Collection: Guy Spier - #6 'Inner Journey'
[Transcript]
GUY SPIER 00:01
And I touched on this, and I'm going to close on this. So – and I'll just give, I'll give one example.
So there are investors who are more successful than I am, and I've seen investors who – so, the classic thing is there's a conference call the Value Investing Congress, and some very, very persuasive and unbelievably smart people present there.
So there's a couple of people who are big stars there, a guy called Bill Ackman and a guy called David Einhorn. And if any of us were to sit in a presentation with Bill Ackman and David Einhorn, we'd run out and buy whatever stock they're talking about and – or sell short whatever stock they're talking about selling short.
And sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't, but this idea that, you know, this – what we do in the world has got to resonate for us internally. And what I realized, and I'll just share this.
So I have this relationship with Mohnish Pabrai and people think that I say intelligent things to him. I don't. I think that what's going on there is – or part of what's going on is that he is naturally, because of the way his mind works, less averse to loss.
And I have this family history where my family was – ancestors of mine were kicked out of Germany in the '30s, and I think that ricochets down the generations and I have a mortal fear of loss. And so I think that it's beneficial for Mohnish Pabrai to talk to somebody about the investing world who has a mortal fear of loss, because he can sort of – he can read something into the situation that he couldn't read himself.
I think that I responded better to the financial crisis by not denying that history of mine, but just, again, being honest about it, knowing that was part of who I am, and then acting synchronous with that, or acting in concert with that idea.
And I just – I guess the simple idea is that whenever I've looked for answers outside of myself I haven't found very good answers. And the minute I looked for answers inside myself the world changed.
And here's a better example. It was really hard for me to admit to myself that classmates of mine, Bill Ackman's from the year above me and another guy who's famous for being a very successful hedge fund manager, this guy Chris Hohn, it was very hard for me to admit to myself that I was envious of them.
And but for as long as I didn't admit I was envious of them, I kept trying to live this life in New York City of being a big successful hedge fund manager. The minute I took the pain and was willing to say, no, you're just envious of them and you should stop being envious of people. Envy – all emotions report call to action. The emotion of envy is a sign that there isn't something right in your life.
And the minute I redirected that energy and like – we're talking wasting large amounts of money renting big fancy offices with glass, with wall-to-ceiling glass, and trading room, analysts and [Inaudible], that cost a lot of money. All because I was unable to admit to myself that I was, I had envy for something that I shouldn't have envy for.
And the minute I redirected that and said, well, how would I reset up my life given that I, either I'm not able to or I'm not successfully getting to where these people are, I found answers and the answer's, well, stop living that kind of life and live a life that's more in sync. So the inner journey is a great business tool.
And with that, I'm going to stop and take questions. If somebody asks me to go through investment idea, just to give a sense, I will, but only if you ask me. So the floor is yours.
(Source: https://youtu.be/ifDCmRBElPY)
[YAPSS Takeaway]
light-bulb moment💡💡:
"Envy – all emotions report call to action. The emotion of envy is a sign that there isn't something right in your life." ~Guy Spier
