Do you get upset or nervous about the stock market’s reaction to Nutanix earnings?
One of my favorite words in life is a Japanese word called ‘gaman.’ It means endurance and perseverance and patience. A business building and a company building is all about that. Our subscription transition, getting out of the hardware business, going upmarket to our large customers—all these things are part of the journey in building a very large business.
At the end of the day, if you look back at all these other companies that went on to become larger over time, they had to go through this. Look at Microsoft’s stock from 1991 to 1994—it basically hovers around $1.70 to $2.95 per share in those three years. Look at Adobe’s stock from 2010 to 2014. Look at Red Hat’s stock from 2010 to 2014. You have to walk on fire to really build a large business. Where we are with our $2 billion to go to $3 billion, we’ll be crossing yet another chasm. I don’t bemoan this. I think it is all par for the course. Most of the world should be, by definition, a naysayer because they’re like, ‘How could you become a larger company over time?’ We just have to keep our heads down, work on things that are in our control and not worry about what we’re not in control of.
