focus ‘pon your soul

No reason for anyone to be out here getting carried away about the opinions of others. We all get a chance to look smart and to look stupid. It’s just that some of us have a ratio problem – way too much of the latter relative to the former.

It’s okay to point out when someone is in error or saying things that may be detrimental to the reader. But to get triggered? To spend all day focusing on how wrong everyone else is? Okay, then – if you’re so smart, where’s your trillion dollars? In the mail?

None of history’s best investors focused on batting average; How many things right versus how many things wrong. Instead, they focused on “what do I get when I’m right, how much does it cost me when I’m wrong?” Buffett, Soros, down the list. Maybe they got six right, five wrong, but so what. How much more did the six right pay off? What was the margin of safety on the five wrong? Constructed properly, winning investments should be asymmetric in terms of overall portfolio impact versus losing investments, or you’re doing it wrong.

Only newsletter people are tallying up good calls and bad calls.

One sure way to know that someone isn’t a serious investor is to see them focusing on their batting average. The clincher is if you see them overly and constantly focused on the opinions of others simultaneously. Nobody should have time for that.

Focus ‘pon your soul, boy.

Soundtrack:

Links: