William P. Green
As a journalist and for this book, William Green interacted with over forty marquee investors – from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger to Jack Bogle, Sir John Templeton, Howard Marks, Nick Sleep & Qais Zakaria, and many others whom I encountered for the first time. With access to not just their behaviour and rituals, but even their homes, relationships and deepest philosophies, Green is able to glean insights and synthesise them into great lessons for investing, and to some extent, life.
There are fantastic stories – Mohnish Pabrai’s relentless cloning, John Templeton’s cold remorseless discipline (in evaluations of others and self), his willingness to be lonely, and that amazing ‘short’ during the dot-com boom and bust when he was in his late eighties(!), Howard Marks’ lessons of humility from Japanese Buddhism, Eveillard’s view on not depending on the kindness of strangers (amen), McLennan’s appreciation for entropy being the ironclad rule of the universe, Greenblatt’s preference of a sensible and good enough strategy over an optimal one, Tom Gayner’s approach of small, incremental advances over long stretches of time, Geritz’s ‘price of a hotel room’ heuristic in a country she’s considering for investments, Kahn’s prudent thoughts on preserving wealth, and Munger’s principles for avoiding idiocy, and his seminal lesson to Buffett- ‘It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.’ And yes, omnipresent is the towering godfather whose influence is visible in many conversations – Benjamin Graham.
Their philosophical inspirations range from Vivekananda and Buddha to Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus to Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). The great truths, as Green mentions, are deceptively simple, but few have the wisdom, the focus, and the nerve to create and apply their philosophy, while subtracting everything else, over extended periods of time.
After I finished reading, I wondered whether there is an over-indexing on richer, then wiser, and only then happier. Why is this important? While money definitely is not a guarantor of happiness, and people can be wise and happy even while not being rich, both wisdom and happiness have its own mindset play and a line of thinking and doing, to achieve it. It isn’t that it doesn’t get a mention. Many investors do bring up their philosophical inspirations and the books they read, in addition to fitness, mental health, family and relationships, ‘purpose’, but the focus is clearly on investing. In my case, I have realised that I need to be financially secure for me to get (what I currently think is) my gateway to happiness – freedom, from the opinion of others, and time (which they use to read). This is interestingly a common point that I share with at least a couple of investors. That’s encouraging!
Favourite quotes
‘Hope is not a method‘ ~ Jeffrey Gundlach
‘Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.’ ~ Demosthenes
