The investment world is full of storytellers. And while these folks might be entertaining, they generally aren’t very helpful. But there is one sort of story that you may find useful: They’re what I call investment fables. They’re apocryphal stories that likely aren’t real but are helpful [...]
A tale of two CEOs
When I was in school, corporate executives often visited for guest lectures. Two of these presentations still stand out in my mind. The first was the CEO of a company then called Flextronics—now simply Flex. It's a contract manufacturer that assembles products for other companies. Apple, for [...]
Investment sayings
A few weeks back, I referenced Robert Shiller’s book Narrative Economics. The idea is that stories—to a surprising degree—often drive markets. The investment world is also driven by a good number of sayings and aphorisms. Many of these are entertaining, and some are even useful. But they can also be [...]
Single Stories
In 2009 author Chimamanda Adichie coined the term “single story.” A native of Nigeria, Adichie first came to the U.S. to attend college. Almost immediately, she was struck by the one-dimensional lens through which many saw her. It started with her roommate. Knowing that Adichie had just arrived [...]
Five “strategies”
The tricky thing about investing is that there is no single “right” approach. A little while back, I talked about the “five minds” of the investor—the optimist, the pessimist, the analyst, the economist and the psychologist. But why these five? There are, in fact, many ways to be successful: You [...]
