‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

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digarei
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‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by digarei »


William Green: "Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing" | Talks at Google

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQadYnrJeh0‬

‪Excerpt from the description on YouTube:‬
Published on Apr 11, 2016
William Green, author of the highly rated book "The Great Minds of Investing", will speak about the most important lessons he has learned in two decades of studying, interviewing, and writing about many of the world's best investors. He will discuss how you can become more successful — both as an investor and in other areas of life — by reverse-engineering the greatest investors and figuring out how they stack the odds of success in their favor. The goal: to become richer, wiser, and happier.


This is an inspiring talk from an author whose message transcends investing ... the best video I've seen this year. Like most Google Talks, it lasts about an hour.

- digarei
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Howard Donnelly
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by Howard Donnelly »

I found this very interesting. Thank you for posting it.
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by snarlyjack »

This is a interesting video...thank you for posting it :)
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by Solo Prosperity »

Thanks for sharing. I actually have the book on my coffee table at home. It's great.

It's interesting how many of these investors are "value" investors, whether it's stocks or bonds.

My favorite part was the second step of humility...What if I'm wrong?

I think that is an awesome question that a lot of people forget to think about when it comes to devising a strategy.
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by stemikger »

Thanks for the link!!!

I really enjoyed this!
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elgob.bogle
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by elgob.bogle »

Excellent talk! Thanks for the link!

elgob
WilliamGreen
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by WilliamGreen »

Thank you so much for your kind words about my talk. I really appreciate it. Best wishes, William Green
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by LadyGeek »

FYI - We have verified the identity of WilliamGreen - Welcome!
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by Trebor »

Thank you. I really enjoyed it as well. Welcome Mr Green.
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by Robert T »

.
Nice.

A thoughtful set of lessons for life:
  • • Willingness to be lonely
    • The power of humility
    • The ability to take pain
    • The key to happiness
Perhaps the corresponding lessons for individual investors are along the following lines:
  • • Align your portfolio to match your tolerance to significant downside deviations in performance from the market or S&P500 - the very real “tracking error regret” (willingness to be lonely). Coping mechanisms can help improve tolerance and emotional resilience. I recall this earlier article by Bernstein on the loneliness of the long distance asset allocator http://www.efficientfrontier.com/ef/497/lonely.htm

    • Diversify, with downside protection to increase the odds of survival. The future is unknown. "Left field" events happen.

    • Align your portfolio to match your tolerable loss. Experience can help fine turn how much loss/pain you can tolerate before selling out. Again, coping mechanisms can help improve tolerance and emotional resilience.

    • Have realistic expectations (happiness = reality – expectations). And remember investing is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. How we spend matters. Family, relationships, people, seems to best material possessions.
Robert
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stemikger
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by stemikger »

WilliamGreen wrote:Thank you so much for your kind words about my talk. I really appreciate it. Best wishes, William Green
Thanks for the visit! Hopefully you update us on any future talks and/or projects.

Although I promised my wife I will stop buying books on investing due to space, yours will have to join my collection!!

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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by oldzey »

Welcome to the forum, Mr. Green!
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by JoinToday »

kind of an aside, but .... I am struck by how it is that William Green is interesting ..... for an hour ..... without notes!

I dont think I could talk like that for more than 5 minutes without notes. Some people are gifted. I take my hat off to people like William Green, Larry Swedroe, and John Bogle.
I wish I had learned about index funds 25 years ago
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by stemikger »

JoinToday wrote:kind of an aside, but .... I am struck by how it is that William Green is interesting ..... for an hour ..... without notes!

I dont think I could talk like that for more than 5 minutes without notes. Some people are gifted. I take my hat off to people like William Green, Larry Swedroe, and John Bogle.
This is true. I once wrote a comment on a John Bogle You Tube video how I can sit and watch John Bogle videos for over an hour, yet I have a hard time sitting through most movies these days. I guess if the subject matter lights your fire, a gifted speaker will keep you watching.
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JoinToday
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by JoinToday »

stemikger wrote: This is true. I once wrote a comment on a John Bogle You Tube video how I can sit and watch John Bogle videos for over an hour, yet I have a hard time sitting through most movies these days. I guess if the subject matter lights your fire, a gifted speaker will keep you watching.
Bogle is truly gifted. I would love to have 10% of his verbal skill (if I had 10% of his skill, it would be a vast improvement). Part of the difference is that Bogle says things that are meaningful. I can't stand listening to sitcoms with their laugh tracks. I wonder how much of John Bogle's speaking ability is genetic (looking for input from VictoriaF here). I remember meeting a coworker's brother. He had identical hand mannerisms as my coworker when speaking. Stunning at the time. I wondered how much of that was genetic, and how much was learned.

But I surprised sometimes about how a subject matter that I have little interest in can come alive with a gifted speaker & presentation. But you are right: a subject matter that lights my fire, with a gifted speaker will hold my attention.
I wish I had learned about index funds 25 years ago
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by stemikger »

JoinToday wrote:
stemikger wrote: This is true. I once wrote a comment on a John Bogle You Tube video how I can sit and watch John Bogle videos for over an hour, yet I have a hard time sitting through most movies these days. I guess if the subject matter lights your fire, a gifted speaker will keep you watching.
Bogle is truly gifted. I would love to have 10% of his verbal skill (if I had 10% of his skill, it would be a vast improvement). Part of the difference is that Bogle says things that are meaningful. I can't stand listening to sitcoms with their laugh tracks. I wonder how much of John Bogle's speaking ability is genetic (looking for input from VictoriaF here). I remember meeting a coworker's brother. He had identical hand mannerisms as my coworker when speaking. Stunning at the time. I wondered how much of that was genetic, and how much was learned.

But I surprised sometimes about how a subject matter that I have little interest in can come alive with a gifted speaker & presentation. But you are right: a subject matter that lights my fire, with a gifted speaker will hold my attention.
Warren Buffett has often said his best investment was when he was in his twenties. He was terrified to speak in public so he went to Dale Carnigie to learn how to do it more confidently. Obviously he got his money's worth. He has also said, he likes to go to colleges to speak with young people while they are still able to change the habits they don't want. He believes it is extremely difficult for someone in middle age to break their bad habits. The quote he often repeats is: The Chains of Habit Are Too Light To Be Felt Until They Are Too Heavy To Be Broken and believes this to be true for older people.


When he was younger, he would emulate people he liked and made sure he did not do the things that people he didn't like did. He essentially made their habits his own until they became his too. And lastly he follows a rule his father passed down to him which is. Everything you do he life do it as if the entire world is watching. You will always do the right thing.
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by LateStarter1975 »

Making a mental note to watch this video later as I'm currently at work
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by Lynette »

.....
Last edited by Lynette on Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by WilliamGreen »

Thanks to all of you for the warm welcome on this site. I love how passionate and knowledgeable you are about investing. It's really impressive. Warm wishes, William Green
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by Toons »

In the end money is used to purchase goods and services,,,and to share with others.
But happiness?
Another subject entirely :happy
"One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity" –Bruce Lee
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by jef »

Enjoyed this talk.
Looked up the book on Amazon and it is $69.02 plus shipping.
Did ya'll buy them all up?
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by JPH »

I also enjoyed this talk. I agree that these are qualities needed by a successful investor - even an index fund investor. But, I also think when we notice idiosyncratic traits in successful people it sometimes is too easy to attribute their success to those characteristics.
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by kelage »

I enjoyed the video although from the title I thought I would be hearing about John Bogle. :happy
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by S&L1940 »

Never knew about Google Talk. This one was a gem. Seems lots of other good topics there. Thanks for this post. Here, I thought I knew all I/we needed for the senior years left for us. But that is for later, gotta catch up with the Warriors game on ESPN :sharebeer
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by CedarWaxWing »

JPH wrote:I also enjoyed this talk. I agree that these are qualities needed by a successful investor - even an index fund investor. But, I also think when we notice idiosyncratic traits in successful people it sometimes is too easy to attribute their success to those characteristics.
I found it interesting that the poor later results of the Legg Mason Value fund (Miller) and now the Sequoia fund (manager's mentioned name escapes me) issues are not attributed to simply messing up by the managers.

I realize that was not the topic at hand...but these managers were being held up as super brilliant guys to be almost revered... based on their great results. Perhaps they were not so great... but had an uncommon run of good luck that simply ran out.

Mr. Bogle's writings would suggest that those managers' long run of great results were not persistent enough to be statistically proven to have been due to skill rather than luck.

So, were these two examples of great minds that were likely not greater than the other mangers' minds who did not match their great results in their earlier years, but over all did as well ... and maybe better because they did not crash and burn when Legg and Sequoia funds did?

M.
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by digarei »

jef wrote:Enjoyed this talk.
Looked up the book on Amazon and it is $69.02 plus shipping.
Did ya'll buy them all up?
Yes, a bit pricey. Keep in mind that it's published as a special format book (9 X 13):
Besides which,
  • "If something is expensive, you can always buy a substitute that’s cheaper."

    - Francis Chou

    Source: Great Minds of Investing, William Green
. :happy .
. . . .
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by Robert T »

.
On William Green's first point on the 'Willingness to be lonely".
  • "Value investors must be strong and resilient, as well as independent-minded and sometimes contrary. You don't become a value investor for the group hugs. Indeed, one can go long stretches of time with no positive reinforcement whatsoever." - Seth Klarman
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by dh »

Has anyone read (can offer a review on) Green's newest book, "Richer, wiser, happier?"
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by digarei »

dh wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:20 pm Has anyone read (can offer a review on) Green's newest book, "Richer, wiser, happier?"

I’ve ordered the book but can’t personally recommend it having not yet read it.

However, it’s garnered much praise from people I respect. To wit,


SELDOM SINCE JOHN TRAIN'S GREAT THE MONEY MASTERS, PUBLISHED IN 1980, HAS A BOOK PULLED SO MANY COMPELLING IDEAS TOGETHER FROM SO MANY RENOWNED INVESTORS. Based on interviews with dozens of well-known money managers, including Jack Bogle, Peter Lynch, Charlie Munger and Sir John Templeton, Richer, Wiser, Happier argues that good judgment is under continuous bombardment from Wall Street's propaganda machine. […]

- Jason Zweig

Source: https://bookshop.org/books/richer-wiser ... 1501164859
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Re: ‪"Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing‬"

Post by garlandwhizzer »

Excellent talk which focuses on personal insights of successful investors which as Buffett says often come more from temperament than intelligence or knowledge of markets. Green is a highly intelligent, knowledgeable and engaging speaker, and he has something that many highly intelligent, knowledgeable, and engaging financial speakers lack--scrupulous honesty in admitting setbacks and outright mistakes, the hard-earned wisdom that comes with it, and the acceptance that these bumps in the road are inevitable for those who take on risk. It will not always be a smooth and comfortable ride but if you know yourself well, choose your strategy wisely and adhere to it, you are overwhelmingly likely to do just fine in the long run.

Garland Whizzer
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