I was ugly from about sixth grade all the way through high school. The worst was in high school. I had braces, acne, glasses and dark curly hair. I didn't play any sports – my only real hobby was playing chess and I read a lot of comic books.

Basically, no girl was chasing me. I used to pretend my television was a computer that could tell me which girl in my classes was in love with me. The TV knew but it didn't know how to output the answer to me, so I just waited.

I asked out one girl in ninth grade and she walked away as quickly as she could without even responding. I remember another guy came up to her right then and asked her: “Do you need help?” That was the end of my attempts at dating in high school. I didn't attend any prom and held my breath until college where things got much better, only to get better still in graduate school and then “the real world”. www.liuxuepaper.com

Everybody wants to look good. It doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter how funny – or how rich. Although all of these things compensate to an extent. Not to belittle this compensation. Sometimes you don't want to go out with or marry the most beautiful person because they never compensated in these other ways. They might not be funny, for instance, or they might not be kind or sympathetic to others. Sometimes the teasing in the school playground is the best training ground for life. But maybe I'm just telling myself that.

In any case, the plight of those who don't look good has been hurt by the shrinking work week. In 1900, the average work week was 60 hours as many people worked 12 hours a day, five days a week in factories. Now the average work week is 35 hours.

And believe me, people don't work 35 hours a week. They instant message each other at least 10 hours, take lunch breaks for another 10 hours, and hang out in meetings for another 10 hours a week. The average person who works in an office probably works about five hours a week. That means they have more free time, more social time, more hours per week where they need to look good.

There are lots of way to attack this trend from a stock market perspective; we can look at fitness clubs, obesity stocks, botox stocks, breast implant stocks. Or women's legs. It's important to note also that the size of the demographic of “women aged 45-55” increases every year by about 1m people. In other words, regardless of the economy, there's another potential 1m customers for companies that cater to helping women in this demographic look good. So let's look at some of these companies.

Venus Medical Technologies. The company specialises in non-invasive, outpatient treatment of varicose veins, which plague women in their 40s and 50s. About 25m people in the US suffer from varicose veins and another 40m in western Europe. In 2006, 1.2m sought treatment for the condition. The reason so few seek treatment is that it often involves painful invasive surgery (removing the vein in question) with many potential side-effects.

The Venus procedure is to give the patient an “RF Generator”, which provides the power and monitoring for a disposable catheter that heats the vein. The disposable catheters generate recurring revenues for the company. Out of the estimated 65m people with varicose vein conditions, only about 90,000 have used the company's procedure for treatment. This company is potentially the Starbucks of women's legs once it starts to expand its demographic reach. Revenues have gone up every year since it first started selling the product in 1999.

Syneron Medical is another company in the sector.

Syneron also uses radio frequency (RF) energy to deliver heat layers of the skin below the epidermis, avoiding burning associated with other skin treatments. With this device the company can constantly monitor the level of heat and energy that is being applied to an area and adjust accordingly. Its treatments have been used for wrinkles, leg veins, acne, cellulite and a host of other cosmetic solutions.

Revenue has gone up every year since 2001. I also like that the company is sitting on $167m in cash, no debt, and only a market capitalisation of $444m – so almost half of its market cap is in cash.

从六年级开始，一直到中学毕业，我都很丑。最糟糕的莫过于上中学的时候。我戴着牙套、起着痘痘、架着眼镜，还有一头黑色的羊毛卷。我不参加任何体育运动——我唯一真正的爱好是下棋，还看过不少漫画书。

基本上没有女生追我。我常常假装我的电视是一台电脑，能告诉我班上哪个女生爱上了我。电视知道答案，却不知道如何把答案输给我，所以我只有等待。

九年级的时候，我开口请一个女孩外出，她以自己最快的速度走开了，一声也没吱。我记得就在那时候，有一个家伙走过去问她：“你需要帮忙吗？”我中学时的约会尝试就此终结。我没有参加过任何班级舞会，一直夹着尾巴做人，直到上了大学，情况才有所好转，到了读研，然后进入“现实世界”的时候，情况有了进一步的好转。

每个人都希望自己好看。不管你多聪明，不管多有趣、或者多有钱——尽管这些都可以起到一定的弥补作用。不要小看这些弥补因素。有时候，你并不想跟最漂亮的人约会或结婚，因为他们在其它方面实在不行。比如说，他们也许索然无味，或者对其他人不和蔼、没有同情心。有时候，在学校操场上遭人揶揄也是最佳的生活磨练。但或许我只是在安慰自己。

无论如何，每周工作时间不断缩减，让不好看的人雪上加霜。1900年，每周平均工作时间是60小时，很多人每天在工厂里工作12小时，每周工作5天。现在，每周平均工作时间是35小时。

相信我，人们不是每周工作35小时。他们至少每周有10个小时在网上聊天，10个小时午休，再有10个小时出去开会。在办公室工作的人可能一般每周工作大约5小时。这意味着，他们有更多的闲暇时间、更多的社交时间、每周有更多的时间需要打扮自己。

从股市的视角来看，要迎接这种潮流有很多方法。我们可以关注健身俱乐部、减肥股、肉毒素股、丰胸股。或者关注女人的腿。我要强调指出，“45到55岁女性”的人口每年会增加约100万人。换句话说，甭管经济怎么样，那些帮助这些女人变得好看的公司都会增加100万潜在客户。所以，让我们关注一下这些公司吧。

Venus Medical Technologies公司。这家公司专门对静脉曲张进行非侵入式门诊治疗。这种病症困扰着四五十岁的女性。美国约有2500万人患有静脉曲张，西欧有4000万患者。2006年，有120万人为此求医。求医人数之所以这么少，是因为治疗通常要采用痛苦的侵入式外科手术（切除有问题的静脉），而且可能产生很多副作用。

Venus的治疗方法是向患者提供“高频发生器(RF Generator)”，为一根给静脉加热的一次性导管提供动力并进行监控。一次性导管为该公司带来了源源不断的收入。在估计高达6500万的静脉曲张患者中，目前只有大约9万人采用了这家公司的疗法。一旦该公司开始扩大患者面，就有可能成为“女人的腿”这个领域的星巴克(Starbucks)。自1999年开始出售这种产品以来，该公司的收入每年都在增长。

Syneron Medical是这个行业的另一家公司。

Syneron公司也使用无线电频率(RF)能量，向表皮下的皮肤层输入热量，避免其它皮肤治疗方法带来的烧伤。通过这种装置，Syneron公司可以不间断地监控向某一区域施加的热量与能量水平，并做出相应调整。这种治疗方法可用于皱纹、腿部静脉、粉刺、脂肪团，以及其它各种美容解决方案。

自2001年以来，Syneron公司的收入每年都在增长。还有一个我喜欢的地方是，这家公司坐拥1.67亿美元现金，没有负债，市值只有4.44亿美元——因此其市值的近一半都是现金。