The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd.
Interpretation
An investor's success depends more on their emotional stability than their intelligence.
This quote emphasizes that in the world of investing, maintaining a balanced and calm temperament is more crucial than simply having a high intellect. An effective investor must navigate the emotional highs and lows of the market without getting swayed by either the prevailing sentiment or the public opinion, focusing instead on rational decision-making.
In practice
During a finance seminar, when discussing the traits of successful investors.
I have no views as to where it will be, but the one thing I can tell you is it won't do anything between now and then except look at you. Whereas, you know, Coca-Cola (KO) will be making money, and I think Wells Fargo (WFC) will be making a lot of money and there will be a lot - and it's a lot - it's a lot better to have a goose that keeps laying eggs than a goose that just sits there and eats insurance and storage and a few things like that.
If the world couldn't see your results, would you rather be thought of as the world's greatest investor but in reality have the world's worst record? Or be thought of as the world's worst investor when you were actually the best?
Cash never makes us happy, but it's better to have the money burning a hole in Berkshire's pocket than resting comfortably in someone else's.
I think you should read everything you can. In my case, by the age of 10, I'd read every book in the Omaha public library about investing, some twice. _x000D_ You need to fill your mind with various competing thoughts and decide which make sense.
The most common cause of low prices is pessimism - some times pervasive, some times specific to a company or industry. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces. It's optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.
Oneβs objective should be to get it right, get it quick, get it out and get it over. Your problem wonβt improve with age.
Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.
The deeper I go into myself, the stronger I become, because I realize that my real self is much bigger than any fear.
Jealousy is comparison. And we have been taught to compare, we have been conditioned to compare, always compare. Somebody else has a better house, somebody else has a more beautiful body, somebody else has more money, somebody else has a more charismatic personality. Compare, go on comparing yourself with everybody else you pass by, and great jealousy will be the outcome; it is the by-product of the conditioning for comparison.
Crowns have their compass-length of days their date-_x000D_ _x000D_ Triumphs their tomb-felicity, her fate-_x000D_ _x000D_ Of nought but earth can earth make us partaker,_x000D_ _x000D_ But knowledge makes a king most like his Maker.
I am tired of the position of the dried-up critic and doubter. The believer is the true full man. (from a biography of James by Robert D. Richardson)
The one to distrust is the person who never makes a mistake, never commits a blunder, never fails in what he tries to do. Either he is a phony, or he stays with the safe, the tried and the trivial.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.