Porsche Finance Quotes

I know you come from big spenders, but I could put you on a private jet tonight, fly us to Paris for a shopping trip down Champs Elysées, then have the jet fly us to Hong Kong to finish off our day on Causeway Bay. We could return to the States and stop at the Porsche dealership and pick you out a new 911 and that day wouldn’t put a dent in my finances.

As Volkswagen shares plummeted, Porsche’s obligations to Maple Bank began piling up on an almost hourly basis. At 8:14 a.m. on October 21, for example, Maple Bank confirmed in an e-mail to executives in Porsche’s finance department that it had received €300 million ($420 million) in security.15 At a few minutes after noon, a bank employee sent another e-mail to the Porsche executives advising them of their obligation to transfer another 243 million ($340 million). Porsche obliged forty minutes later. Then, at 2:10 p.m., Maple Bank asked for another €417 million ($584 million). And on it went.

One day, not long after I relocated to California, I was driving to a meeting in Palo Alto when I spotted an amusing bumper sticker on the beat-up Porsche in front of me: PLEASE, GOD, ONE MORE BUBBLE BEFORE I DIE. The fallout from the dotcom crash was still fairly fresh. Was this someone who had missed out on the boom times, I wondered, or someone who had profited and then lost it all? Either way, the sticker highlighted a fascinating mindset that still pervades Silicon Valley: Are we out there just wishing that another bubble would come along, to boost our spirits and our bank accounts for as long as the party lasts? It’s a dangerous wish. Where would that leave us when the next bubble breaks? Many generations have seen true progress and growth, but not without moments when reality falls out of alignment with inflated bubble metrics. Hope, by its very definition, gets too far out in front of reality, and many of those hope-fueled companies don’t survive. The general formula in Silicon Valley is that there will be nine failures for every success—that high rate of failure is a necessary consequence of the freedom to take the risk to innovate. Even so, those failures leave damage and casualties in their wake. Part of the brilliance of startup culture is its dexterity and speed and conviction. Those same characteristics, however, can also manifest as vulnerability, as they frequently lead to shortsightedness, impatience, and volatility.

It is better not to have a Porsche, live in an apartment, but have time for the family. Have time to count snails with your daughter in the morning on your way to a kindergarten.