Mastering the Long Game of Investing

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Shyam Sekhar on Mastering the Long Game of Investing

In the latest episode of The One Percent Show, I talked to Shyam Sekhar, the Chief Ideator and Founder of iThought Financial Consulting. Among a lot of insights, Shyam talked about –

• Role of right mentors in life,
• Importance of developing an investment philosophy, and
• Playing the long game in investing.

On his learnings from mentors, Shyam had this to say –

“I have learned a lot of business only from business people. I have not learned it from investors but from business people. And that is why I look at businesses from a business perspective and not an investor’s perspective. And I will only wear the investor’s hat if I am convinced from a business perspective. There is another belief that you learn only from people who are successful. I have a very different view. Many people have not been so successful in life and have taught me many things by opening up about their past experiences and honestly sharing their thought processes. But for them, I would have not understood the genesis of failure. It’s very easy to only look at success, but you have to understand failure first. ”

Another insightful part of our conversation was when Shyam advised investors not to be outcome-driven –

“Don’t be just outcome driven. I think lot of people, particularly in these three years I see have become increasingly outcome driven and obsessed. If you want to do this for a long period of time, you’ll have different types of outcomes and you have to whether the bad outcomes for you to enjoy the great outcomes. So, if you only want great outcomes, then you will not be ready to face the bad outcomes.”

Click here to listen to our entire conversation.

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My Interview on Talking Billions

I recently talked with Bogumil Baranowski, founding partner of Sicart Associates and author of “Outsmarting the Crowd – A Value Investor’s Guide to Starting, Building and Keeping a Family Fortune” on his podcast Talking Billions.

We took on some big questions about life, living with kindness and how to be okay when things are not. We also discussed the concept of freedom, minimizing the cost of being wrong, and also why we should treat our wealth like our children, who are our primary link between the present and the future.

I enjoyed talking to Bogumil. Click here to listen to our conversation.

My conversation with Bogumil revolved around my book The Sketchbook of Wisdom, which contains 50 timeless ideas – from Lord Krishna to Charlie Munger, Socrates to Warren Buffett, Lao Tzu to Nassim Taleb, and Steve Jobs to Naval Ravikant – as they apply to our lives today.

If you haven’t got a copy of the book, which has already sold more than 5500 copies worldwide, click here to get it now.

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Bharat Shah on Investing Successfully

One of the best theories I have read on the importance of investing in high-quality businesses in the Indian context comes from Bharat Shah of ASK Group, who has written a book (sad, it’s not available in print) titled “Of Long Term Value and Wealth Creation from Equity Investing.”

I recently came across his old interview, where he shared his insights on value investing and how he formed his investment process and principles. A passage from the interview reads thus (emphasis mine) –

“…successful long-term investing calls for two vital technical capabilities or craft and two personality traits. While craft can be honed and refined by observing and absorbing, character traits have to come from within and be developed.

The two essential skills are: ability to comprehend and grasp the true character and the innards of diverse businesses as well as the ability to value them. Till these abilities are developed, one cannot become a good investor.

The two vital character traits are: discipline (or temperament) and wisdom. Discipline lies in investing only into quality businesses and the temperament of not getting carried away by the fads of the markets and buying such quality businesses only at a meaningful margin of safety.”

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The Inner Game Podcast

I recently published a series of short videos – titled The Inner Game – to share my thoughts around investing, decision making, learning, and just the practice of trying to live a good life.

You can watch them on my YouTube channel, including these recent ones –

You can also find these and all past sessions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Amazon.

Hope you like these and find some value. Please let me know your feedback and/or suggestions for improvement. Thank you.

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Walter Schloss’ 16 Timeless Investing Rules

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Closing Thoughts

“As I look back on it now, it’s obvious that studying history and philosophy was much better preparation for the stock market than, say, studying statistics.” ~ Peter Lynch

“We never sit down, run the numbers out and discount them back to net present value. The decision should be obvious.” ~ Charlie Munger

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That’s about it from me for today.

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Thanks for your time.

Regards, Vishal