Interesting piece in Bloomberg over the weekend interviewing various billionaires about their current investment perspective. I thought the most interesting question was the best piece of investing advice they ever received. It’s a diverse group with some thought provoking insights. The whole piece is a fun read just for a change of pace. The advice follows:
Mikhail Prokhorov, Russian billionaire entrepreneur: “Keep your back straight and don’t fidget” — a piece of Russian folk wisdom.
Donald Trump, real estate mogul: “My father, Fred C. Trump, told me to know everything you can about what you’re doing. He believed in being thorough and was wary of blind spots.”
Eli Broad, American businessman: “Don’t bet the farm.”
Patrick Soon-Shiong, South African-American surgeon who was founder, chairman, and CEO of Abraxis BioScience: “Invest in yourself and the people you believe in.”
John Paul DeJoria, billionaire businessman: “How to buy a put, told to me by a woman named Rebecca.”
Joe Jamail, Lebanese American attorney and billionaire: “My dad told me, “Don’t buy any g—— stocks, OK?” He had a chain of grocery stores. He liked that cash coming in.”
Randal J. Kirk, founder, chairman and chief executive of New River Pharmaceutical: “Good deals are like bus stops; there is one on every corner.” Told to me by Red Robertson of Grundy, Virginia, who invested in my first deal. The advice illustrated he was not so interested in the deal as in my dedication to it. One invests in the guy behind the deal, above all else.
Rubens Menin Teixeira de Souza, Chairman & CEO of MRV Engenharia: “Buying Brazilian C bonds when they were trading at 40 cents on the dollar. The securities, issued in the 1990s, traded at par in 2005 when the government bought back the last of them.”
Source: Bloomberg
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
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