The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom and Enlightenment

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The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom and Enlightenment Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Guy Spier (Author), Malk Williams (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)

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What happens when a young Wall Street investment banker spends a small fortune to have lunch with Warren Buffett? He becomes a real value investor. In this fascinating inside story, Guy Spier details his career from Harvard MBA to hedge fund manager. But the path was not so straightforward. Spier reveals his transformation from a Gordon Gekko wannabe, driven by greed, to a sophisticated investor who enjoys success without selling his soul to the highest bidder. Spier's journey is similar to the thousands that flock to Wall Street every year with their shiny new diplomas, aiming to be King of Wall Street. Yet what Guy realized just in the nick of time was that the King really lived 1,500 miles away in Omaha, Nebraska. Spier determinedly set out to create a new career in his own way. Along the way he learned some powerful lessons which include: why the right mentors and partners are critical to long term success on Wall Street; why a topnotch education can sometimes get in the way of your success; that real learning doesn't begin until you are on your own; and how the best lessons from Warren Buffett have less to do with investing and more to do with being true to yourself. Spier also reveals some of his own winning investment strategies, detailing deals that were winners but also what he learned from deals that went south. Part memoir, part Wall Street advice, and part how-to, Guy Spier takes readers on a ride through Wall Street but more importantly provides those that want to take a different path with the insight, guidance, and inspiration they need to carve out their own definition of success.

Listening Length

6 hours and 28 minutes
Author

Guy Spier
Narrator

Malk Williams
Audible release date

November 25, 2014
Language

English
Publisher

Audible Studios
ASIN

B00PHMS2BU
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 28 minutes
Author	Guy Spier
Narrator	Malk Williams
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	November 25, 2014
Publisher	Audible Studios
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00PHMS2BU
Best Sellers Rank	#26,966 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #93 in Biographies of Business Leaders #150 in Investing & Trading #236 in Biographies of Business & Industrial Professionals

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4.5 out of 5

2,433 global ratings

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peter

The Education of a Value Investor

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2023

Verified Purchase

"The Education of a Value Investor" by Guy Spier is a fascinating memoir that chronicles the author's journey from a self-centered, greedy investor to a thoughtful, value-driven one.

Spier provides an honest and introspective account of his early days as an investor, including the mistakes he made and the lessons he learned along the way. He describes how his experiences working on Wall Street, including a stint as a hedge fund manager, ultimately led him to question his values and rethink his approach to investing.

What I appreciate most about this book is Spier's willingness to share his personal struggles and vulnerabilities. He is candid about his struggles with addiction, divorce, and finding meaning in his life beyond the pursuit of wealth. This makes the book much more relatable and human, and helps to underscore the importance of finding purpose and meaning in our work and lives.

The book is also full of practical insights and advice on value investing. Spier provides detailed accounts of his investment strategy, including his emphasis on investing in businesses with strong moats, his focus on long-term investing, and his emphasis on building relationships with company management teams.

Overall, I found "The Education of a Value Investor" to be a compelling and thought-provoking read. It is a book that challenges readers to think deeply about their values and the role of money in their lives, while also providing practical guidance on how to become a successful value investor. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in investing or personal growth.

One person found this helpful

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jberkshire01

A great book for investors of all types

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2014

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This book is about Guy's personal journey -- the good and the bad. As others have written about the book, he's extremely honest about the path he took to get to where he is today. And while his complete story is still one that is being written, his openness describing his path is what makes this book one that can make just about anyone a better investor. Even if the things that personally work for him don't fit your personality in the same way, he'll make make you think enough about certain things -- especially your environment and the people you surround yourself with -- that I imagine would cause almost anyone, and not just investors, to seriously consider making at least a couple of changes in their lives.

And while far from strictly being an "investment book" (which makes it more interesting to readers of all types) there is still plenty of investment wisdom, and several things that I'll be adding to my own investing checklist. For example, one of the investing mistakes he discusses was his investment in Tupperware. The "Checklist Item" that may have prevented this investment mistake was "Is this company providing a win-win for its entire ecosystem?" While I already have this on my list as far as being careful of investing in tobacco companies, casinos, or public lottery companies (which he also discusses), I hadn't thought of it as much in regards to a company like Tupperware. It was selling a product that its customers wanted, that they couldn't really get elsewhere, and Tupperware was the market leader. Sounds good, right? But the problem was that they weren't giving their customers a good deal. They were overpricing their merchandise. So while there may be money to be made for a while, especially if you get in early and buy a company like this cheap enough, there is a big competitive risk in the future that isn't easy to see just by looking at the past. How loyal do you think customers are likely to be when someone comes along with essentially the same product at a much better price (especially when it then becomes clear how much customers were being overcharged in the past)?

I also liked the CarMax example Guy wrote about. It stressed to me the importance of looking at how customers pay for their purchases. There's a big difference between a business whose customers have the money to pay for their products at the time of the transaction and ones that rely on outside creditors to provide their customers access to credit. While CarMax has other advantages of scale that still make it a decent business and allowed it to recover after credit had dried up, there are many other businesses that make a living relying on the credit of others that don't have any competitive advantages and can quickly and unexpectedly have their business models become at risk in the wrong environment. While things may work well if the wrong environment doesn't occur in one's investment horizon, I think the big key from Guy's examples and checklist items is to stick to areas where your odds of success of winning are higher, and areas where you are less likely to encounter unexpected and unfavorable surprises. As Charlie Munger likes to say, "All I want to know is where I'm going to die so that I'll never go there."

So all in all, I think Guy has written a book very worthy of 5 stars, for investors of all levels of experience, and a book that I think would also be interesting to those outside of the investing world.

5 people found this helpful

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N. Mulcahy

In medias res

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

Only seven pages of Peter Drucker's autobiographical Adventures of a Bystander - a work which should also be on any serious investor's shelf - are devoted to Willem Paarboom, an eccentric financial savant of the nineteen-thirties. Drucker, formed in a culture and a time where polymathy was as realistic and socially desirable an aspiration as owning a Prius is for us, knew many characters of such complexity and richness. Drucker's book is tantalisingly painful because, while his sketches of Paarboom are fascinating, any contemporary reader must suspect that the values which this obscure but great investor practised are now extinct.

Which values? Here is Paarboom, a Dutch proto-Buffett, reviewing a special situation in bankrupt bonds:

"You're right, these...are worth at least six times what they are selling for. But they're not for me...[a]ll you're doing by buying them...is making a sure profit. I won't invest unless I can also make a contribution and do something for the company into which I buy. I stopped long ago wanting to get paid for being clever. Now I get paid for being right."

Guy Spier never refers to this episode but, as his auto da fe reveals, he is one of Paarboom's intellectual and moral heirs. Unlike Paarboom, a consummate activist and trusted adviser to the great names of Europe, Spier avoids contact with the boards and management of his investments and participates on a purely financial basis. However, in choosing companies to invest in (only those that create good outcomes for their customers), in setting the terms of his Aquamarine Fund (no fees until his investors achieve a reasonable hurdle rate) and in seeking to master his own frailties (a great many including status anxiety, the unconscious irrationality we all share and a preference for the abstruse but risky opportunity over the safe but obvious), Spier shows himself as a fellow practitioner of investing as a liberal humanist art.

However, as the title suggests, the book is mostly about Spier's formation rather than his present state. He certainly did not begin his career with any strong resemblance to Paarboom. Despite a fine education at Oxford and Harvard Business School and glittering prospects, his inexplicable decision to join a dubious investment bank after graduation nearly wrecked everything.

While some will be nonplussed by the narrative's familiar development of decline, insight and a meandering path to redemption, it is Spier's consistently unsparing honesty and humility which make this book so valuable. Spier freely admits to himself - and to us - that even after intense self-reflection and a clean start as a die-cast value investor in the school of Graham and Buffett, he couldn't yet disengage from what others thought a successful money manager should resemble. Within the widening gyre of the global financial crisis, this still fragile self-possession was tested almost to melting point. (For the second edition of this book - and there should be one - Spier might consider a form of counterfactual for the critical points in his journey. We understand his story backwards, as we must, but there were many possible, even probable, alternative histories at those times, most of which would have been deeply unhappy for him and his family.)

Spier was luckier than most, though, because he met and befriended Mohnish Pabrai. Through his relationship with this remarkable investor, whom Spier clearly admires across many dimensions, he tests his mettle with Buffett himself. It is great credit to Spier that he recognised the now famous lunch with Pabrai, their respective families and Buffett as his own rubicon rather than just another form of conspicuous consumption. Many of the defining improvements Spier made to his investing style, the structure of his fund and his working and personal relationships came from his realisation that it was this sort of encounter:

http://m.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/archaic-torso-apollo

Spier's style is often confessional and earnest, which some will find incongruous for a book on investing. He is writing "to himself", though, in the manner of Marcus Aurelius and St Augustine. It is more strange, in my view (and symptomatic of the undue influence of science and engineering mental models) that a profession with the potential to create misery or happiness on a vast scale does not produce more thinking like this. Investing is about mastering oneself and, only then, if one is extraordinarily creative and disciplined, performing slightly better than average over a very long period.

It's important not to misinterpret Spier's transparency and modesty (which are consistent with his fully-formed values) as indications of average performance. His fund is one of the most successful in the last two decades, outperforming the S&P500 index by a comfortable aggregate margin.

I give this four stars, not through any dissatisfaction with the achievement but in the hope that Spier has more to say.

10 people found this helpful

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Kat G

Amazing Framework

Reviewed in Canada on January 16, 2022

Verified Purchase

Ok - two reviews:

1) Amazon - Product came in on time in top notch quality
2) The book itself sets a frame work for investing, not just on your financial life but also as a human being. Guy went from a egocentric, stubborn top of his class Harvard graduate, to this humble billionaire that looks to give back to the community and society. There are some some case studies of his bad investments with lessons learned. Overall, a great book - Tons of value here (no pun intended)

Kindle Customer

Inspirational writing!! A must read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 31, 2023

Verified Purchase

Great book that gives insights not only on 'value investing' but also on the inner journey of a human, that can play a vital role in various phases of investing.
Highly recommended for young investors who want to know the basics of investing successfully and want to gain some confidence immediately.

Danish Kataria

must read for the new investor

Reviewed in India on August 8, 2023

Verified Purchase

I recently had the pleasure of reading "The Education of a Value Investor" by Guy Spier and I must say it's been an enlightening journey for my investing endeavors. 🌟

In this captivating memoir, Spier shares his experiences and the lessons he learned throughout his career as an investor. What sets this book apart is the author's focus on not just financial success, but also on personal growth and ethics in investing. 💼

One of the key takeaways for me was Spier's emphasis on developing a long-term mindset in the investment world. He encourages readers to look beyond short-term gains and focus on the intrinsic value of businesses. 📈

Moreover, Spier delves into the importance of self-awareness and understanding one's own biases when making investment decisions. This has undoubtedly helped me become more conscious of my own tendencies as an investor. 💡

Throughout the book, Spier shares his experience of having lunch with Warren Buffett, an iconic figure in the investing realm. Learning about the legendary investor's principles and philosophy through Spier's personal account was a true highlight. 🍽️

"The Education of a Value Investor" is not just a book about finance; it's about life and growth. It teaches us to invest in ourselves, continuously learn, and build strong relationships with like-minded individuals. 📚💬

In conclusion, if you're looking to enhance your investing journey and gain valuable insights from a seasoned investor, I highly recommend "The Education of a Value Investor." It's a compelling read that will leave a lasting impact on your approach to investing. 📖🚀
Thank you Guy Spier for such insight.

One person found this helpful

Richard

Enjoyable read

Reviewed in Sweden on February 21, 2023

Verified Purchase

Very interesting read. Fascinating story of the authors lunch with Warren Buffet. Great investment advice, if you need any further convincing that Value investing is the way to go. Highly recommended read.

Tassoni Alessandro

Piacevole e interessante lettura a tema finanziario

Reviewed in Italy on January 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

📦 Pacco consegnato nei tempi previsti, ben imballato e senza danni.

✔️ PRO: Libro stampato negli USA, non ho trovato la versione italiana. La lettura è stata piacevole e ho tratto molti spunti di riflessione per approfondire il value investing.
❌ CONTRO: Niente da segnalare.

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