Security Error | Columbia Business School

I find things that put me into a flow state are powerful. A great ski run will do that, as will video gaming. I think in a lot of ways, it's a form of helping your mind rest when you're awake.

The necessary conditions for investment excellence are having a high knowledge level, being up to date on the present state of the world, using a Bayesian process on every new piece of data, and accurately framing the four or five analytically bullish and bearish prisms through which we can look at the stock.

Almost everyone starts as a value investor. It’s funny, that's where Buffett started. And then Buffett in the early '90s became a growth investor. And so just be open-minded.

Expose yourself to as many different philosophies and processes as possible because you have got to find one that fits your own emotional make up and that helps you be rational when you’re wrong. And do not be a philosopher. Do not be a high priest of investment religion. Be a practitioner.

Understanding the meta is part of your job and integrating that with these timeless principles from Buffett is important.

The market just is, and your job is to outperform the market. A big mentor of mine, Steve Wymer, said there are only two things in investing: numbers and excuses. And if you don't have the first, nobody cares about the second.

The meta of investing is always changing. But there are some things that are timeless, like if your return on an invested capital goes up, you are going to become more valuable. If you compound your free cash flow per share, you are going to become more valuable. There are these immutable things and a lot of those things have been written about by ... See more

Yeah, so the meta, or the game within the game, is always changing in investing. 20 years ago in the NBA, three pointers were undervalued, statistically. Going for it on fourth down was undervalued in the NFL. And I would say that 20 years ago, understanding ROIC was undervalued in the market.

everybody agrees that stores have value in an online world. Even if you make no money in a store, it lowers your online cost of acquisition. This is the reason all these DTC brands are opening stores. Stores have value.