Author Archive for: Christoph Niemann

Once you attain competency, diversification is undesirable. One or two, or at most three or four, securities should be bought. Gerald M. Loeb – American investor (1899-1974), from “The Battle for Investment Survival” (1935), Quotations book 2019

Competent investors will never be satisfied beating the averages by a few small percentage points. Gerald M. Loeb – American investor (1899-1974), from “The Battle for Investment Survival” (1935), Quotations book 2019

Leadership is developed daily, not in a day. John C. Maxwell – American leadership expert, author and speaker (b. 1947)

The trick isn’t adding stuff, it’s taking away. attributed to Mark Zuckerberg – American company founder: facebook (b. 1984)

Change is constant, growth is optional. Kim Butcher – American investor (b. 1958)

You don’t build a business – you build people – and then people build your business. Zig Ziglar – American author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur (1926-2012), Quotations book 2018

The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. Thaddeaus Hammond – American banker and former farmer, president of the Farmers’ National Bank and the Rotary Club Overton, from J. R. Sprague’s […]

The builders of visionary companies tend to be clock builders, not time tellers. They concentrate primarily on building an organization – building a ticking clock – rather than on hitting a market just right with a visionary product idea. James C. “Jim” Collins – American business consultant, author and academic (b. 1958), in “Built to […]

Since the Industrial Revolution began, going downstream – investing in businesses that will benefit from new technology rather than investing in the technology companies themselves – has often been the smarter strategy. Ralph Wanger – American fund manager (b. 1933), Quotations book 2019

Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. David Ogilvy – legendary British advertising executive and entrepreneur (1911-1999), Quotations book 2018

If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering. Jeffrey P. “Jeff” Bezos – American company founder: Amazon (b. 1964), from an U.S.-News-interview with David LaGesse (2008), Quotations book 2018

Leadership is discovering the company’s destiny and having the courage to follow it … companies that endure have a noble purpose. Joseph “Joe” Jaworski – American lawyer and business advisor, American Leadership Forum (b. 1934), Quotations book 2018

It’s the investor’s job to intelligently bear risk for profit. Doing it well is what separates the best from the rest. Howard S. Marks – American investor and company founder (b. 1946), from “The Most Important Thing Illuminated: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor” (2012), Quotations book 2018

The most important investment judgements at most big institutions and for most large portfolios are made by committees, but few realize the negative dynamics of group interaction. I think that, in most instances, groups of intelligent people have so many inherent liabilities that a lone individual has a far better chance of making good decisions. […]

The time to reflect on your methods is when you are most successful, not when you are making the most mistakes. Sir John Marks Templeton – British value investor and philanthropist (1912-2008), Quotations book 2017

Philanthropy is harder than business. You are tackling important problems that people with intellect and money have tackled in the past and had a tough time solving. Warren Buffett – American investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930), from ” The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder (2008), Quotations book 2017

As an investor you never have perfect information, and the biggest profits are always available when competition and information are scarce. Seth A. Klarman – American investor, president and CEO: The Baupost Group, LLC (b. 1957), Quotations book 2017

I am not the boss – the readers are. Patrick Joseph McGovern, Jr. – American publisher, founder of the media, research and venture capital organization IDG (1937-2014), Quotations book 2017

True independence – meaning the willingness to challenge a forceful CEO when something is wrong or foolish – is an enormously valuable trait in a director. It is also rare. The place to look for it is among high-grade people whose interests are in line with those of rank-and-file shareholders – and in line in […]

An educated consumer is our best consumer. Sy Syms – American businessman and company founder: SYMS clothing store chain (1926-2009)

Committees can criticize, but they cannot create. Search all the parks in all your cities. You’ll find no statues of committees. David Ogilvy – legendary British advertising executive and entrepreneur (1911-1999)

Instead of ceaselessly lamenting the loss of the old industries, we must simply face up the adventure to develop new ones. John Naisbitt – American scientist in the area of futures studies, who popularized the term “globalization” (b. 1929)

We do not inherit the family business from our parents, we borrow it from our children. Slogan by Hermès International S.A., Paris – Quotations book 2015

We believe that business is good because it creates value, it is ethical because it is based on voluntary Exchange, it is noble because it can elevate our existence, and it is heroic because it lifts people out of poverty and creates prosperity. Free-enterprise capitalism is the most powerful system for social cooperation and human […]

Most Money will be made in the future – as has been in the past – by owning businesses and not by selling and buying them. Benjamin Graham – born as Benjamin Großbaum, American investor and inventor of systematic stocks analysis (1894-1976), following “The Intelligent Investor” (1949), Quotations book 2015

The customer still thinks on the quality of our products, when he has long forgotten the price. Business slogan – Quotations book 2015

The great art lies to discern in what the law is to bid restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work. John Milton – English poet and political theorist (1608-1674), from “Areopagitica” (1644), Quotations book 2015

Though my heart may be left of centre, I have always known that the only economic system that works is a market economy, in which everything belongs to someone – which means that someone is responsible for everything. It is a system in which complete independence and plurality of economic entities exist within a legal […]

Economic growth not only increases material living standards; it shapes the moral character of people and society. Benjamin M. Friedman – American economist (b. 1944)

The art of investing in public companies successfully is little different from the art of successfully acquiring subsidiaries. In each case you simply want to acquire, at a sensible price, a business with excellent economics and able, honest management. Thereafter, you need only monitor whether these qualities are being preserved. Warren Buffett – American value […]

(Benjamin Graham) wasn’t about brilliant investments and he wasn’t about fads or fashion. He was about sound investing and I think sound investing can make you very wealthy if you’re not in too big of a hurry. And it never makes you poor, which is better. Warren Buffett – American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway […]

Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it. Warren Buffett – American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930)

You have to have the knowledge to enable you to make a very general estimate about the value of the underlying business. But you do not cut it close. That is what Ben Graham meant by having a margin of safety. You don’t try and buy businesses worth $83 million for 80$ million. You leave […]

To invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insight, or inside information. What’s needed is a sound intellectual framework for decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework. Warren Buffett – American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930), Quotations book 2005

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what […]