YouSaid · the spoken record

Guy Spier

lines on the record: 138
first: 2024-08-18
most recent: 2024-08-18
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Can you conclude remarks? I think I probably need to make plans to come visit you and Aros. I think that would be good. We could do an offline conversation even. It's really been fun talking to you, Stig. And I think that for me as a kind of like a mini podcaster, anybody else, I think that the most fun is when, and this has been an enormous amount of fun, is when you're coming out of a genuine sense of curiosity trying to figure stuff out. You're asking real questions, challenging questions. And I've been learning all the way through this. I'm a better person at the end of this than I was at the beginning of this. So you don't have to thank me for my time. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to have this conversation.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Saying and disagreeing with them, and so that's what we're doing, we're wrestling with issues that come up and we're trying to figure it out. And it's so much fun to do. So don't call it advice. It's just a conversation.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but I think that it's very kind of you to call it advice. I think that what we've been doing is exploring and sort of kicking a football around and trying to understand. And it's not like I know what I can do is I can say, well, I think that I've had this problem as well and I tried to solve it in this way. And so I'm actually not giving advice. I'm trying to just share with you in this case how I'm trying to solve problems that many of us face. And you're also trying to solve those problems. And by the way, I don't know that I have the right answer. Just to go back to, well, to go back to Jordan Peterson, but it all goes all the way back to the height of Greek civilization and of the Renaissance is that the answers don't lie in sitting in a room and thinking about it, although that's probably important. They lie in coming with your perspective and having it bounce off somebody else's perspective and having them react to what you're saying and learning from what they're saying.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'll be there for the community in a way that takes care of me and maybe monish you can be there all day but I'll be there for a couple of hours and then I'll go to my room. I actually at the Berkshire meeting this year in the afternoon I went and listened to it in my room in part because I could just be there and not interact with people. And so we do as much as we can and that's okay. And far better to be in one's room or not at the meeting, I would argue, than to be in a place where one's not generous and giving to those people coming up to you. And I think that there are so many ways to manage it intelligently. One way is to only go to the overflow room, a place where you're less likely to be recognized. Another way is to say, I'm going to be there in the morning and then in the afternoon I'll go to my room. Or you're not obligated to go to the Berkshire meeting. So all good. But I actually think that in your case, you ought to go. Even though we wouldn't get much time together and you manage yourself in a different way.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I hope that the following helps is everyone, some of the best personalities are introverts. What does that mean? That doesn't mean they don't like people. That doesn't mean they mind being in crowds. But it means that the way I see it, because I think that I'm similar, is my social battery gets drained down faster. So I can maybe do it for an hour or two, but then I'm kind of done and I need to go and rest. And some people can continue like my wife for five, six, seven hours. They just love it. don't apologize for that attribute of yours. It's an attribute that you have. You're naturally an introvert, but that gives you other qualities. And Monish is also, I would argue, an introvert, but he can make a social battery last longer on days like the Berkshire meeting. And it's exactly what he said to me. You owe it to the community, take care of the community. And the answer, I think, for you and me, and I'm not saying that we're the same. We each have to work it out for our own personal attributes, is, yeah.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sorry to stay, you're not whining about your problems. You're exploring really important issues that come up for you and they come up for many people. And so what you're struggling with other people is struggling with, so you're not whining at all. You're trying to understand, you're trying to test other parts. So I just want to make that point as now back to you.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Applying the Adam Grant framework. Don't be blind in applying the false negatives, false positives framework, and do the intelligent thing, evolve your thinking to the circumstances as they unfold, and look to see people who've already solved that problem. You and I are not the first person, people who needed to solve that problem. And so we can look and see how Warren Buffett solves it. And very briefly, how does Warren Buffett solve it? Well, first of all, Warren Buffett is in private except for one day of the year. One day of the year, he's public Warren Buffett. And certainly Warren Buffett doesn't have any meaningful conversations on the Berkshire Hathaway meeting day. And he's totally into it and accepts it because it's one day of his life. So there's one lesson right there is limit and frame the times when you're a public guy. And actually, if I want to be private guy with private stig, all I need to do is say, Stig, I'm on my way to Aris. And if you have time for coffee, I'd be delighted.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Whereas the person that we never hired, even if they would have worked out, it doesn't cost us much, so we ought to grade very, very harshly. And if in doubt, say no rather than saying yes. But how do you balance that with being fair and being kind? So I'd want to see William Green and Monish Pabray talk about those two things. I'd like to put the case to William Green and to Monish Pabrai and say, okay, so here's the situation. I'm talking to Stig, Stig swing to me. We want to dive into a deep conversation. We're having so much fun. And then two very kind, nice people want to get a photograph, but it interrupts our conversation. And Part of me wants to say goodbye. Thank you, not right now. And the other part says interrupt the conversation. See what Monish and William do. And the short, and sorry for the rambly answer, I'm actually landing this plane right now and giving the mic back to you. And the short answer is be intelligent about it. Don't be blind and...”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, because William is like, because I can remember at that Berkshire meeting, I do remember that I'm in the middle of conversation. Now we have to stand up for a photograph. And those people were so happy for the photograph. And I was like, because Willie was really close. I was like, that sucked, William, because it happened with William as well. Or maybe William was somewhere in the area. He was like, no, no, you've got to be kind. You've got to be kind. But then there's another, so where it also happens is I say to Monish, Monish, I know that this person might not work out as a good intern. But I really want to give them a chance. And yes, they haven't come at me in the right way. But you know what? I would not have come at a Guyspeer in the right way. And there's another model that Monish has, which is the cost of a false positive. So the person that we hire that doesn't work out is very expensive to get rid of.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just it. And it's so funny because I'm saying with such clarity and confidence, but in a way, the person who really needs to take that advice is me. Well, actually, two people that are one in the room debate.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That is actually a kind of a sin. It's a grievous sin. Put on your own life jacket before helping somebody else. Your most important job is to live the most meaningful life. And yes, you want to be helpful to people along the way. But unless your goal is to be Mother Teresa, you cannot allow all the people who want help to drag you into what is not the most important thing for you. If I'm Roger Federer, There's a point at which I have to say to all the school kids. It's been great talking to you. Now I'm going to go and train some real tennis with my one coach who can help me. And yes, I know you want me to spend another three days playing tennis with you and inspiring you and talking to you about tennis. My life mission is to go in Wimbledon is not to be a tennis coach and to go win Wimbledon, I have to go and play with my coach. I have to do a structured regime. And you guys aren't part of it.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And none of those guys, none of the guys at Value X can help you with that. So it's not just about sorting through people. It's about directing your helping energies in a direction that can be actually help you to progress your life. So that's kind of a long rambly answer. But the short answer is apply it in a dynamic way and apply it intelligently and with, in a way, actually the world that comes to my mind is malice. say no have to set up barriers, have to set up gatekeepers, have to set up processes that protect you. You cannot, you will not be effective. And here's what I would, it's easy for me enough to say to you, Stig, but I'm extremely guilty of it. And so I will not say it about you. I will say it about me. It is an enormous betrayal of ourselves. And we have to be true to ourselves to lose ourselves in helping other people.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“50 people get set up in business or to progress their careers as analysts. That's not going to help me progress in my spend all of my time helping those people or my staff, my organization can spend all of its time helping those people, but it's not going to get me to progress in my life. So I have to decide what I want to do with my life. I just want to help people, that's fine. But if I want the business to progress. Interestingly enough, and I know this because I run a minuscule podcast. But you can take many, what do you call it, startup emerging managers, new blood managers, and it's helping them, but it's not helping your podcast. And I suspect that for the investors podcast, I just put it out to you. Have you thought about interviewing Larry Summers, interviewing Jerome Powelling Janet Yellen? So that's probably where you have to go.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They're just not the right people to be helping in your case. So I'll tell you something that I've done in a way, well, maybe I haven't done too much of it, but I need to shift the focus of my attention of my team's attention. I love seeing people who are just out of college, just out of business schools, people who are budding analysts, people who want to start their funds. I want to help them to succeed. I think that's lovely. And I want them all to become billionaires. And I'll send them all bottles of champagne when they have more AUM than I do or when they have higher returns. And I want to be able to be invited onto their yachts. But I also have to focus on what's going to move the needle for me. And I've helped a certain number of people. I would have liked to have helped more. And I hope I do help more. But that's not going to move the needle for me. To have helped, I don't know, if we take the value X community in total current and past value X's, call it 200, 250. Helping another...”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Be a good gatekeeper or a good facilitator. So I'll literally, I'll say the only way you can become an intern is, first of all, by getting the approval of these prior interns who were there because they know what the environment is like. And then you need to go to my staff. And if there's unanimous approval there, then yeah, then you can come be my intern. So best of luck. I'd love to help you with that process. And the way you need to, so that's about as much as you can do. So the point to Adam Grant is the point that the chapter that I would have Adam Grant write is how do you manage it as a dynamic process so that the bad doesn't drive out the good in a certain way, that you don't end up investing all your time in giving to people who's something else that can happen is these people are not asking for more and they're not coming back with multiple requests.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Gatekeepers and create sort of like rules as to how to approach all the different kinds of requests that come in, for example. So you might find that there might find, let's talk about me because I know me and I don't know. We used to give internships to a lot of people and we discovered that it was just a huge drain and very, very hard for us. So we had to develop rules. I used to be the guy who offered internships. Now I've had to discipline myself when I'm anywhere in the world outside of the office. I have to say, wow, I can't offer the internship. The only thing I can do is propose you to the team. And the only time that we offer an internship if the team is unanimous, but I can certainly propose you to the team. And that even goes for family members. And so I created a process. And now, and what I find really interesting to do is if I've had an intern, for example, and I got an enormous number of internship requests. Often the intern might”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Time for a coffee when I'm in Omaha because that is a request for his time that would very quickly get me out of his good books and into the far periphery of his universe. The only way I can be in any way a part of his universe is to not make any request. I move myself out of that set. But there are some people, and unfortunately there are a lot of them, where one has to actually move them out and they don't even realize that they're not being helpful to you, where one just So I guess it's a dynamic process. Somebody comes back with two or three requests and doesn't try to help you. You just have to see them as matches or takers. And one has to develop systems. So I would tell you that an engine is the way Monish would describe it. So rather than being as reciprocating person or being a giving person, which you certainly want to be, to the extent that you're successful, you need to teach those systems to the people around you and create.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Who are takers, but for some reason we need them or want them in our lives and we're willing to take the cost of having them as takers. So I think there's no, it's not a sort of like the boundaries are malleable, people can move back across the boundaries and one can choose to have somebody at a closer distance for one reason or another. And so the other thing that I would say or part of that dynamic process is so the set of people that I'm helping is not the same set all the time. There are people who coming into that set and then they'd be moving, they move themselves out potentially. And I'll give you an example. People have asked me so many times, what's your relationship to Warren Buffett? And I have moved myself out very intelligently. And the only option available to me is out of the set of people who would call up Warren Buffett to see if he's got...”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really important about them because other people, if I meet their request or I am helpful to them in some way, will find a way to help me back. And so if somebody, if I help somebody in some way and they come back with a second request and they live in the world in such a way where they kind of go, well, I'll try Guy because he helped me once, so maybe he'll help me again. Then yes. So I'll help them once, but I can't help them a second time. Maybe I can help them two times, not a third time. I have to shut them out or I have to move them away or move them to a more distant setting where they can't make those requests that often. So what I'm actually doing is I'm sorting through people, I'm discovering by how they react to my behavior and reassigning them. And people can move categories and they can come, they can learn and come into a different category. There may be some people.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of his book where the give and take matches givers and takers a dynamic process. So when you start discerning in your behaviors between matching, giving and taking, your environment changes. And so it requires modifications of our behavior. And so you're absolutely right. It's a hydra, to use the Greek mythological idea that you cut off one head and two heads appear and you give to somebody and they come back with another request and yet another request. And so I like to think now of that Adam Grant framework as a sorting mechanism. So some people will come back after you've met their request in a helpful way with a second request. And now I've just learned something.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a spectacular question. And before I get to, I think I have some helpful answers, is this idea of you kind of like earlier on, before you got to the question, you talked about the person who is engaging in behaviors that are not ideal, but I or you would have done maybe the same thing earlier on in our careers. And it's so hard to get on one's path in life and to get started and to make progress. Maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt the same way that we would have liked to have been given the benefit of the doubt all of those things, which raise, they just raise really, really important issues that I'd like to come back to. But to go to the question, I think that if I was, if Adam Grant, I've met him once, he hasn't asked me, but I'd love to get into a sort of rewrite or an additional chapter.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At making people feel good at a cocktail party. That is like, well, why? Why when I could be diving into some really important topic with somebody or on my own? And so that creates a particular challenge for you when you're in kind of these kind of more shallow type environments. And what was painful for me is that I realized that if we would have met somewhere in a mountain lodge where people go for hikes in the morning and hang out in the afternoon, we would have had a three-hour conversation about something.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that something else that I realized about that conversation was in a way painful for me at Omaha because I realized that I just wanted to sit with you for two hours because one of the qualities that you have is that you're extraordinarily curious and you're curious in a very incisive way. And that for you is a joy, actually, trying to get to the bottom of something, trying to really understand it in a thorough way. And that's not something that happens when you're having these shallow conversations. And so the way I want to, it's a bit like what we're doing right now, which is kind of a joy, is to really try and understand and really try and, and that requires at least 20 minutes, if not two or three hours of really, I mean, even a retreat where you kind of have multiple opportunities to think through the thing. And so, and actually what I realize is that you set next to zero value.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So joins Stig in listening to the people on the stage. Don't try and interfere with his concentration as he's trying to learn just like you are. Am I making any sense?”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Something, there's a way before I written my book, and I knew again don't turn and talk to him, don't just let him observe you quietly and let him see who you are. And I resisted the temptation. I'm reasonably sure if I would have tried to turn and talk to him, he would have me shut me down in no time. And then at the very end, as everybody was getting up, I said to him, Lou Simpson, obviously I know who you are, I'm Guy Spear. Obviously, I'm a huge fan. I'd love to connect with you sometime. And I'd won the credit with him because I hadn't bugged him through the Q&A because we were both there to do the Q&A. And so what's my point? There are better ways to behave around the Stig Brodersons of the world. And then Stig Broderson may well notice you. And it's always good, like, if you're at a meeting like ValueX and forgive me, I'm kind of, I hope you don't edit this out. It's like be there for the purpose of the meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to listen to people on the stage.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm at the Sequoia Fund, Rouain Coniff's Mutual Funds annual meeting in New York City. This is like two decades ago, so I'm sitting there. Who sits down next to me but Lou Simpson? There's Lou Simpson. I mean, this guy's a hero. This guy's a god to me. I studies investment decisions. And it's like a bit like that Elton John phenomenon. But of course, Elton John, he's just a singer. Lou Simpson. And there's Q&A. There's Jonathan Brandt on the stage. There's Biller Wayne there at the time. There's Carly Cunniff there. And what I want to do is turn to Lou Simpson, given my business card. And sometimes I'm impressed I actually do the right thing. And I said, we're at a meeting, there's Q&A. Just you've noticed him. And then I saw that he was looking at me to find out, to see who the hell I was. Maybe he recognized me.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At Stig when you're anywhere around a group of investors. And that's a shame because you want to be private stig. And I'd say that to empathize to you, the problem with being public stig is that when all these people are coming at you, you can't be natural, you can't learn, you can't discover, you can't ask questions, you can't evaluate. You can't have that random sort of thought or insight that helps you. And so that's a real freaking shame, if you like. And I just think that, and it may segue into a question that I know you'd put on the preparation for this, we cannot be the same person that we were. We have to modify and adjust and become different to the person that we were. And that's in a way, I think, what you're being challenged to do, certainly for places like the Berkshire meeting and maybe value acts and other gatherings where just for people listening, I tell you it comes up for me.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, I don't think my personal view is it's not entitled, it's just a reflection of reality. It's reality that, look, I've discovered on YouTube that I can watch this British journalist whose name always escapes me. And he's got a very, very successful YouTube show with millions of viewers. And he's got endless number of people who want to get onto his show. They're desperate to get on. That's just the way it is. And there's a kind of a, it's not an 80-20 rule. It's a 99-1 rule. And in terms of your podcast, you've entered into that 1%. And that's a natural consequence. What I'd say is that in a way, and I'm kind of doing this in real time because I'm realizing the problem. And in a way, you cannot go back to being private stig around investors. It's just the world has changed and there's all sorts of benefits that you get. You run a very successful podcast. There's also price that you have to pay and it's that you can't be price.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you're around investors, it's just inevitable that they're going to want to be on your podcast and they're going to be desperate to try and get on and they're going to do try all sorts of ruses to try and get on. And it's a reflection of your success. And it's just a part of the price you have to pay. You can't really go back, can you?”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Very hard to get a reservation. And I've seen no doubt that if anyone in the restaurant would have walked up, Felton John said, oh, can I get an autograph or something, they would never have been able to get a table in that restaurant ever again. And so Elton John, we face a very, very minuscule fraction of what Elton John faces. And in a way, it's the price of success. And you have a kind of a media business. You have a very successful podcast. And it's natural. I mean, I always find it interesting that when I speak to journalists at a major publication, or I think I was on CNBC once and I was on CNN once, like those people, I'd be like, oh, we should go for a coffee sometime or, oh, can I send you a copy of my book? Or can I put you on my holiday card list? And they have no interest. They have a thousand people a day trying to do that with them. And you can try, but you're not going to get very far. And so you in a way have transitioned.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Actually, what I would say is I Sort of like crowded because it's a kind of a violation of value X says ethos to do that. You can't walk up to a stick broads and say, please might be on your podcast. That is soliciting business. That is soliciting for yourself. You can't do it. And to the extent that it was done is not appropriate. What they can do is say, I love your podcast. And if you're ever looking, it's hard. If you're ever looking for guests, I'll be happy to help you find some. There's a fine line. But in a way, It's hard because I would have preferred for that not to happen to you. And I can tell you I was in a restaurant this summer, believe it or not, my wife and I discovered this incredible restaurant in the south of France. You get to by boat. And so we went and guess who comes and sits down? Elton John. Elton John is in this restaurant and we're in this restaurant. And what's really fascinating about this restaurant, very, very hard to get a table.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Success that I craved. And I felt like if I'm well known, then I'll have easier time researching investment opportunities and I'll have an easier time getting investors and all of those things. And I think that's probably true. And so I kind of, there's a certain price to be paid for that. Yes, I do have better conversations. And yes, people are more willing to pick up the phone to me and talk to me. But I think that I hope to manage it now. I don't want any more celebrity. I think I've got more than the optimal amount, actually. And in your case and in my case, and it doesn't help that, I think you're more of an introvert than me, but I'm also, I believe, at the end of the day an introvert, when I'm in spaces like the Berkshire Hathaway meeting or when we're at ValueX, then that's just something I have to manage. But again, a long answer, a long and rambly answer to your question, my word to you is always be stig broderson.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People who've a lot less privacy than I, what I understand, I mean, people like Barack Obama and many other people, they just yearn for the ability to walk around and not be noticed and not be known and just be themselves and not have anybody react any differently to them. And that is a gift if you're not a public figure. So I've lost a little bit of that nowhere near. I've lost a little bit and learned enough to know that I don't really want to lose any more of it if I can avoid it. The privacy and anonymity is a good thing. There's also, I mean, okay, let's be clear. So why have I become, I don't know if I'm a celebrity at the Berkshire Hathway, I'm a minus celebrity and it's in parks I wrote a book, The Way That I Wrote The Book, it's having these very, very open, honest conversations. And there's a part of me that wanted it. And why did I want it? Because I perceived that it was an important way to get this.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've had conversations with William Green about this because he's in a similar kind of boat. So I don't want to create too many situations where I have many, many people coming up to me because unlike Monish, it drains me of energy. It doesn't fill me with energy. And I kind of find it a little bit meaningless. But at the same time, there's a benefit to me being at the Berkshire meeting. I don't want to not go to the Berkshire meeting. And I want to be kind to those people and I want to be a decent human being. So that's just those are waters that I have to navigate trying to be myself as much as I can. But I would say that I think that writing a book as personal as I did is a kind of loss of your virginity. You can't ever go back. People now know things about me and they feel like they know me personally in many, many ways they do. And in a way, that's a loss of privacy.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He's energized by people coming up to him. He kind of thinks it's fun. He's happy to take the photographs. He's happy to banter a little bit. And it's only one day in the year, so he's not doing it every day of the week. And the difficulty that I think that I have with that and that perhaps you have with that is that it denudes, so when I go to Berkshire and I am in that way at Berkshire, there's no meaningful interaction. So to be a celebrity is a very shallow experience because people are there just looking, they're not actually interacting with me as an individual. They're interacting with their idea of who I am. And there's not even the time to kind of like create any real connection because there's another person and another person, another person. And I personally find that exhausting. And I also find it kind of meaningless. And so...”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Father, I'd have said, You're going a stig. And by the way, the stig that you are with your family and at home and personally should be and is the same stig that is appearing at value X and elsewhere in public. But then what's happened to me? So that's my goal. And I think that I've done a reasonably good job of it, better than I would have before I read the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. But and I don't know if you might actually certainly would have experienced it at Value X because half the people at ValueX would like to go on your show. So you'd have had a whole stream of people coming up to you. And at Berkshire Hathaway, I end up having a whole stream of people coming up to me. And there it's only become sort of like top of mind for me recently. Where I see that Monish and I have very, very different personalities. So for Monish is the best as I can see it.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly what you wear and the color that you wear, and the color that you wear related to the other people around you and where the badge goes or if you don't wear a badge or all of that count. So that is an example of an extremely dichotomized, separated. But that's not you and me. And we're trying to be authentic in the real world. We're trying to be, or at least speaking for myself, but I think you're the same kind of person. You want to be, I want to be the same person everywhere I am. I don't want to have a public persona. And so my goal, and again, be aware of the dimension that it adds but don't apply it necessarily in the same way that other people you've seen apply it. So certainly I don't want to live my life like a royal. I can try and merge the public and the private persona. And that is my goal. And I think that that's part of why people enjoy talking to me because they see that the private and the public persona the same thing. So if I'd have been your”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When they're in their public roles. That's not their job. That's not why they're there. Prince William is not there because he has a good or a bad sense of humor because he's particularly intelligent and knows a lot about history or if he's a good father or a bad father. He's there because you so rightly put, he came out of a certain womb and he's there to play a role and you play that role in the best possible way when you don't interfere with it, when you don't create noise. In a way it seems to me that And I think that I'm a fan of the younger brother and Meghan Markle, but in order to do best as an employee of that firm, you need to separate your own personality from the way people see you. And that comes down to selecting what you wear. Because what you wear is, again, the sense of decorum or the sense of symbolism that you're using.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Going to have to manage that. And it seems to me that the key is to understand those two things and to manage it in a way that is consistent with your personality. And it can be very different depending on what your personality is. And so, and I want to sort of just bring up a few examples. Going back to the royal family and it's the lessons we can learn from the royals who do that well, the reality is that we know absolutely nothing about the private personality of any of the royals that are so carefully watched in the UK that the ones I am so familiar with. And the ones who do it really well, it seems to me don't even attempt to project”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I totally get the question, and it's a spectacular question. And another way of putting it for me is that, and it happened for a while, somehow it's dropped off now, is that did they want to meet me or did they want to meet the guy who wrote the book? And there was a certain point where people were disappointed because they realized that the person they were meeting was not the person who wrote the book. He'd moved, he'd grown since then. He changed his mind. And there are some things that I wrote in my book that I don't agree with anymore that I think are actually quite stupid. And there's this kind of like disappointment, if you like. And so how do you navigate between a public persona and the private individual? And it seems to me, and it's a theme that just, it's coming up for me. I don't know if it's coming up for you. It's just this dimension that like it or not, if you become known to more people than you could ever meet in your lifetime, you just”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That the two minutes that you spent or the five or the ten minutes, the person who you need to connect with, who's in the room will read something about what you said. And it may be completely unrelated to the topic that you're discussing. Maybe your accent or a reference to something. And that creates the connection that creates something. And so you show up at Value X clusters and you hear about value x Middle East and you didn't know it existed. Somebody else shows up to value X clusters and discovered something else or meet something they never expected to meet. It's kind of fun when I see and track those things. Really, really interesting. So I don't know if that was in answer to you, if it's just something that I wanted to say, but there we go.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that what's really powerful, I mean, one of the things that seems to me, and this comes from a Toastmasters format, meeting format called tabletopics, in which every person is required to give an impromptu speech of, say, two minutes long on a topic that they didn't hear about three minutes beforehand. So it's really about thinking on your feet. And so on the one hand, that's training and giving impromptu speeches. Another aspect to it, which is that when you have a group of 10, 20 people in the room and they each give a two-minute speech, is that there are these really sort of like there are these tells, they talk about things that they didn't expect to talk about and say things about themselves in the world that they didn't expect to say. And suddenly you get this community arising. And so at value x, we're kind of like trying to push that everybody gets a chance to talk to the group. And what you get as a result of that is”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, just for you, I don't know how Ram runs it, but one of the ways I run Value X is that you can't just buy a ticket. You can't just sign up because you need to be known to the community. So RAM's running it the same way, which I suspect he is, you'll have to find somebody who is already a part of that community and get them to recommend you because then, and I have this rule that even when somebody is recommended to me and they're very, very good person to add to the value x, I always make sure that I've met them at least by Zoom well before the conference, that there are known entity into the group. So if you want to join ValueX Middle East or ValueX, you'll have to find a way to get to know the people who are already there and make yourself valuable to them, I hope you don't mind me sort of like.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is superb. It's absolutely superb. Better than value X clusters. Did I just say that? No, it isn't. We're better. We're better. But RAM's an incredible guy. He's just, he's got all the right models. He's living by all the right myths, if you like.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Extraordinary success, and I would judge my life a success if I could look back in 30 years, 20 years, and say, wow, look at these amazing people and what they did in their lives. And against that measure, we're only just getting started, there's a long way to go.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And this is really, I'm genuinely, and this really does, it's part of my, I think, my DNA, and it really does drive me, I don't need to own a big yacht. I don't need to be a billionaire. But boy would it be fun if a few of my friends own big yachts and are billionaires and they're not kind of inviting me onto their yacht or whatever the hell else they're doing because they're trying to get something for me or because they owe me something or because we're genuine friends and they just want to have my company and it would be fun to do. And so the real measure for me is in 20 years how many billionaires or how many extraordinarily successful people where I once read an article in New York Times about some group of guys who would meet once every week or maybe once every month in New York City and they'd all lived these extraordinary lives and the premise of the article was it had something to do with them getting together with each other once a week for these meetings and so I'd be judgeing it”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There are difficult choices to be made if one thinks about where it goes. But my expectation is that we'll stay in clusters. It'll be around 120 people. I try to be inclusive and bring new people in, but there's a constraining factor that I don't exclude people who are already there. And the real measure, and I've said this a couple of times at the conference, is, and I'll end with my rambly thoughts.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Invite back or spend an enormous amount more time with for all sorts of good reasons. But I can't, I don't believe that I can exclude them from the event because if you became a part of the community, even if they're not contributing value to me by their presence, they might be contributing value to somebody else. And even if they're not contributing value to somebody else, they're kind of like former part of the social network. Now, if you go and exclude somebody, which I think that the World Economic Forum does do, you get invited for a number of years and then they just say, no, we're done with you. And there's good reasons for doing it because in a way you kind of get rid of dry wood. But there's this nervousness and this salesy aspect to the world economic forum where you're kind of afraid you won't be invited back. And so you take away safety. And that has an impact. So if I want to kind of like have more turnover in the group that's there, I'll destroy other things. And so.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We've decided because it's run by the team that I'm a part of, that we don't want it to grow. And so we're at capacity in this convention sports center in clusters. And we kind of agree that they're a lot more space in Davos, which is not that far away. But it would change the nature of the event significantly that in a way it would destroy it. So no, we're not moving to Davos. And I would tell you that when you get a group of 120 people, what's really fascinating is at 120 people, you start replicating the problems of society. So in a group of 120 people, you'll have no matter how you try and do it, you'll have your share of people who are there because over a period of 15 years of running value X, not every single person is somebody that I necessarily want to”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Starts presenting the idea, and within 10 minutes you've got a discussion going on. Well, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? What about this? I know somebody who can help you figure out that. And you get the hive mind of effectively 37R participants in a seminar style environment, really trying to help you think through it. And it was extremely powerful. It's kind of hard for me to do. Value X is not an aircraft carrier, but it's a big enough ship that you can't You can't just go to everybody and say, okay, we're changing the format. It's going to be completely different. 60 of you won't be able to come back. It wouldn't be very nice. So I'm just pointing that out because it's interesting you start something and then it develops its own momentum. It develops its own community and the community develops its expectations. And even if there are some really good ideas that it would be impossible to implement without destroying it so.”
2024-08-18 · We Study Billionaires · TIP653: Track Record and Risk w/ Guy Spier · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT