them to be true." — Gautama Siddhartha Most constraints are mental constructs, not real walls. Question the distinction. #QOTD

Paralysis usually isn't about complexity — it's about scale. The year feels unmanageable because it is. The day isn't. Do the day. #QOTD

"When you need clarity, subtract." — James Clear Most of us reach for more when confused — more information, more options, more opinions. Confusion usually isn't a shortage of inputs; it's an excess of them. #QOTD

"Turn every hard thing into a story of overcoming...not limitations that stop you. A hard past, a business failure, or a humiliation. War stories, not walls." — Dr. Julie Gurner The same event: a scar you hide, or a credential you carry. Your story, your choice. #QOTD

"A culture is not a set of ideas. It's a set of actions." — Ben Horowitz Culture isn't what you write on the wall. It's what the organisation tolerates and rewards when doing the right thing is expensive. #QOTD

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in india have the most objective selection process of any undergraduate engineering program worldwide. There are no essays or legacy priorities. One just has to do exceedingly well on two ultra tough tests. The IITs admit just 1.1% of applicants! It is 3-4x easier to get admitted to @mit, @Stanford, @Harvard and @Princeton! I am excited to share that this year one of our @dakshanaindia Scholars, Godavarthi Harshit Visweswar, got a rank of 39 (out of over 1.5 million applicants!) in the first IIT selection test. He is a sure shot to be admitted and get the campus and major he prefers. His friends call him GHV and I’ll do the same. GHV grew up in the remote hinterlands of Prakasam District in the State of Andhra Pradesh in India. His father is a farmer and the family somehow survives on $5/day. When GHV was in 8th grade, a @dakshanaindia alum, Keshava Chandra, who used to be in the same school as GHV delivered Dakshana’s Inspire session at the school. Each year our alums visit hundreds of schools to inspire the next generation of students to aspire to be @dakshanaindia Scholars. GHV was impressed that Keshava was a student at @iitkgp and understood that if he wanted to go to IIT, he needed to be accepted as a @dakshanaindia Scholar after 10th grade. If there was no @dakshanaindia, the closest location for GHV to get coached for the IIT entrance exam is over 150 miles from his home and the costs of $4000+ would have been completely out of reach. Sometimes all we need is a gentle nudge in the right direction. I received a similar nudge in 8th grade and it totally changed my life trajectory. GHV was the only kid from his school accepted by @dakshanaindia in 2024. We relocated him to Dakshana’s Center of Excellence in Bengaluru and he was coached for two years at The Charles T. Munger Hall. Charlie would be proud! Congratulations to GHV, his family and his teachers. The future for GHV and his descendants looks very bright. This is @dakshanaindia at its very best!

Addition is visible. Subtraction is invisible. That's why we celebrate builders and never the person who simply... stopped. #QOTD

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. — Publilius Syrus Bull markets mint geniuses. The skill shows up only when the tide turns and most of those geniuses quietly disappear. #QOTD

To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; each saves us from thinking. — Henri Poincaré Conviction on one side, open-mindedness on the other. Lean too hard either way and you fall. #QOTD

In investing, the same traps play out on both ends - too humble to take a contrarian position when the evidence is there, or too confident to question your own thesis when reality shifts. The edge lies in holding both at once.

The mindset: Confident enough to start. Humble enough to keep learning. The trap: Too humble to start. Or too confident to keep learning. - James Clear #QOTD

Looking different means accepting the discomfort of being wrong visibly - and right invisibly - for long stretches. Most professionals never master this. Perception risk isn't talked about much. But it explains why most active funds end up performing like passive ones. #QOTD

You can’t pour from an empty tank. The audit of what drains vs. what fuels you is one of the most important ones you’ll ever run. #QOTD