For some people there is no good time like the bad times...

There are some people who make it their business to predict doom. In market parlance they are called bears. Some names that come to my mind are Dr. Marc Faber (economist), Daniel Stelter (BCG's Bear-in-residence) and Shankar Sharma, closer home. I am sure there are many more...

Going by the passion with which they predict doom, calling them bears would be an understatement. Don't beleive me, then you should visit Dr. Marc Fabers website. By the way it is called www.gloomboomdoom.com. Please note the inconspicuous boom sandwiched between the overwhelming gloom and doom. If that were not enough the home page displays the paintings titled "The Dance of Death", if you please. No prizes for guessing where i got the visual for this post from.

Keeping my personal emotions aside, if i wear my branding hat, i think that being identified as the harginger of negative news is a sound personal branding strategy. In the good times the individual is a contrarian and therefore stands out. In the bad times the individual is touted as the wise man who saw it coming while nobody was willing to listen.

Mind you it is not an easy path to tread. There is a thin line between a genius and the bad guy. And it takes a lot of character, intelligence, hard-work and genuine beleif in the predictions, to really pull it off.