Very few decisions

Imagine two boys playing a game where you throw a ball at a small target far away, and each throw costs one rupee. Aarav is restless. He throws again and again, fast, barely aiming - twenty throws in a minute. Most miss. He is busy and excited, but his rupees drain away and the target stays untouched. Kabir is different. He picks up the ball, breathes, aims carefully for a long time, and throws only when he is really sure. In the whole game he throws just three times. But two of his three hit the target. Kabir spent less, tried less, and won more.

Investing, in Pulak Prasad's hands, works the same way. He does not make many buys. In a whole year he might buy very, very few businesses - sometimes he adds almost nothing new. Each decision is slow, careful, and heavily studied, like Kabir's aim. And once he has bought a good business, he holds it for a long, long time and lets it keep growing - he does not sell it just to go buy the next exciting thing.

His reason is beautifully simple: every decision is a chance to make a mistake. If you make a hundred decisions, you get a hundred chances to be wrong. If you make five, you only get five. Fewer decisions means fewer mistakes. This study is about the quiet power of doing very little, very carefully.

Most people think a good investor is busy - always finding new shares, always buying and selling, always doing something. Prasad thinks almost the opposite. He believes that each time you make a decision, you take a small risk of getting it wrong. So the way to make fewer mistakes is to make fewer decisions. Not lazy decisions - careful ones - but few.

There is a second half to this. When Prasad does buy a good business, he lets his winners run. That means: if a business he owns keeps doing well, he does not sell it just because it went up, and he does not swap it for something new and shiny. He holds on, sometimes for a decade or more, and lets a good business keep growing his money. Many investors do the opposite - they sell their winners quickly to "book profit" and hold onto their losers hoping they recover. Prasad flips this: hold the winners, and be very slow to disturb them.

Put the two halves together and you get a strange, calm picture of an investor. He spends most of his time reading and thinking, not buying and selling. He acts rarely. When he acts, it is a big, careful, well-aimed decision. And then he mostly sits still and lets the good businesses do their work. Fewer throws, better aim, and he keeps the balls that hit the target instead of throwing them away.

Why does this work? Because in investing, being busy is not the same as being useful. Every buy and sell has costs - fees, taxes, and the risk of a mistake. Activity feels productive but often just adds mistakes and costs. Stillness feels lazy but often protects your money. By making very few decisions, Prasad keeps his mistake count low, his costs low, and lets the slow growth of good businesses do the winning.

illustrative Two investors, Priya and Rohan, each start with ₹1,00,000 and each are equally smart at picking businesses.

Priya makes very few decisions. Over ten years she buys just a handful of good businesses, all chosen carefully, and then mostly leaves them alone. Because she acts rarely, she rarely makes a mistake, and she pays almost nothing in fees and taxes. Her good businesses grow steadily. After ten years, her ₹1,00,000 has become roughly ₹5,00,000. She spent most of those ten years doing nothing at all.

Rohan is busy. He makes dozens of decisions every year - buying, selling, chasing the next idea. Each year, a couple of his many decisions turn out to be mistakes, because more decisions means more chances to slip. He also sells his winners early to "book profit," then watches them keep rising without him. And every trade costs fees and taxes, which quietly nibble his money. All this activity drags his growth down. After ten years, his ₹1,00,000 is about ₹2,40,000 - less than half of Priya's, even though he was just as clever.

The difference was not brains. It was the number of decisions. Rohan gave himself hundreds of chances to be wrong and to pay costs; Priya gave herself only a few. Fewer, better-aimed decisions - and the patience to keep the winners - did the rest.

Few decisions means each one carries huge weight. If you only make five big decisions in ten years, then getting even one badly wrong hurts a lot, because so much of your money rides on each. Making few decisions does not remove risk - it concentrates it. This only works if the few decisions are genuinely careful and well-studied. Few and sloppy is the worst of both worlds.

"Hold the winners" is not "hold everything forever." Letting winners run is wise while the business stays healthy. But if a business you own truly breaks - the owners turn dishonest, the profits fall apart for real reasons - then refusing to ever sell becomes stubbornness, not patience. Doing very little is right for a business that is still good, not for one that has genuinely gone bad.

Doing nothing is emotionally very hard. When everyone around you is trading and boasting, sitting still with the same few businesses for years feels boring, even foolish. You will be tempted to "just do something." That itch to act is exactly what this rule is fighting. Knowing you should stay still is not the same as being able to, especially when a price is falling and your hands want to move.

Indian markets push hard the other way. Trading apps reward you for tapping buy and sell; tips and news arrive every hour; and being busy feels like being a "serious" investor. Prasad's rule is a quiet rebellion against all that: make very few buys, choose them with real care, and then mostly leave them alone for years. This does not need clever tools - it needs the discipline to not act, which for most people is the hardest skill of all. Note the honest limit too: because you are making so few decisions, each one matters enormously, so this approach only works if you truly do the deep homework first and only buy businesses you understand well. Fewer decisions is a strength only when each of the few is careful; it becomes a danger the moment even one of them is careless.

• Count your decisions, and aim for few. Every buy and sell is a chance to be wrong and to pay costs. Fewer, better-aimed decisions beat many restless ones.
• Make each decision slow and careful. Few decisions only works if each is deeply studied. Never confuse "few" with "quick" or "lazy."
• Let your winners run. If a business you own stays healthy and keeps growing, do not sell it just because it went up or because something newer looks exciting.
• Notice the itch to act. When you feel you must "do something," ask if the business changed or only your mood did. Usually it is the mood.
• Remember each of the few carries weight. Because you act rarely, one bad decision hurts a lot - so only buy businesses you truly understand.