Why You Shouldn’t Be like Warren Buffett and What to Do Instead
Think about all the people you meet who try to invest like Warren Buffett.
“I want to be the next Oracle of Omaha” they might say…
“I want to be the next great value investor like Buffett” they might also say…
At one point in my life, that was me. You also probably thought it at one point. But if you’re trying to master a profession, copying the great minds before you is not going to get you very far. You have no advantage. Not only is everyone already trying to copy them, but the greats themselves would tell you they did not outright copy anyone to get to where they are. Instead they used the great minds before them as inspiration to do something new.
I think of that Isaac Newton quote, the mf’in founder of the laws of motion, who was so awoke in 1675 he dropped this little line on the masses:
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Newton did what he did by building on the discoveries of others. You could say he remixed them, or thought he could do what they did better. So he went out of did just that. Great investors also need to think like this. Don’t copy Warren Buffett, remix him or build off what he’s already done.
I started writing this post because I came across a quote from Dr. Michael Burry. Burry is the guy in the movie The Big Short. The dude who plays the drums, walks around with no shoes, and keeps mad conviction on his bet against the housing market despite everyone telling him he’s wrong.
When asked about being a great investor, Burry said the following:
“If you are going to be a great investor, you have to fit the style to who you are. At one point I recognized that Warren Buffett, though he had every advantage in learning from Ben Graham, did not copy Ben Graham, but rather set out on his own path, and ran money his way, by his own rules. I also immediately internalized the idea that no school could teach someone how to be a great investor. If it were true, it’d be the most popular school in the world, with an impossibly high tuition. So it must not be true.” — Dr. Michael Burry
Everyday I think a little bit more about who I will build on, and what type of investor I will become. I learn from my friends who work in financial markets and try to read as much as I can from the greats. Then I fuse their ideas and try to build something of my own. I’m currently 6 years deep in the game, but I think my theories and frameworks are getting better each year.
Who do you follow? Who are you building on?
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