For wealth creation, doing  a business or as it is more fashionable to call it these days, being an entrepreneur is undoubtedly the best route. And it is the best by a wide margin.

In the pecking order of wealth creation, investing in businesses comes second. While investments could be in listed and unlisted companies, the listed entities which comprise the stock market have a special charm. The stock market to my mind is meritocracy at its best. It offers a platform where you are on level terms with everyone else, big or small. The liquidity ensures for most parts that you can enter and exit businesses at very little transaction and impact costs. As in every successful meritocracy, it is easy to see who did well and who did not. It is all there in the annualised returns. A simple transparent measure.

The stock market offers you the opportunity to choose your partner in business. For example, if I buy shares of  any company, I stand to make the same  percentage returns on my invested amount as the promoter of the company  will make on his shareholding. Is this not tremendously exciting? Where else in the world can you hitch your fortunes to the best businessmen in the country for as little as even Rs. 5000. Think about it. It is truly amazing. The liquidity and no capital gains tax are merely the icing on the cake

So, what are you waiting for, go and get into business with the best. Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, Ajay Piramal or someone lesser known today, the choice is yours.