Azim Premji Viewpoint

The first lesson is that to be successful you have to be challenged by something, and then have the resolve to deal with it. This is the surest way forward. I learnt that challenges, determination and passion is what propel a person. I also learnt that often you have to go out seeking challenges because challenges may not come seeking you. Rarely have I come across a successful entrepreneur, who became an entrepreneur only to make money. In practically all the cases, people became entrepreneurs because there is a challenge that excites them: A challenge to change the world, a challenge to invent, a challenge to create, etc—some deeply captivating challenge that appeals to them personally, but rarely is the desire to make money the prime driver.

- Azim Premji
www.azimpremjifoundation.org
www.wipro.com

Truly inspiring. Really.

Random Thoughts

A typical New York dealer may buy his rough in Russia, send it to China to be manufactured, send it to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in Carlsbad, California, to have it certified, and back to New York, and then might have it shipped out to Hong Kong to sell it to the Far East market and send the funds back to New York. So New York is essentially part of the global village.

- Hertz Hasenfeld
www.hasenfeld-stein.com

Spot on.

Jim Rogers Viewpoint

I own some gold and I am optimistic about the price of gold but I don’t think I would buy it either. The gold is near its all-time high, I think I would rather buy silver for instance if I had to buy a precious metal. However, I am not buying either at the moment.

- Jim Rogers
www.jimrogers.com

Maybe he is right.

Gustavo Dudamel And Los Angeles Philharmonic

I think we will have a beautiful journey... the most important thing is to enjoy. I'm doing what I love to do.

- Gustavo Dudamel
www.gustavodudamel.com

All the best.

Random Thoughts

When I returned from volunteering at a small school in Moshi Town in Tanzania, I felt helpless. I work in the luxury industry and I wanted to connect luxury to poverty and then use luxury to help out.

- Alethe Clemetson
www.jewelersthatcare.org

Chaim Even Zohar Viewpoint

Chaim's viewpoint on the state of the diamond market was interesting. The current economic crisis may have caused a power shift. It would be interesting to watch De Beers, Bostwana and Russia and their strategy of choice in current economic crisis.

Useful links:
www.debeersgroup.com
www.debswana.com
www.dtc.com
http://eng.alrosa.ru
www.diamondintelligence.com

Wrekin's Ruby

One of the strangest tales in the history of company accounting looks increasingly likely to end with a fabled gem being downgraded to an unusual paper weight. The Gem of Tanzania, a large ruby whose £11m valuation once underpinned the finances of a failed company with yearly turnover of £103m, may be worth as little as £100. It is a paper weight. Period. Visit Bangkok, Jaipur, or Hong Kong and you can buy them for less than £100. Whoever gave the gemstone £11m valuation need a medical checkup. What a joke, really!

The Many Faces Of George Washington

Milton Esterow's article on Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington and the Chinese artist was interesting.

Useful links:
www.nbmaa.org
www.pem.org
www.metmuseum.org