Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World's Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life

by William Green

From a renowned financial journalist comes a fresh, “engaging” (The New York Times), and profound book that draws on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with many of the world’s super-investors to demonstrate that key insights for building wealth apply to life as well.

Billionaire investors. If we think of them, it’s with a mixture of awe and suspicion. Clearly, they possess a kind of genius—the proverbial Midas Touch. But are the skills they possess transferable? And do they have anything to teach us besides making money?

In Richer, Wiser, Happier, William Green draws on interviews that he’s conducted over twenty-five years with many of the world’s greatest investors. As he discovered, their talents extend well beyond the financial realm. The most successful investors are mavericks and iconoclasts who question conventional wisdom and profit vastly from their ability to think more rationally, rigorously, and objectively. They are master game players who consciously maximize their odds of long-term success in markets and life, while also minimizing any risk of catastrophe. They draw powerful insights from many different fields, are remarkably intuitive about trends, practice fanatical discipline, and have developed a high tolerance for pain. As Green explains, the best investors can teach us not only how to become rich, but how to improve the way we think, reach decisions, assess risk, avoid costly errors, build resilience, and turn uncertainty to our advantage.

Green ushers us into the lives of more than forty super-investors, visiting them in their offices, homes, and even their places of worship—all to share what they have to teach. From Sir John Templeton to Charlie Munger, Jack Bogle to Ed Thorp, Will Danoff to Mohnish Pabrai, Bill Miller to Laura Geritz, Joel Greenblatt to Howard Marks. In explaining how they think and why they win, this “unexpectedly illuminating” (Peter Diamandis) book provides “many nuggets of wisdom” (The Washington Post) that will enrich you both financially and personally.

Genres: Finance, Business, Nonfiction, Economics, Money, Personal Finance, Self Help

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

William Green is the author of "Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World's Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life." The book is being translated into 23 languages. Green is also the host of the "Richer, Wiser, Happier" podcast. He has written for many publications, including Time, Fortune, Forbes, The New Yorker, and The Economist. He edited the Asian edition of Time while living in Hong Kong, then moved to London to edit the European, Middle Eastern, and African editions of Time. As an editor and ghostwriter, he has collaborated on several books, including two #1 NYT bestsellers. Born and raised in London, he studied English literature at Oxford and journalism at Columbia. He lives in New York with his wife, Lauren, and they have two adult children, Henry and Madeleine.

Reviews

[Liong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like what Van Den Berg mentioned that Prosperity takes all of these into consideration:

HEALTH

WEALTH

HAPPINESS

PEACE OF MIND

That’s what a prosperity person is, not just a lot of money.

[Frederic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was less useful than I had hoped in describing investment techniques, but also more useful in an unexpected way. There's a lot of helpful psychological discussion here about the mindset required to be a good investor and a happier person.

Author Green's writing style is a bit melodramatic and annoying at times, as when he constantly starts sentences with "Still", which he seems not to understand contradicts the previous sentence and clearly didn't intend to do.

As Green points out, most professional investors collect material fees but fail to outperform their indexes. Of the portfolio managers I met during my career, only a handful were so impressive that I'd have given them my own funds to invest. Many professional investors were so convinced of their own genius that they were incapable of listening, even to visiting company CEOs or analysts with whom they'd agreed to meet and who could have really helped them if the PM had shut up for five minutes and just listened. The best fund managers show humility and curiosity. They're independent and have their own approach, but are always open to new ideas.

Green parrots some of his interviewees in being completely dismissive of the brokerage industry, which, while it houses its share of prostitutes and parasites, also employs many smart people, some of whom have great investment insights and help their clients make money. He also talks breezily about Munger and Buffett buying overlooked, highly profitable, simple, predictable businesses at fair prices, but one wonders where in 2021's wildly overpriced stock market one finds such undiscovered unicorns. It's this crucial question Green leaves unanswered.

Green profiles a dozen or so famous investors, including Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's longtime business partner, John Templeton, Bill Miller, Joel Greenblatt, Nick Sleep and several of the star Fidelity managers, including Jeff Vinik and Will Danoff. For some reason, the narrator of the audio book version I read chose to mimic John Templeton's southern accent, but not anyone else's way of speaking.

Though these investors have widely varied styles, they seem to share fierce independence, supreme confidence and a mastery of their own emotions. Some of them, like self described "Buffett cloner" Monish Pabrai , seem obnoxious to the point of sociopathy.

Knowing that, for example, Miller was a growth investor, while Greenblatt and others were various shades of Value, Deep Value and Growth at a Reasonable Price(GARP), I would have appreciated much more detail on the various guru's investment methods, but the book was entertaining and philosophically thought provoking. This would be a decent book for beginners looking to establish a useful mind set for investing.

For a meatier yet entertaining discussion of investment techniques, try Peter Lynch and Joel Greenblatt's books. Start with "One Up on Wall Street" and "The Little Book that Still Beats the Market". Jeremy Siegel's "Stocks for the Long Run" and Robin Speziale's "Market Masters" are also good.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book struggles to say something new, especially at the beginning. The first few chapters (or at least the chapters focused on the biggest investors) are summaries of other, more famous biographies.

But the chapters about the lesser known success stories like Nick Sleep and Thomas Gayner are incredible. Such terrific views on stoicism, building strong habits, living within your means both financially and mentally. I was really blown away by the final third of this book and will read it again

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alas, now I don't feel so alone for driving a 20 year-old car and resisting upgrading to a luxury vehicle. I don't feel as silly for being attached to the home I grew up in. This was such a captivating read, I really couldn't put it down. I thought it would be full of cliche concepts that I already knew, but it was so interesting to hear the origin stories of different renowned investors. I also appreciated that he included one female investor. This book is also very recent and up to date with commentary on COVID-19 and the investing approach in relation to the pandemic. Very informative and inspirational book that I can definitely relate to. The author also mentions several other books within this book, which I now want to look up and read.

[Brad Bevers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this one, neck and neck with the The Psychology of Money for the best book on investing that I have read this year. The author distills the wisdom from dozens of great investors and presents their principles in an easy to read way. Personally, I love reading about how much these mega-investors love to learn and read themselves. Many of them spend five or six hours a day reading, often in diverse subjects. Besides reading, another common theme I enjoyed reading about is how many of them started off by learning how to gamble. Mohnish Pabrai is covered in the first chapter, and one of his life goals is to be banned by Las Vegas Casinos for counting cards too well.

My favorite chapters are the ones on Pabrai, Charlie Munger, Joel Greenblatt, and Nick Sleep. But, they are all really good and you will find some wonderful advice here. In a book dedicated to value investing, a process that involves finding things that offer incredible returns for the time and money invested, I can wholeheartedly recommend that buying and reading this book may be one of the best investments you can make.

[Milan · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Green has taken a bunch of great investors and turned their lives into inspiring stories. The stories are not just about investing but also about how to live life according to your values. It was great to find some names that I've not heard before and I'm going to dig deep into these not very well-known but amazing investors. The book really lives up to its name - Richer, Wiser, Happier.

[Paaras · Rating 4 out of 5]

or how to think of living a good life.

This book is an introduction to the world of fund managers of many varieties. It was recommended by many value investors. I thought I would learn about investing. More than investing, I learnt lessons on how these investors like living their lives. It was instructive that most of them had a similar value set. The author explicitly stated that he chose the investors with his bias, but it was interesting nonetheless.

I enjoyed 3 parts of the book the most:
1. Tom Gayner
2. Charles Munger
3. The Epilogue

I resonated with Gayner. Munger gave great food for thought (I want to read more from him now). The epilogue was a philosophical outro that somehow tied into investing.

The book is accessible to a large audience. It also provides a long list of book recommendations that I now want to read. I would only really recommend the book to people interested in value investing.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richer, Wiser, Happier is one of the more enjoyable books I've ever read. The author, William Green, profiles eight investors and provides timeless lessons on what made these individuals successful. While the investment philosophies of these great investors are explored, what I liked most about Richer, Wiser, Happier is how William Green dissected life lessons and decision patterns from these legends. Anyone interested in becoming a better investor and person who love this book - I enjoyed all of the chapters, but my favorite is Nick & Zak's excellent adventure. As it relates to the various interviews in this book, here are the key lessons I took away from each investor/chapter (many of these are quotes from the book):

1. Mohnish Pabrai: "Rule 1: Clone like crazy. Rule 2: Hang out with people who are better than you. Rule 3: Treat life as a game, not as a survival contest or a battle to the death. Rule 4: Be in alignment with who you are; don’t do what you don’t want to do or what’s not right for you. Rule 5: Live by an inner scorecard; don’t worry about what others think of you; don’t be defined by external validation."

2. John Templeton: "Templeton didn’t just master the markets. He mastered himself. He took responsibility for every aspect of his life, including his time, money, health, thoughts, and emotions. This required extraordinary self-discipline. We don’t often celebrate self-discipline. It’s such an old-fashioned and fusty virtue. But Templeton triumphed by taking self-discipline to an extreme."

3. Howard Marks: "The importance of admitting that we can’t predict or control the future. The benefits of studying the patterns of the past and using them as a rough guide to what could happen next. The inevitability that cycles will reverse and reckless excess will be punished. The possibility of turning cyclicality to our advantage by behaving countercyclically. The need for humility, skepticism, and prudence in order to achieve long-term financial success in an uncertain world."

4. Jean-Marie Eveillard/Matthew McLennan: "What remains after McLennan’s painstaking process of elimination? A “resilient core” of unusually persistent, conservatively managed, well-capitalized, undervalued businesses that are likely to thrive even in a Darwinian ecosystem where nothing lives forever."

5. Joel Greenblatt: "Your strategy should be so simple and logical that you understand it, believe in it to your core, and can stick with it even in the difficult times when it no longer seems to work. The strategy must also suit your tolerance for pain, volatility, and loss. It helps to write down the strategy, the principles upon which it stands, and why you expect it to work over time."

6. Nick Sleep and Zakaria: Look for information with a long shelf life, what is the intended destination for a business over the next 10 years and look for companies with scale economies shared (i.e. share scale advantage with customers over time).

7. Tom Gayner: "It’s the aggregation of marginal gains that’s so powerful. Moreover, the modest benefits generated by smart habits continue to compound over many years. In the short run, all those tiny, incremental advances seem insignificant. But time is the enemy of bad habits and the friend of good habits. When you pound away year after year, decade after decade, the cumulative effect is stunning. Indeed, what sets Gayner apart is one indispensable trait: he is the king of constancy."

8. Charlie Munger: "I tell Munger that I regard him as “the Grand Master of Stupidity Reduction,” and I ask him why he focuses so much attention on avoiding common errors and predictable patterns of irrationality. “Because it works,” he says. “It works. It’s counterintuitive that you go at the problem backward. If you try and be smart, it’s difficult. If you just go around and identify all of the disasters and say, ‘What caused that?’ and try to avoid it, it turns out to be a very simple way to find opportunities and avoid troubles.”

Additionally, throughout all of the chapters, William Green also sprinkles additional interviews with great such as Bill Miller and Will Danoff. Again, this is a fantastic read to learn the lessons/decisions that have made these investment greats.

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life, by William Green. I enjoyed it a lot. It is written in a very conversational style. It essentially consists of several interviews that Green conducted with a variety of successful investors. There is a recurring theme that most of them do not seem to really believe they have some special sauce, some core insight, or special talent (or high IQ). In other words, most of them just feel like they are (or were) really lucky, and that they are just able to get out of their own way. How so? They try not to be too emotional, they don’t follow the herd, they don’t allow ideology to distort their cognition, they accept they will often make bad bets, and they try to inform themselves as much as possible to generate principles of decision making that can be tested and honed to transcend the chaos and irrationality of the market. If anything, they all seemed related to/disciples of the Stoics, those ancient masters of that gap between stimulus and reaction.

There are eight chapters, and each chapter incorporates interviews with a lot of investors. Each chapter focuses on a specific pattern or lesson. Let me briefly highlight each chapter.

The first chapter, “The Man Who Cloned Warren Buffett,” is pretty silly due to how simple it is (i.e. it’s a “duh” sort of chapter): it’s about how you should find successful people and emulate them. Get over yourself, acknowledge they are succeeding, and then do what they are doing. There is nothing original under the sun, and you, also, are under the sun.

The next chapter, “The Willingness to Be Lonely,” is all about keeping your distance from group thinking. The crowd/herd acts in certain toxic ways, and so, in order to be successful (at least in the markets) you can’t be part of that ridiculousness. The crowd is reactive, emotional, and irrational, and often acts against its best interests, steered by ideology and cognitive distortions.

Chapter 3, “Everything Changes,” is about not trying to hang onto past successes, and making sure to acknowledge that what might have worked in the past might not continue to work in the future. This is kind of a misnamed chapter, because it also points out the inverse, i.e. that as much as things do indeed change, they will probably also stay the same in certain large ways. For example, Green looks at people who didn’t sell during the Housing Crisis or the Pandemic downswings, and how just acknowledging how the world hasn’t ended yet has allowed some people to not only endure but rise to the top. It kind of harmonizes with the previous chapter about the crowd.

The fourth chapter, “The Resilient Investor,” is essentially a basic idea: invest in things that are stable, provide value, and that are undervalued, i.e. genuine bargains. It’s kind of obvious, but he spends time in this chapter showing how investors often get distracted by flashy companies or trends (e.g. the Dot Com bubble).

Chapter five, “Simplicity Is the Ultimate Sophistication,” is mostly about John Bogle and index fund investing, and how beating the market is really hard, and not trying to beat the market--being the casino and not the gambler--is always an option; this he relates to the idea of a simple portfolio that you understand as a best practice.

Chapter 6, “Nick and Zak’s Excellent Adventure,” is about not trying to make a quick buck but being slow and deliberate, and staying the course. He gives some examples of investors who invested in companies they knew would do well and did so with the long haul in mind, i.e. 10, 20 years, i.e. slow incremental growth.

Chapter 7, “High Performance Habits,” is about how you need to find the market in the self, the microcosmic of the personal/self blended with the macrocosmic of the market. In other words, he looks at investors’ daily lives, and shows how they limit the amount of information they consume, protect themselves from distractions, and dedicate time to self-care and personal growth, and how this is not just a luxury separate from their success but a fundamental aspect of it.

The final chapter, “Don’t Be a Fool,” is mostly a profile of Charlie Munger, who proceeded through his investment career with the idea that he, himself, wasn’t that uniquely smart, and because of that lack, he needed to just avoid acting in stupid ways. It is such an obvious idea that it’s difficult to see its originality and importance: in essence, don’t try and be the smartest guy in the room, just try not to be stupid, not to act in stupid ways. Being smart isn’t about knowing all the answers to questions but avoiding certain kinds of reactive behaviors and thought processes.

This is an intriguing book. It is not really accurately described as an investment manual or a self-help book, business psychology or biography, but kind of an eclectic mixture of all of these genres. I appreciated Green’s prose style, and his incorporation of himself and his experiences as a character.

[Sanford Chee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interview w/ author 8 Apr 2021
http://www.investingbythebooks.com/co...

TIP podcast
https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/e...

Conversion w/ Guy Spier
https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast...

Meet my investment heroes:
1. @MohnishPabrai
http://www.chaiwithpabrai.com/blog
TIP interview Jun 2022
https://youtu.be/a8AwDBppM2o

2. Sir John Templeton, Master of Self-Discipline

3. Howard Marks
https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insigh...
TIP interview Mar 2022
https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast...

4. Jean-Marie Eveillard & his disciple Matthew McLennan
https://www.feim.com/overview

5. Joel Greenblatt
https://www.magicformulainvesting.com...

6. Nick Sleep & Qais Zakaria
https://igyfoundation.org.uk/wp-conte...
Quality from 'Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'
“You really want to do everything with quality as that is where the satisfaction and peace is.” -Nick Sleep
Scale economics shared

7. Tom Gaynor
TIP interview w/ Tom Gaynor of Markel
https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast...

https://www.markel.com/

8. Charlie Munger
How not to be stupid:
i) invert: imagine the bad outcome & work backwards to avoid those misguided actions tt might leas you to tt sorry fate.
ii) collect case studies of inanities; study other people’s mistakes & learn fr them. Learn fr your own mistakes but better if you can learn vicariously fr others’ mistakes w/o having to commit your own.
iii) Do what works. Avoid that which doesn’t work. Don’t repeat the same mistakes.
iv) checklists & SOP
v) seek out disconfirming evidence tt might disprove your most cherished beliefs
vi) Devil’s advocate; understand the other side of the trade; premortem; why might I be wrong?
vii) HALT-PS watch out for emotions/situations tt hurt rational decision making: Hunger, Anger, Loneliness, Tiredness - Pain, Stress. Don’t make decisions under HALT-PS conditions
viii) meditate, exercise, sleep & nutrition + contemplation. Habits, hobbies, lifestyle & environment tt foster equanimity & calmness
Charlie Munger on the Psychology of Human Misjudgment
https://fs.blog/great-talks/psycholog...
Celebrating Charlie Munger -William Green
https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast...

Other heroes:
Ed Thorpe - playing an unfair game; “May the odds be ever in your favour.”
Tim Ferriss interview 25 May 2022
https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast...
A Man for All Markets
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Laura Geritz, Rondure Global
https://www.rondureglobal.com/our-people

Arnold Van Den Berg
If you're life is >impt than your principles, you sacrifice your principles. But if your principles are >impt than your life, you sacrifice your life.
Ref: James Allen, 'From Poverty to Power'
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Take responsibility for your own mental state. Become a lifelong explorer of wisdom.
+ve affirmations: "I'm a loving person"
"I'm the richest guy in the world because I'm content with what I have."
Most prized possession = collection of heartfelt letters from people I have helped.
"The pleasure you get out of knowing you've made a difference in peoples' lives - that's something that nobody can take away from you. I could lose all my $, & I could still go to these files & say, 'Well, it's not like I lived my life for nothing. Look at the people whose lives I've changed.' That's my bank a/c"
TIP podcast May 2022
https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast...

Review by Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outloo...

[Manu]

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 not just insights but 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

[Nopadol Rompho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another interesting book about how great investors do in order to be richer, wiser, and happier. The book worth reading, strongly recommended.

[Max Sarmento · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better financial books I’ve read this year, focusing on interviews of the wealthy. There are some remarkable perspectives, stories, advice, etc given throughout this book by million and billionaires. Solid life and financial goals to live by and views to make you contemplate what you should strive to do. This is a book you can reread multiple times to fully digest these interviews in whole. Highly recommend

[AK · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books on investment that I have read. The book is packed with insight from some of the greatest investor of all time - Sir John Marks Templeton, Charlie Munger, Jack Bogle to Ed Thorp, Will Danoff to Mohnish Pabrai, Bill Miller to Laura Geritz, Joel Greenblatt to Howard Marks.

Some of the insights which can help build a solid portfolio and also good investment habit -
1. All the investor talked about in the book has one thing in common. Most of them are value investor and never gets excited by the high price of the stock.
2. Learn what is that you "need not do" in markets rather than what is that we should do. The concept of 'inversion'.
3. Frugality - all of the investor talked about in the books might be billionaire but they are extremely frugal when it comes to spending.
4. Philanthropy - Giving back to the society is important. You might have made billions but if you are not giving it back, its worthless.
5. Cloning - There is no shame in cloning what someone else is already doing to his best. Mohnish Pabrai for that matter claims that he is a shameless cloner.
6. Odds - Odds is all that matters whether its about investment or life. When the odds are in your favor, you should go all out.

A must read for every investor and one should read this one again and again !!

[Zhou Fang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really speaks to me. It embodies many of the principles I've come to value immensely. The title is a bit silly and reeks of self-help clickbait. But if this is a self-help book, it's the best one I've ever read. Often, it's said that what distinguishes the greatest investors is their temperament. William Green essentially wrote a series of profiles on some of the world's greatest investors and focused on what defines their temperament. This is the only book I know of that focuses specifically on this subject. The book contains a collection of personal life philosophies practiced by some very unique individuals. Some of the key themes:

1. Investing is a game where we must conscientiously and consistently try to maximize our odds of success, or tilt the odds in our favor

2. “We jump to conclusions when we shouldn’t,” [Ed Thorp] observed. “And so withholding judgment is, I think, a key element of rational behavior.”

3. Find ways to quickly say no so you spend time on more promising opportunities - Pabrai glances at hundreds of stocks and rapidly rejects almost all of them, often in less than a minute. Buffett is a master of this practice of high-speed sifting. “What he’s looking for is a reason to say no, and as soon as he finds that, he’s done,” says Pabrai. Indeed, Buffett has said, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

4. Don't be ashamed to copy what works from other people - I ask Pabrai why more people don’t clone in his systematic way. Between mouthfuls of a dish called “spicy beef danger,” he replies, “They’re not as shameless as me. They have more ego. To be a great cloner, you have to check your ego at the door.”

5. Get rich slowly, because being in a hurry increases the odds of ruin - “Whatever happened to Rick Guerin?” Buffett had mentioned Guerin’s superb investment record in “The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville.” But Buffett told Pabrai and Spier that Guerin used margin loans to leverage his investments because he was “in a hurry to get rich.” According to Buffett, Guerin was hit with margin calls after suffering disastrous losses in the crash of 1973–74. As a result, he was forced to sell shares (to Buffett) that were later worth an immense fortune.

By contrast, Buffett said that he and Munger were never in a hurry because they always knew they’d become enormously rich if they kept compounding over decades without too many catastrophic mistakes. Over his meal of steak, hash browns, and a Cherry Coke, Buffett said, “If you’re even a slightly above average investor who spends less than you earn, over a lifetime you cannot help but get very wealthy.”

6. The willingness to be lonely - “The easiest way not to be overly influenced by what other people think is not to be that aware of what they think. If you don’t really notice that and don’t really care about what other people think, that will make it easier to be a great investor.” It follows, says Davis, that “a prevalent characteristic in great investors would be low emotional intelligence.”

By contrast, says Davis, you tend to encounter an entirely different psychological profile among CEOs. They require the emotional intelligence to empathize with others, understand their thoughts, and influence them. But for a contrarian investor, it would be “catastrophic if you were constantly burdened by an awareness of what everybody else was thinking about your decision.” In their youth, he adds, many CEOs played team sports, captained a team, or led a fraternity. What about the best investors? “By and large,” says Davis, they favored individual sports such as “running, tennis, golf, or swimming. You won’t get a lot of football, lacrosse, that sort of thing.” (less)

7. Mental strength has to be practiced - In his daily life, he trained himself to focus on “productive thoughts” and “positive emotions” such as love, thanksgiving, service, and the contemplation of “the infinite good within ourselves and others.” Templeton was equally committed to banishing negative thoughts and emotions such as anger, doubt, worry, guilt, fear, hatred, and envy. One technique that he recommended was to replace any negative thought with the statement “I give thanks for the abundance of good in my life.”

What I realize now is that Templeton’s habits of positive thinking and prayer must have helped enormously in his battle to gain control over his thoughts and emotions. For an investor who specialized in taking unpopular positions, that mental strength was a powerful advantage. By contrast, my own mind was hopelessly undirected, and it was easy for me to get swamped by feelings such as fear, doubt, regret, greed, impatience, jealousy, and pessimism—all of which complicate the challenge of making rational investment decisions.

8. If you are not humble, the market will humble you - As the Athenian playwright Euripides warned nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, “How can you think yourself a great man when the first accident that comes along can wipe you out completely?”

“It’s frightening to think that you might not know something, but more frightening to think that, by and large, the world is run by people who have faith that they know exactly what’s going on.” - Kahneman

9. Change is inevitable but is not itself the problem; it's our yearning for things to stay the same - If the Buddha had been a hedge fund manager, he might have pointed out that change itself is not ultimately the problem. Rather, we doom ourselves to suffer—both in investing and life—when we expect or yearn for things to stay the same. The real problem is this habit of clinging to or relying on what cannot last. As Buddhism teaches, we need to acknowledge the transience of all worldly phenomena so we won’t be surprised or dismayed when change occurs. Shunryu Suzuki said, “If we cannot accept this teaching that everything changes, we cannot be in composure.”

10. Resilience and survival is more important to wealth creation than spectacular results - Instead of trying to predict the unpredictable, Marks suggests that we focus on building “unfragile portfolios and unfragile lives” that are unlikely to collapse even in dire conditions. What does that mean for regular investors? “Avoid a lot of debt and leverage,” and don’t let your dreams of a “bonanza” lead you to “expose yourself to the possibility of a catastrophe,” he says. “Not trying to maximize is an important component in preparing for what life may throw at you, and that’s true in investing and living. So the question is, do you push the limits?”

“You want to be structured to participate in the march of mankind, but to survive the dips along the way.”

The paradox is that Eveillard and McLennan hit the ball out of the park without ever swinging for the fences. McLennan attributes their success to a consistent focus on “risk mitigation,” “error elimination,” and “prudent acts of omission.” In essence, “it’s winning by not losing.”

Both professionally and personally, says McLennan, he has often found that “moments of extreme pain” were followed by “new beginnings” and “extremely propitious opportunities.” For example, the late nineties were a brutal time for value investors such as him and Eveillard, “but the early 2000s were a golden age. So, if you were able to endure it, the upside was enormous.” In markets, as in life, so much hinges on our ability to survive the dips.

“Make your mistakes nonfatal,” Gundlach tells me. “It’s so fundamental to longevity. And ultimately, that’s what success is in this business: longevity.”

“You’re going to screw up. The question is, Can you recover?” Graham’s concept of the margin of safety helps you to “contain” your mistakes “so they’re not too big. That’s how you recover.”

“If you’re going to be in this game for the long pull, which is the way to do it, you better be able to handle a fifty percent decline without fussing too much about it. And so my lesson to all of you is, conduct your life so that you can handle the fifty percent decline with aplomb and grace. Don’t try to avoid it. It will come. In fact, I would say if it doesn’t come, you’re not being aggressive enough.”

11. Investing as like gardening or farming rather than hunting - As McLennan describes the process of building a portfolio that can flourish over time, he’s reminded of watching his mother gardening while he was growing up in Australia. There was always a problem. Dry weather. Wilting vines. Bug infestations. He often wondered why she bothered to keep going. It would have been so much easier to let the forest grow or just settle for a lawn that needed mowing once a week. But her care yielded remarkable results over three decades. “What I saw play out over time was the gradual emergence of this beautiful, beautiful garden that took time. It took selectivity. And I think it’s a good metaphor for investing.”

“I call myself a farmer,” says Russo. “Wall Street is flooded with hunters—people who try to go out and find the big game. They fell it and bring it back, and there’s a huge feast and everything is fabulous, and then they look for the next big game. I plant seeds and then I spend all of my time cultivating them.”

12. In order to survive you need a strategy that you can stick to in tough times - The best investors have the discipline not to be swayed by such distractions. As Greenblatt says, “I have a simple way of looking at things that makes sense to me and that I’m going to stick with through thick and thin. That’s it.”

It’s not enough to find a smart strategy that stacks the odds in your favor over the long haul. You also need the discipline and tenacity to apply that strategy consistently, especially when it’s most uncomfortable.

“if you have simple principles that you can just stick to… simple principles that make sense, that are unshakable.” Why is this so critical? Because you need this clarity of thought to withstand all of the psychological pressures, setbacks, and temptations that can destabilize or derail you along the way. “It’s a hard business and the market is not always agreeing with you,” says Greenblatt. “It’s the nature of the beast that stock prices are emotional, and you’re going to be hit from every which way, and you’re going to be reading every expert saying you’re wrong.”

13. Incremental changes compound over long periods of time - Resounding victories tend to be the result of small, incremental advances and improvements sustained over long stretches of time. “If you want the secret to great success, it’s just to make each day a little bit better than the day before,” says Gayner. “There are different ways you can go about doing that, but that’s the story.… Just making progress over and over again is the critical part.”

“If you can continue to satisfy and be reasonable, there’s all kinds of people that are going to fall away along the path, and it’s amazing how high up in the percentile rankings you’ll become,” says Gayner. “I was never the number one at anything. I’ve always just been steady and competent and able. But as my father said, the best ability is dependability. So to do it over and over and over and over again, it keeps you in the game. And it’s amazing how you do sort of become number-oneish over time, just because the competitive field thins out so much.”

When I try to identify the many reasons why Gayner has achieved so much, I’m reminded of a concept that Nick Sleep mentioned to me: “the aggregation of marginal gains.” The phrase was coined by a legendary performance coach, Sir David Brailsford, who turned the British cycling team into an unstoppable force at the Beijing and London Olympics. Those triumphs stemmed not from one major innovation, but a multitude of minor improvements, which combined to create a crushing advantage.

Once again, it’s all about the cumulative effect of many minuscule advantages, which add up miraculously over years: the one extra company that Lynch bothered to visit; the one empty time slot that Danoff insisted on filling; the two or three extra hours of reading that Vinik pushed himself to complete after his kids went to bed. The best predictor of success is often nothing more mysterious than the unflagging fervency of a person’s desire.

14. Addition by subtraction (invert) - First, to be successful and fulfilled, we need to decide what we care about most and be honest with ourselves about what we do best. Second, we need to adopt daily habits that enable us to improve continuously where it truly counts—and to subtract habits that divert us. It’s worth writing down a list of beneficial habits that should be part of our daily routine. But it’s equally valuable to compile a Do Not Do list, reminding us of all the ingenious ways in which we habitually distract or undermine ourselves.

This, then, is the first mental trick we should learn from Munger as a safeguard against stupidity: imagine a dreadful outcome; work backward by asking yourself what misguided actions might lead you to that sorry fate; and then scrupulously avoid that self-destructive behavior.

Tillinghast also steers clear of businesses that are deeply cyclical, heavily indebted, or faddish. He views “promotional management” and “aggressive accounting” as “red flags.” He shuns areas where he has no special insight or skill because nothing is more critical than “staying away from your ignorance.” He also refrains from talking “too publicly or too frequently” about his holdings because that would make it harder to change his mind and admit when he was wrong. And he resists the urge to trade stocks actively, since that would generate onerous transaction costs and taxes, which would erode his returns.

15. Focus on mistakes, both after the fact and before - That willingness to welcome the discovery of our own errors is an inestimable advantage. Munger nurtures it by applauding himself whenever he succeeds in demolishing one of his entrenched beliefs, so that “ignorance removal” becomes a source of satisfaction, not shame. He once remarked, “If Berkshire has made modest progress, a good deal of it is because Warren and I are very good at destroying our own best-loved ideas. Any year that you don’t destroy one of your best-loved ideas is probably a wasted year.”

In 2016, I audited the Advanced Investment Research course at Columbia Business School, which was taught for a decade by Ken Shubin Stein, a friend who was then the chairman of an investment firm called Spencer Capital Holdings. Shubin Stein, who qualified as a doctor before becoming a hedge fund manager, instructed his MBA students to imagine themselves in three years’ time, when an investment of theirs has failed, and to write a newspaper article explaining the cause of death. Another eminent investor told the class that his family office writes a premortem memo as the final precaution before making any investment. The procedure exposes such serious concerns that he rejects one-third of the investments he would otherwise have made.

Devil’s advocate reviews. Premortems. Conversations with a skeptical discussion partner. A cognitive checklist that reminds us of our biggest biases and our past mistakes.

16. Know the impact your mental and physical states have on your decisions - The scientific literature shows that hunger, anger, loneliness, tiredness, pain, and stress are common “preconditions for poor decision making.” So Shubin Stein uses an acronym, HALT-PS, as a reminder to pause when those factors might be impairing his judgment and postpone important decisions until he’s in a state in which his brain is more likely to function well.IV This is our seventh technique for reducing avoidable stupidity.

For example, researchers who studied gambling decisions found that “sadness increased tendencies to favor high-risk, high-reward options, whereas anxiety increased tendencies to favor low-risk, low-reward options.” In other words, our emotional disposition and moods routinely distort what we see and how we relate to risk.

17. You can't control what happens to you, you can control how you react - Mohnish Pabrai remarks that all of the best investors share one indispensable trait: “the ability to take pain.”

As Marcus Aurelius saw it, “the greatest of all contests” is “the struggle not to be overwhelmed by anything that happens.”

Second, there’s great honor in the simple virtue of perseverance. Several years ago, I wrote to Pabrai during a painful period when he was beset with challenges on multiple fronts, including the bankruptcy of one of his largest investments, Horsehead Holdings. He replied, “Marcus Aurelius is my hero here. We cannot see it when it is happening, but facing adversity is a blessing. It eventually leads to higher highs.”

[Joseph Pepe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently heard the author William Green on "The Investor's Podcast" discussing this book, so I decided to give it a read, and I am sure glad I did. Green's book distills timeless lessons from some of the greatest investors over the past century, that he has learned over many years of interviews with the likes of Sir John Templeton, Charlie Munger, Joel Greenblatt, Howard Marks, Mohnish Pobrai, and many others. This should be required reading for anyone interested in investing, behavioral economics, or someone just generally interested in how to live a fulfilling and happy life. I will share some of my main takeaways.

Mohnish Pobrai - Inactivity is OK and you must be patient for the right opportunity, or else when it arises, you may not have the cash to capitalize on it. Say no to almost everything and try to keep your investments within your circle of competence. Surround yourself with people you want to emulate and remember that if you achieve slightly above average returns while living below your means, it is difficult not to get wealthy.

Sir John Templeton - Inner conviction is critical and you must be willing to take a position that others don't think is too bright (willingness to be lonely). 6 Principles: beware of emotion, beware of your own ignorance and know what you're buying (due diligence), diversify broadly to protect from own fallibility, successful investing requires patience, the best way to find bargains is to study assets that have performed the worst over the last 5 years then assess whether this is temporary or permanent, don't chase fads.

Howard Marks - Change is inevitable, the only constant is impermanence and we must acclimate to our environment. Know what you don't know. Be humble.

Jean-Marie Eveillard - Respect uncertainty. Reduce or eliminate debt and beware of excessive expenses. Instead of fixating on short-term gains or beating benchmarks, we should place greater emphasis on becoming shock resistant and avoiding ruin to stay in the game. Beware of overconfidence and complacency, and be keenly aware of our exposure to risk and require margin of safety.

Joel Greenblatt - In the short term the market is irrational but it eventually gets it right within 2-3 years - buy stocks at a discount. Look for opportunities with asymmetric returns. Sizing of positions - Large positions shouldn't be the ones you can make the most money on but the one's you CAN'T lose money on. Buy good businesses at bargain prices. The Magic Formula = high earnings yield and high return on capital. Persistence - the impact of small marginal gains that compound over time.

Charlie Munger - Safeguard against stupidity: imagine a dreadful outcome then work backwards by asking yourself what misguided actions might lead you to that sorry fate and then scrupulously avoid that self-destructive behavior. The reluctance to re-examine our views and change our minds is one of the greatest impediments to rational thinking. Instead of keeping an open mind, we tend to consciously and unconsciously prioritize information that reinforces what we believe.

Facing adversity is a blessing. It eventually leads to higher highs. To endure misfortune and prevail, is great good fortune.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand basic principles for investing and life that will help you achieve better returns on your capital, your time, and your relationships.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid value investing piece but I feel it's been heavily overrated by a large number of amateur value investing YouTubers. The book drives home the same well-known points over and over again (buy good businesses on the cheap, hold for a long time, tune out the noise), but does not justify the repetition. Green's exploration of individual investors is mostly surface level, not deep enough to be very practical. The book is smoothly written and easy to get through. It certainly got me pumped about the value investing style. However, there are many awkwardly written details that left me scratching my head. I'm not sure if he was attempting humor? For example, I could have done without Mohnish Pabrai's description of buying stocks as "orgasmic." Gross. Could have edited that one out dude.

A solid value investing piece but there are far better.

[Jonathan Mckay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hero worship, winner's bias, and superficial journalist book all rolled into one.

Got this book from the y-combinator startups book list, and I'm judging every founder in y-combinator for it.

There was some useful advice, but had to wade through a sea of inspirational get-rich tiktok quotes to get there.

2.5 stars.
85th book of 2022

[R · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book bar the inclusion of endless sales pitches from the author about what impressive investors are included in his book. Be wary however. Being a successful investor tends to mean sacrifices, including any number of divorces and just generally being a slight odd-ball. See PG 194.

Introduction
Playing poker / bridge helps you understand probabilities in a much more realistic fashion. It also makes you realise that you if you do not have an edge, do not play (the exception being is you do not panic and have a good track record of dip buying). Why does Johnny think he has an edge? That is why you correctly sacked him and now use tracker. Hope is not a method of investment. Emotionless realism is. Playing the odds both for investment and life is a very good strategy. Remember that when thinking about your career and likelihood of promotions.

Simply avoiding catastrophe is a common trait amongst successful investors. Not getting sucked into the Dot-Com bubble, buying sub-prime mortgages and risky bonds all kept returns solid. A lot of returns are not built on taking huge risk. Rather they are built on not doing anything stupid (mirrors Obama’s advice to him team on day one which was make mistakes, but not stupid ones). Put another way (as per the resilient investor) investment should first of all be about preservation. If you only achieve reasonable returns, but suffer minimal losses, you will become wealthy. Not owning Japanese Stocks in the 80s, Tech in the 90s, and financials in 2007 would have kept you from a lot of losses.

Cloning Buffet
I believe the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I do not believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it up yourself. Nobody’s that smart. Charlie Munger in his own words.

Was obsessed about the margin of safety, i.e only buying a stock that is selling for much less than what you think it is worth. Not forcing the issue when there is nothing to buy, being patient, and then being decisive when opportunities occur is important. The difference between successful and really successful people is that the latter say no to almost everything. As you have successfully worked out, saying no to fund opportunities is key.
Even if you are a slightly above average investor who spends less that you earn, you cannot help to get very wealthy. Munger focused on independence, not being rich, and spending time with people that make you better. Anytime that you get a truth that humanity does not understand, that is a huge competitive advantage. The right amount to leave your kids is enough to do anything, but not to do nothing. Clone like crazy. Think of Sam Walton of Walmart. He did not invent anything new. He simply copied what everyone else did, but did it with more conviction. Think of using Seb’s SFI slides and how you have used them to put together some decent slides.

Willingness to be lonely (Templeton)
· An eloquent phrase that that conveys that the best investors are not like other people. They are iconoclast, mavericks, and misfits who see the world differently from the crowd and follow their peculiar path – not just in the way they invest, but in the way, they live and think. Remember this, and that being part of a corporate company is some ways involves thinking like others and being like everyone else (relatable). Think about that when it comes to career choices. Maybe trying to succeed in a company is not your style. Taking on a chief of staff role / investment role is more suited to your mentality. Many CEOs played team sports. The best investors favoured individual sports such as running / golf or swimming. Many investors are incredibly self-reliant.

Being unemotional and numerate is a great combination for investing. The best investors care much more about being right and winning than gaining social acceptance or approval. Templeton famously bought, using a lot of leverage, a number of companies in the late 1930s that he thought would profit immensely if there was a world war, including ship / train operators (Missouri Pacific Railroad) and munitions. Even in the darkest times of war, the sun does rise. He cashed out a bit too early on MPR and other stocks but still made a killing. Templeton’s edge came not from superior analysis but from being able to endure huge pain for his predictions to pay out. Templeton was challenging, and would beginning every investment meeting with a prayer. He was also very disciplined and could at first come across as quite cold / unpleasant, but you later realised those were strengths.

Everything changes (Howard Marks and Oaktree)
Most people make their investment and life decisions on the basis of unreliable logic, biases, emotion and vague fantasies. Recognising that we cannot forecast the future is not an admission of weakness, it is in fact a strength. Investors continually believe that past performance is representative of the future.
· Remember that most dip buyers often sell too early, as they are worried about losing their quick gains.
· One of Wall Street’s most incorrect bets is often to say “buy cyclicals”, which almost always get bought by investors at the top of the market.

The Resilient Investor
· Marty Whitman, a famous mutual fund investor said fund managers are competitive in every way, apart from lowering fees.
· The brilliance of Buffett is that he has designed BH as essentially a closed-end fund. Unlike mutual funds that suffer from redemptions, BH always has huge cash reserves, and the structural advantage of being a publicly listed company meaning he cannot suffer from redemptions.
· In the book “Against the Gods; The Remarkable Story of Risk”, Peter Bernstein noted that between 1926 and 1945, total returns averaged only 7%, and that the standard deviation (volatility) was 37% creating an awful combination of relatively low returns and high volatility. The years after 1945 turned out to be wonderful for investors as shown by the DOW that rose from 150 to 1000 in 1966.
· In markets, just like life, so much hinges on the ability to survive the dips. One top fund manager at Goldman observed that what set the senior brass apart was their ability to not give up, who kept learning, evolving, and were willing to live through adversity in pursuit of achievement. It is similar to being able to be defensive in life that is a huge advantage.
· Conduct a risk analysis every year on your portfolio. Think about the very worst outcomes that could happen, and then identify roughly speaking, what the impact would be on your portfolio. Think about it in the same way that a company conduct risk analysis. Try to understand what could cause an issue. Munger advocated a similar approach whereby is suggests people ask themselves before proposing will this be disaster? So many people ask themselves will their marriage be wonderful. Munger himself is divorced, so is probably speaking from experience. Imagine the worst outcomes, and then work backwards.
· Another way to mitigate risks is to divide your team into analysing what the very best outcomes can be, and the very worst. Your job as the leader is then to decide between the two.

Simplicity and Sophistication (Jack Bogle, Vanguard)
· All things being equal the simplest solutions tend to be the best ones. Secondly, if a good piece of physics cannot be explained to barmaid, then it is not a good piece of physics. Remember these two sayings when putting together presentations.
· Munger noted that the Soviet Union were foolish to ignore the superpower of rewards, which led them to disincentivise work. He also warned about incentive caused bias which can lead people to drift into immoral behaviour “especially fear professional advice when it is especially good for the advisor”.
· Munger and index funds “honest and sensible active fund managers know that they are selling something that they cannot quite deliver. Most will handle it with denial. I understand that; I mean I do not want to think of my own death”.

Nick and Zack Adventure
· Wall Street tends to focus on short term outputs (margins, EPS e.c.t). What real long-term investors do is to focus on the inputs into a successful business such as how you are strengthening relationships with customers, what is your capital allocation policy and what is technology strategy. It is called destination analysis. It is analysis that Buffett advocates, including picturing your friends and family at your funeral, and asking yourself how you will behave today to ensure that they cherish your memory.
· Whenever deciding on fund ownership, always ensure someone has a clear majority, so that if there is a disagreement about investment strategy, the person with the most risk (i.e the biggest holding) gets to make the ultimate decision. Never have 50/50 ownership of funds / companies. Always have a mechanism for clear decision making.

High performance habits
· Resounding victories tend to be the result of small, incremental advancements and improvements sustained over a long period of time. Make the next better than the last.
· Forget about perfection, focus on progression and compound the improvements. Think about you / your portfolio / finance. First you took the decision to go into work. Then you identified where you wanted to go with your (IMC), your excelled at the first challenge of your work (Newable), started taking more interest in your funds, moved to LSEG, sacked Johnny, lowered fees, went passive. In the same way that Buffett evolved his approach from buying cheap stocks to focusing on better businesses.
· Never lie to yourself about what you are and are not good at. Being honest with yourself can be very painful, but so important.
· Focus on being the right type of busy which involves cutting out unproductive work, such as endless meetings.
· Writing down a list of all the habits which are beneficial to you, and all the habits / behaviours that are not beneficial to you is very helpful. It then gives you a tick list to ensure you do the most of the good stuff, and little of the bad stuff. Remember to commit to habits that are sustainability and directionally correct.
· Three things ruin people according to Charlie Munger; drugs, liquor and leverage.
· Philo of Alexandria: Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Nobody has an untroubled upward trajectory, and there are times when all need additional support. If we dream that untold riches will somehow free us from mental suffering, we are setting ourselves up for mental suffering.

[Quinton · Rating 5 out of 5]

My two favourite things I will take away from this book is the idea to minimize risk/loss and that everything changes (“this too shall pass”). When combining both ideas by not losing you will be winning because “everything changes”. Many great mental models have been presented in the book so definitely worth a read to get the basic idea behind many value investors with phenomenal track records. 4.5-5 / 5

[Venkatesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that i will definitely end up reading multiple times. Wisdom from some of the greatest investors distilled to it's very essence and served in a very readable form.

[Daniel Ottenwalder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richer wiser happier

Introduction
• There are many different ways to invest, but they all tend to look for unfair advantages
• Key is to improve the odds — be an open-minded pragmatist

Bill Ruane’s 4 Rules
1. Never borrow money to buy stock
2. Watch out for momentum
3. Ignore market predictions
4. Invest in what you know

Core Principle:
You need to be an independent thinker and find your niche

⸻

Chapter 1: The Man Who Cloned Buffett
• Mohnish Pabrai discovered Buffett in the 1990s
• He studied the compounding machine Buffett built and adopted his methodology
• Cloning the best works

Key Lessons from Buffett’s Approach
• You’re buying a business, not just stock
• Market = a voting machine in the short run, a weighing machine in the long run
• Only buy when there’s a margin of safety
• #1 skill in investing: patience
• Successful people are constantly learning

⸻

Investment Checklist
1. Circle of competence
2. Margin of safety
3. Competitive advantage & competent managers
4. Financials that are clear & simple

⸻

Life and Mindset Notes
• Hang out with people better than you — you’ll level up naturally
• Keep it simple
• Power vs. Force showed him the importance of truth
• Live by your own inner scoreboard — not for others

Chapter 2: The Willingness to Be Lonely

George Soros, Buffett & Templeton are not afraid to go against the tide and to be lonely.
• To be a good investor is to be independent-minded.

“All those people that are busy with something useful are happier than the one who are idle.”

— John Templeton
• You have to buy when everyone is desperate to sell.
• His boldest bet came in the midst of WWII thinking that a war would boost demand — he bought $100 of 107 companies in a terrible depression and 5x’d his money in 5 years.
• It was not without ups and downs — the key was focusing on facts.

⸻

Templeton’s 6 Principles of Investing
1. Beware of emotion
2. Beware of your own ignorance
3. Diversify broadly — you will be wrong 50% of the time
4. Successful investing requires patience
5. Look for stocks that have been getting hammered over the last five years
• (Is it temporary or permanent?)
6. Never chase fads
• (Don’t focus on outlooks but on value)

⸻

Final note:
It is all an inner game — that’s why self-discipline matters.

Chapter 3: Everything Changes
• Howard Marks studied Japanese literature and Buddhism in college.
• “Change is inevitable. The only constant is impermanence.”
• All we can do is doubt, given how the seasons change.
• book to check out Decisions Under Uncertainty by C. Jackson
- The first rule in an unknowable world is to be honest about our vulnerabilities and limitations.
• Luck plays a bigger role than you think. (Ovarian lottery and getting exposure to the right people at the right time.
• Focus on inefficient markets.
• Given his study at UChicago and the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) exposed him to the limitation of the theory
• “When everyone thinks it’s a bad investment, that’s the opportunity.”

Formula for Success:
Success = Luck + Intelligence + Perseverance + Hard Work
• No point in making forecasts — just focus on the knowable, and if the price is fair based on the risk
• The world is cyclical — booms and busts repeat like clockwork
• “To be strong, you have to be like water.”
• Adapt to the environment at hand
• Most of the time, the world doesn’t end

Chapter 4: The Resilient Investor

- Respect uncertainty

Think of your dad’s life (WW2, military coup in DR, dictator, USSR, ’74 oil embargo, 9/11, COVID) — be antifragile.
Invest to see if it’s fragile — avoid it.

- Avoid leverage

Ask: Where am I fragile? Never get wiped out.

- Shock resistant

Instead of focusing on beating the index, ask: Am I shock-resistant so I can stay in the game?

- Beware of overconfidence and complacency

Recency bias lulls you into comfort.

- Require margin of safety and be aware of risk exposure “Gaze too long at the abyss and you become the abyss.” – Nietzsche

⸻

- You want to be structured to participate in the march of mankind, but to survive the dip along the way.

- Beauty often lies in mundanity, not glamour.

Chapter 5: Simplicity – The Ultimate Sophistication

Joel Greenblatt (author of You Can Be a Stock Market Genius, The Little Book That Beats the Market, and The Big Secret for Small Investors):
• Figure out what something is worth, then pay a lot less for it.
• Occam’s Razor: the simplest solution is the best one.

Buffett’s Simplicity Criteria:
1. Businesses we can understand
2. Favorable long-term prospects
3. Operated by honest and competent management
4. Available at an attractive price

Will Danoff Philosophy:
• Stocks follow earnings.
• Focus on the key questions, is the business improving or worsening
• Opportunity should stand out as a no-brainer no need for excel models

Key Concepts:
• Stocks are ownership in businesses — you must value businesses (DCF, comps, precedents, liquidation value) and compare your value to what it sells for in the market.
• Think in probabilities:
• Heads I win, tails I don’t lose much.

Greenblat’s magic formula:
• High earnings yield + High ROCE (Return on Capital Employed)
- the best strategy is the one you can live with.

Chapter 6: Nick & Zak’s Excellent Adventure
• Nick sleep is not your typical investor — he was someone who dreamed of being a landscape architect. When he was laid off, he studied turnaround industries and landed a trainee investment analyst role.
• He learned much of his philosophy from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which maintains:
• It’s not the task at hand, it’s the quality of how we attend to the task.
• Find freedom and peace in it.
• Defer instant gratification — this is the key to their success (10x money vs. 2x the index).
• Information has a shelf life, like food.
• Look for long shelf-life information to compound.
• Intentional disconnection — don’t get hooked on all the short-term dopamine out there.
• Focus on reading annual reports & interviewing management — everything else is noise.
• Destination analysis:
• What is the intended destination of this business in 10 to 20 years?
• What could management be doing today to raise the probability of arriving at that destination?
• What could prevent the company from reaching this destination?
• Nik & Zak believe shared scale of economies is the best business model for corporate longevity. (Amazon, Geico, Costco etc)


Chapter 7: High-Performance Habits

Core idea:
Moderate, incremental changes are sustainable.
Resounding victories tend to be the result of small, incremental improvements sustained over the long run.

⸻

Investment Principles:
1. Seek profitable businesses with good returns on capital and not much leverage.
2. Management with talent and integrity.
3. Good reinvestment opportunities.
4. Reasonable price.

⸻

Business & Life Philosophy:
• Success in business is longevity—make sure nothing can take you out of the game.
• People get themselves into trouble with extremes; we should strive for the golden mean.
• If you live on less than you make and invest the difference at a positive rate, you will be rich—heck, just the first part and you are rich.
• You cannot control the outcome—only your effort and dedication.
• Integrity is key in long-term success.
• Turn every “stone”—look at more opportunities.
• Always improve yourself (read 5–6 hours daily).
• Focus on what you are best at and what matters most to yourself.
• To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.
Sustaining excellence requires depth and subtraction.

Chapter 8: don’t be a fool - Charlie Munger
Core Philosophy:
• “I don’t have any wonderful insights. I just have slightly more consistency avoiding idiocy.”
• “I’m not trying to be smart. I’m trying to be non-idiotic.” — Charlie Munger

Investment Approach of inverting:
• Always ask: “How can this investment go wrong?” Not just how it can go right.
• Inspired by his WWII meteorologist training—he focused on avoiding disaster.
• Develop a checklist like a pilot before flight.
• Focus on avoiding the biggest pitfalls.

Decision-Making & Risk:
• “Nothing is more critical than staying away from your ignorance.”
• Collect examples of others’ stupidity as cautionary tales.
• Acknowledge your errors, learn, and move on.
• Golden Rule of Risk Management: Know what you own
Book to check out: the folly of fools by Robert Triver

The greatest impediment to rational thinking is the reluctance to reexamine our views.

Key Thinkers (Einstein, Darwin, Feynman):
• All sought disconfirming evidence to challenge their beliefs.
• Ask: “Why did this decision turn out poorly?”
• Rewrite common misjudgment causes in your own words.

Cognitive Biases:
• Incentives drive behavior—always ask, “What’s in it for them?”
• Liking/Loving bias: we’re more prone to irrationality when dealing with people we like.

Mental & Emotional Discipline:
• HALT (Hunger, Anger, Loneliness, Tiredness) + Pain/Stress = poor decisions.
• Emotions impair reasoning—prioritize meditation, exercise, sleep, nutrition.
• Best investors are unemotional—focus only on facts.

Final Takeaways:
• “If you want a good spouse, deserve one.”
• Life is a series of adversity; each challenge is a test of judgment.
• Relationships matter more than financial goals because in the end it’s the quality of your friendships that dictate the level of happiness in your life.

Epilogue: Beyond Rich
• Life is more than shrewd wealth accumulation.
• It’s all about who you spend time with and the decisions you make along the way—can you live with them?
• Askins Kahn, who learned from Graham and was married for 65 years: his joy came from seeing his family grow and flourish (family, health, and challenging yet fulfilling work—teaching). Kahn’s work was about serving his clients and making good choices.
• Build capital to achieve independence.
• Equanimity, acceptance, hope, trust, appreciation, and determined optimism.
• The ability to take pain is key for investors.
• Markets are fickle.
• Process does not determine outcome.
• Stoicism is useful for an investor: accept misfortunes and move forward.
• Disturbance only comes from within.
• You can only control how you react to the situation.
• The author felt the most inspiring investor he met in this 25-year journey was Vandenberg—a child who lived through the Holocaust and had such anger at life but changed his mentality to become a loving person.
• From poverty to power a book severely changed his life.
• Never compromise your values, never be satisfied, never give up

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Food for thought...

[Tõnu Vahtra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's difficult to utilize the principles and recommendations from the most successful investors through history as the "average" person is in very different circumstances. Also many of the principles came together after a long journeys and it's not something you can appreciate or internalize without at least partially walking this journey yourself. Thus it is mostly a principles/philosophies book and less about practical knowledge. Most of the investors covered in the book were value investors and many of those people were also led by Stoic principles (Marcus Aurelius was mentioned many times; “the greatest of all contests” is “the struggle not to be overwhelmed by anything that happens”) and ofcourse Kahneman and Man's Search for Meaning were mentioned.
I mostly enjoyed the chapter on Charlie Munger ("don't be stupid"), having already read about several others from different books. The book also places a lot of focus on philanthropy and creating a general positive impact in the world which comes after maximizing returns is no longer the main focus. Definitely important factor today is antifragility (several references to Taleb), you must aim to be resilient to black swans like the recent pandemic. Through some examples the importance of copying is also covered (doing it in a smart way, but not trying to only invent the wheel yourself).

Find ways to quickly say no so you spend time on more promising opportunities - Pabrai glances at hundreds of stocks and rapidly rejects almost all of them, often in less than a minute. Buffett is a master of this practice of high-speed sifting. “What he’s looking for is a reason to say no, and as soon as he finds that, he’s done,” says Pabrai. Indeed, Buffett has said, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

By contrast, says Davis, you tend to encounter an entirely different psychological profile among CEOs. They require the emotional intelligence to empathize with others, understand their thoughts, and influence them. But for a contrarian investor, it would be “catastrophic if you were constantly burdened by an awareness of what everybody else was thinking about your decision.” In their youth, he adds, many CEOs played team sports, captained a team, or led a fraternity. What about the best investors? “By and large,” says Davis, they favored individual sports such as “running, tennis, golf, or swimming. You won’t get a lot of football, lacrosse, that sort of thing.”

“I call myself a farmer,” says Russo. “Wall Street is flooded with hunters—people who try to go out and find the big game. They fell it and bring it back, and there’s a huge feast and everything is fabulous, and then they look for the next big game. I plant seeds and then I spend all of my time cultivating them.”
Investing as like gardening or farming rather than hunting - As McLennan describes the process of building a portfolio that can flourish over time, he’s reminded of watching his mother gardening while he was growing up in Australia. There was always a problem. Dry weather. Wilting vines. Bug infestations. He often wondered why she bothered to keep going. It would have been so much easier to let the forest grow or just settle for a lawn that needed mowing once a week. But her care yielded remarkable results over three decades. “What I saw play out over time was the gradual emergence of this beautiful, beautiful garden that took time. It took selectivity. And I think it’s a good metaphor for investing.”

Addition by subtraction (invert) - First, to be successful and fulfilled, we need to decide what we care about most and be honest with ourselves about what we do best. Second, we need to adopt daily habits that enable us to improve continuously where it truly counts—and to subtract habits that divert us. It’s worth writing down a list of beneficial habits that should be part of our daily routine. But it’s equally valuable to compile a Do Not Do list, reminding us of all the ingenious ways in which we habitually distract or undermine ourselves.

Focus on mistakes, both after the fact and before - That willingness to welcome the discovery of our own errors is an inestimable advantage. Munger nurtures it by applauding himself whenever he succeeds in demolishing one of his entrenched beliefs, so that “ignorance removal” becomes a source of satisfaction, not shame. He once remarked, “If Berkshire has made modest progress, a good deal of it is because Warren and I are very good at destroying our own best-loved ideas. Any year that you don’t destroy one of your best-loved ideas is probably a wasted year.”

“If you’re going to be in this game for the long pull, which is the way to do it, you better be able to handle a fifty percent decline without fussing too much about it. And so my lesson to all of you is, conduct your life so that you can handle the fifty percent decline with aplomb and grace. Don’t try to avoid it. It will come. In fact, I would say if it doesn’t come, you’re not being aggressive enough.”

“You get a lot of A’s and B’s in school. In the stock market, you get a lot of F’s. And if you’re right six or seven times out of ten, you’re very good.”

“I think that people underestimate—until they get older—they underestimate just how important habits are, and how difficult they are to change when you’re forty-five or fifty, and how important it is that you form the right ones when you’re young." —Warren Buffett

“It’s frightening to think that you might not know something, but more frightening to think that, by and large, the world is run by people who have faith that they know exactly what’s going on.” - Kahneman

“As the Prussian military strategist General Carl von Clausewitz said, “The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.”

[ND · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ive seen many review that have downrated this book due to it not being very informative for investing.
I think they have misread the title misunderstood the point of the book, and thus felt it failed to delivered on that.
The main point of this book is to understand the ways in which some of the best investors think, act and make decisions not only in their careers but also in their life, and how we can copy and apply these in our own life to be richer, happier and wiser. And that i do believe it does accomplish well.

[Heng · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is filled with interesting stories and biographies of well-known and less well-known investors. The chapters do get somewhat repetitive as the diversity of the types of investors is limited. Most "value investors" share the same philosophy and thus similar "wisdoms" are re-packaged and repeated from chapter to chapter. The book would have been much improved if investors who specialized in growth, macro, commodities, quant and others were included.

[Eric Mabry · Rating 4 out of 5]

90% winning in markets - 10% winning in life.

To be one of the most successful investors off all time, you simply need to lack emotional intelligence, buy only when you see a large gap in price and value, be divorced, and live a very very long life.

I was close to giving this 3 stars, but thankfully the entire epilogue is dedicated to winning at life. This part was sorely lacking in my opinion. After 2 or 3 stories, all successful investment styles seemed the same.

[Spyker1982 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected to learn something about the investing methods from some of the 'masters', however it is more a nice writing about these investor, how they are or where and how they became great investors.

[Suresh Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time well spent - a Book that is not just about investing and great investors, I consider it a manual for life! totally looked forward to reading each chapter and ended up making so many notes ! loved it . Thank you @william green

[Xinyu Wu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has good stories and quotes. However, if you are looking for investment insights, this is not the right book because most of the stories are hindsights.