Life’s work
I always look to invest in a manager who has made the company his or her life's work. Robert "Rob" Vinall – British value investor, founder and managing director of RV Capital (b. 1973), Quotations book 2024
Business
Competence
What you want in life is a young doctor and an old investment advisor: The doctor is at the peak of his knowledge when he graduates medical school and a thoughtful investment advisor should be growing in wisdom every day. Thomas "Tom" S. Gayner– American investor, CO-CEO and CIO Markel Corp (b. 1961), Quotations book...
Bring capital to the best host
Our job is to pass custody of your investment over at the right price and to the right people. Nick Sleep - British investor and co-founder of Sleep, Zakaria and Company and the IGY Foundation (b. 1968)
Founder’s spirit
Our favourite and most frequent acquisitions are the businesses that we buy from founders. When a founder invests the better part of a lifetime building a business, a long term orientation tends to permeate all aspects of the enterprise: employee selection and development, establishing and building symbiotic customer relationships, and evolving sophisticated product suites. Mark Leonard –...
Help for Help for self-help
I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. Benjamin Franklin - Amerikan politician, writer and scientist (1706-1790), from his attempt to the government "On the Price of Corn, and Management of the Poor" (1766)
Who would you invest in?
If you could invest in only one of your fellow classmates, who would you choose? If you could buy, say, 10% of the future earnings of just one classmate, who would you choose? What would you look for? Warren Buffett - American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (*1930), freely adapted from a lecture to students at the University of Florida School of Business...
Vocation
Thousands and millions of individuals work, produce and save ... They are prompted by a natural vocation rather than mere thirst for money. The taste, their pride in seeing one's company prosper, establish a reputation, inspire confidence from an ever-growing clientele, their pleasure in extending their facilities and embellishing their offices, constitute an incentive towards progress that...
Investment success
Establishing and maintaining an unconventional investment profile requires acceptance of uncomfortably idiosyncratic portfolios, which frequently appear downright imprudent in the eyes of conventional wisdom. David F. Swensen - American investor, endowment fund manager, and philanthropist (1954-2021), from "Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional...
Courage for bad decisions
We would rather suffer the visible costs of a few bad decisions than incur the many invisible costs that come from decisions made too slowly – or not at all – because of a stifling bureaucracy. Warren Buffett – American value investor, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (b. 1930), in his letter to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders (2009), Quotations book 2024
Tell me, what you invest in, so I tell you, who you are!
Investing isn't an IQ test; it's a test of character. Jason Zweig – American journalist (b. 1959), in "Do You Know the Difference Between Being Rich and Being Wealthy?" ("The Wall Street Journal", August 8th, 2020), Quotations book 2024
Entrepreneurial spirit
We look for managers who are owners. Charles T. "Chuck" Akre, Jr. – American value investor, founder, CEO and CIO Akre Capital Management (b. 1942)
Owner-operator culture
An owner-operator culture is the central idea expressed in our portfolio. Boiled down to our essential raison d'être, that’s it. We invest with talented people who have skin in the game. In other words, we invest in businesses where management and/or the board own a significant amount of stock. Chris Mayer – American investor and author (b. 1972), in "Art Imitates the Stock Market: Sixty...
Customer orientation
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else. Samuel M. "Sam" Walton - American entrepreneur, founder of Walmart (1918-1992), quotations books 2004 + 2024
Responsibility
It is the responsibility of leadership to provide opportunity, and the responsibility of individuals to contribute. C. William Pollard - American entrepreneur, investor and author (b. 1938)
Increase assets
The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily. Morgan E. Housel – American investor and writer, partner at "Collaborative Fund" (b. 1983), from "The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness" (2020), Quotations book 2023
Behavior more important than knowledge
Financial success is not a hard science. It's a soft skill, where how you behave is more important than what you know. Morgan E. Housel – American investor and writer, partner at "Collaborative Fund" (b. 1983), from "The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness" (2020), Quotations book 2023
Customer love
Times of adversity and customer screw-ups may be the only times when you can really show your customers how much you love them. Malcolm B. Decker - American copy writer (for "Wall Street Journal" and others) and company founder (1927-2015), Quotations book 2023
Great companies
Great companies start because the founders want to change the world... not make a fast buck. Guy Kawasaki - American company founder, venture capitalist, author and marketing evangelist (b. 1954), Quotations book 2023
Endurance
Any superiority an investment process may have will only emerge with time, so patience is important. Nick Sleep - British investor and co-founder of Sleep, Zakaria and Company and the IGY Foundation (b. 1968)
Wait
The single most important skill for being a good investor is to be very content with not doing anything for extended periods, and that’s perfectly fine. Mohnish Pabrai – Indian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist (b. 1964)