Google Gone?
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I usually don't read the Financial Times (a slightly snobby English business rag) but I got a free copy and it was a long flight. I am glad I did because I read a very thought-provoking quote.
Here is the background: A private investment firm recently sold a vineyard in France to an insurance company for 200 million euros. At 118 hectares, the vineyard is one of the biggest in Bordeaux. It's called Chateaux Lascombes and it's about 400 years old.
The last paragraph of the article was a quote from one Jean-Romain Lhomme, (my uncle Paul, among others, will know what that name means) who was speaking for the seller, talking about the buyer's investment philosophy and needs.
Mr. Lhomme said the following about the buyer: "They need to put their money in very hard assets. In 50 years Google will have disappeared but Chateaux Lascombes will still be there with the same vines."
Which got me thinking, was that quote said with a haughty French accent? I hope so because that's the kind of quote that is pleading to be uttered with an upper-crust, "haughty as a waiter at the George Cinq Hotel in Paris" kind of accent.
But it actually got me thinking about more than that. Google is a juggernaut, but will it be here in 50 years? If I had to bet, I would say yes, but the real answer is who the heck knows. I am sure that many people thought HP wouldn't last when it was founded 60 years before Google, in a garage a few miles from the garage that was Google's first office.
Regardless of his outlook on Google, I think Mr. Lhomme is probably right about the vineyard...several of the oldest family businesses in the world are vineyards, including one in Italy featured on 60 Minutes--it was a vineyard that had been in the same family for 23 generations.
Besides the point on the top of my head, there's not much of a further point to this post...my only question for you is what do you want to build or create, if anything, that will be here 50 years from now, that can be passed on and on, down through the ages? A table? A book? A vineyard? The happiness and wonder of a child?
Here is the background: A private investment firm recently sold a vineyard in France to an insurance company for 200 million euros. At 118 hectares, the vineyard is one of the biggest in Bordeaux. It's called Chateaux Lascombes and it's about 400 years old.
The last paragraph of the article was a quote from one Jean-Romain Lhomme, (my uncle Paul, among others, will know what that name means) who was speaking for the seller, talking about the buyer's investment philosophy and needs.
Mr. Lhomme said the following about the buyer: "They need to put their money in very hard assets. In 50 years Google will have disappeared but Chateaux Lascombes will still be there with the same vines."
Which got me thinking, was that quote said with a haughty French accent? I hope so because that's the kind of quote that is pleading to be uttered with an upper-crust, "haughty as a waiter at the George Cinq Hotel in Paris" kind of accent.
But it actually got me thinking about more than that. Google is a juggernaut, but will it be here in 50 years? If I had to bet, I would say yes, but the real answer is who the heck knows. I am sure that many people thought HP wouldn't last when it was founded 60 years before Google, in a garage a few miles from the garage that was Google's first office.
Regardless of his outlook on Google, I think Mr. Lhomme is probably right about the vineyard...several of the oldest family businesses in the world are vineyards, including one in Italy featured on 60 Minutes--it was a vineyard that had been in the same family for 23 generations.
Besides the point on the top of my head, there's not much of a further point to this post...my only question for you is what do you want to build or create, if anything, that will be here 50 years from now, that can be passed on and on, down through the ages? A table? A book? A vineyard? The happiness and wonder of a child?
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