Real innovators don't earn profits.

Call this the "law of the pioneer." For all the talk of the riches to be gained by those who dominate new high-tech businesses, the stubborn truth is that trailblazers rarely get rich. Think of the first car-makers in the early 1900s. Or the first movie studios around the same time. Or the initial wave of airline companies after World War II. Or the postwar mainframe makers. Or the first PC suppliers in the 1970s. Or makers of database software in the 1980s. All these companies were in the right industry at the right time, yet precious few earned money.

This lesson is worth remembering in our time of turmoil in tech stocks. In the hoopla over the New Economy, many forget that pioneers pay a price, just as they did in the Old Economy. Successful innovators are like Moses, who led his people through the wilderness but never reached the Promised Land.Many innovators never get to the Promised Land either, which in the terms of the market means their low profits ultimately translate into low stock values.