Pieter Slegers on investing and learning

Keep growing and be a learning machine.  I definitely don't consider myself, for example, the smartest guy in the room...  How can you offset it?  Just by reading as much as you possibly can...  The first thing I do, every first two hours - I'm a morning person, an early bird - every day between 5 am and 7 am, I just read...  Last year I read 91 books...  Everything can be found in books and by reading, buying a $20 book, and basically learning from the best person in the world about a certain topic.  That's amazing.  And when you combine these books with having some great mentors in your life, people who are maybe farther than you in what you are doing, well that's a very powerful combination...  If you reach out to people asking for help, asking for advice, you will be surprised how many people are willing to help you, especially people with a lot of experience.  They love to help you, especially people with a lot of experience.  They love to help other people get along the way.

~ Pieter Slegers, "How to Spot Rare Quality Businesses Among All the Losers," Stansberry Investor Hour, 55:15 mark, February 18, 2025

Joel Tillinghast: "Every skilled investor I've met has been a curious and a lifelong learner"

Every skilled investor I've met has been a curious and a lifelong learner.  They read broadly and constantly.  For anticipating the future, it's more important to understand why things happen than what happened...  Curiosity needs to be balanced with skepticism.  Everyone needs a spam filter and a crap detector - some way of classifying and throwing away redundant or wrong information.  Things are often not as they seem in finance.  Be skeptical and willing to challenge ideas others take for granted.

~ Joel Tillinghast, Big Money Thinks Small, p. 41

Alvin Toffler on literacy

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.

~ Alvin Toffler, Future Shock

Ben Claremon on being a generalist

What I really love about investing as a career is that you're constantly learning.  Constantly reading, constantly learning.  And as I always say, as an investor you have to know a little bit about everything, because as a generalist... I have to know a lot.  I have to have a very broad understanding of different kinds of companies and business models, and then I can dive deep and understand individual companies... at a nuanced level.  I approach new business models and companies all the time with very little backing aside from pattern recognition, a lot of time spent analyzing businesses which give you a framework which you can use.

~ Ben Claremon, "Wealth #2: Investing in Stocks like a Pro; with Ben Claremon of Cove Street Capital," YouTube.com, 4:55 mark, September 18, 2020

Heraclitus on change

The only constant in life is change.

~ Heraclitus

Martin Lau on learning from young people

First of all, the challenge rather for myself being not a young fund manager is that there are so many new things.  So, I just talked about video streaming and I needed to go to my colleague, and I deliberately put two youngest colleagues within our team sitting next to me, so that I can look at how they do video streaming.  Actually, one of them set up a shop and painted and sells stationery--but not from the company, from her own pocket, just for fun.  And by doing so you actually learn about how young people behave.  And I think it's fair to say the best business opportunities come from the younger people.  So, I think that's how I try to learn.

~ Martin Lau, FSSA Investment Managers, "Martin Lau: Now is a Better Time to Buy China," Morningstar's The Long View, August 3, 2021

Charlie Munger on learning from the past

I don't spend much time regretting the past, once I've taken my lesson from it.  I don't dwell on it.

~ Charlie Munger

Richard Branson on lifelong learning

My biggest motivation?  Just to keep challenging myself.  I see life almost like one long University education that I never had - everyday I'm learning something new.

~ Richard Branson

Jim Rohn on education

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

~ Jim Rohn, motivational speaker

John Doerr on the difference between the old and new economy

The old economy was about people acquiring a single skill for life; the new economy is about life-long learning.

~ John Doerr

Ben Franklin on life and death

Most men die at 25, we just don't bury them until they are 70.

~ Ben Franklin

Himmilicious on the learning process

Do question, even the basics!  You will be a fool for once!  If you don't, you will be, for a lifetime..

~ Himmilicious

Mahatma Gandhi on living and learning

Live as if you were to die tomorrow.  Learn as if you were to live forever.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Henry Ford on aging and learning

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.  Anyone who keeps learning stays young.  The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

~ Henry Ford

Benjamin Franklin on learning

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

~ Benjamin Franklin, statesman, inventor, printer

Kevin Duffy on the learning process

The learning process, if pursued long enough, goes through many phases: trepidation, pain, comfort, confidence, overconfidence, mistakes that bring more pain, and ultimately humility.

Satya Nadella on lifelong learning

If you take two people, one of them is a learn-it-all and the other one is a know-it-all, the learn-it-all will always trump the know-it-all in the long run, even if they start with less innate capability.

~ Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, interview by Dina Bass, Bloomberg Businessweek, August 8, 2016

Thomas Edison on thinking

Why do so many men never amount to anything?  Because they don't think.

The man who doesn't make up his mind to cultivate the habit of thinking misses the greatest pleasure in life.  He not only misses the greatest pleasure, but he can not make the most of himself.  All progress, all success, springs from thinking.

~ Thomas Alva Edison, "They Won't Think," The Book of Business Wisdom

Einstein on learning

The important thing is to not stop questioning.

~ Albert Einstein

Will Rogers on learning

A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.

~ Will Rogers