Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Depending on the part of the world you’re in. This is Jonathan Satovsky of Satovsky Asset Management and on today’s episode of “Seeking Wisdom, Wealth, and Wellness,” I want to talk about finding a path that works without losing all of your friends.
I have a very dear friend who is a deep value investor and he said, “You know if you really want to be a great value investor you got to be willing to lose all your friends,” and I said, “Why is that?” He goes, “Well the thing is that you’re going to poo-poo all the nonsense that they’re doing with their money and you’re going to sort of, you know, want to go the other direction. And then, when you’re right and you’re making money and they’re losing money, they hate you for that too.” So, it creates a little tension in society and sort of reminds me of Charlie Munger and his cantankerous nature, of you know, being out of sync with everyone else and being okay with that indifference.
However, there is another way. And you don’t have to lose all of your friends by being super deep, self-righteous, and smiling while other people are wrong and you’re right. Obviously, it doesn’t win friends and influence people so well. There’s an in-between where you can take the concept of indexing and you can factor tilt toward cheap, small, and profitable companies because if you’re leaning toward the most profitable companies and the cheapest companies, instead of perpetual momentum, like buying higher and higher, you’re perpetually doing something that’s against human nature, which is buying low and selling high. So, I know we’re supposed to do it, but in operation and mechanism and human behavior, it’s extraordinarily tough to do. So, consider the middle way.
Have a great day on your path to Wisdom, Wealth, and Wellness.
