Philosophies, Conflicts, and Revelations of a Young Investor
A Reflection Of My Investing Journey
Pretty cool A.I. Generated Artwork based on my paper! - Microsoft Designer
I have always believed that my introspective nature is my greatest strength. Often, I find myself lying in bed, staring at the ceiling of my room, thinking and reflecting, replaying my life events one by one, wondering where I could have done better, where I could have spoken more effectively, where I could be better. I believe it is through my natural reflective tendencies that I have been able to grow and flourish explosively. But it is not without its downside. Such introspective nature brings along a plethora of baggage – confusion, self-doubt, anxiety, hopelessness, and fear. This has often led to a multitude of missed opportunities and regrets. Although I used to hate this part of myself, categorizing it as a weakness, I have slowly started accepting and transforming it into more useful traits, such as empathy. I am now about to enter into my next journey in life, starting my professional career in half a year or so and hence, I find it fitting to reflect upon my 2-year journey, and journal down the key learnings and philosophies I have gained from my investing journey.
What does this have to do with investing? Well, at least to me, everything. Investing is not just a numbers game; actually, that’s the easy part. It takes effort and time. What is more difficult is gaining the right mindset and truly internalizing this as part of your DNA. This requires conviction that you are doing the right thing, acknowledgment of mistakes you have made, and inner humility to accept those mistakes. But most importantly, it requires the right mentors to guide you.
Charlie Munger was once asked who his mentors were and who he would like to meet, dead or alive, for a conversation. Charlie responded in his typical fashion: "Nobody. Because I have met all of them!" This is something I truly believe in – reading is often the easiest way to learn quickly from successful individuals. You don’t actually need to know them, but in order to maximize what you can learn, this requires a different mindset towards reading.
When I first started cultivating the habit of reading, I was outcome-driven, seeking details, data, and solutions. However, if you were to ask me what I learned a year later, I probably wouldn't remember the specifics. A better approach, in my opinion, is to focus on extracting the key principles and ideas from the book, rather than just facts and solutions. If you treat reading as if you are conversing with the author, the experience naturally gets better, and best of all, you are never lonely.
I am deeply lucky to have met a mentor who has faith in me and constantly introduces me to great investors from whom I can learn. One such person that I have really learned a lot from – just by reading – is Soo Chuen Tan, the president of Discerene. Although I have never actually met or talked to him, I feel like I know and relate to him because I have listened to all of his podcasts (that I could find) and read all relevant writings on his website and on YouTube.
Soo Chuen Tan's story parallels that of Charlie Munger. Both started out in law but had a deep passion for the underlying business economics of their clients rather than the legal aspects of the business. He then went on to work at McKinsey before pursuing an MBA at Harvard. Like myself, Soo Chuen was introduced to value investing at 25 years old. I read that Soo Chuen was so inspired by Buffett’s philosophy that he repaid McKinsey for his MBA education so he could pursue a career in investing. This took courage, and I wish I knew what his decision-making framework and thoughts were at the time. More impressively, he started his fund, Discerene Group, at 33 years old with no standalone track record or massive resources, but only a vision of building a true value-investing partnership anchored by Buffett’s principles.
When I first read this, I found it both deeply inspiring and conflicting. True long-term investing institutions are a rarity. More often than not, due to a lack of patience or pressure from clients, institutions that began as value-investing entities start stretching the philosophy and end up losing the vision they once held. It is this awareness of such poor base rates in successfully forming a true value investing institution and their likelihoods that makes it surprising how Discerene has managed to execute this vision. I wish I knew what kind of processes and systems were put in place to ensure such continuity of vision. If I had to guess, it comes down to people selection, both in terms of capital and employees. This is how I would do it. Maybe one day I could talk to Soo Chuen and ask him about it.
The reason I specifically talk about Discerene Group is to highlight how rare such an institution is. I know many of my blog readers are students like me, who may have just started their investment journey or are figuring out what path they want to take. Furthermore, a significant portion of my readers is based in Singapore, and I know most of us feel immense pressure to join big banks, grind out case competitions, and secure internships. I have been through that. But truthfully, I feel that a better use of time would be to become a more effective individual or a learning machine. This includes figuring out how to become better at thinking, absorbing information, continuous learning, and controlling emotions. Trust me, this sounds weird, but a friend and I actually took a week off to figure out how to best read a book!
However, this is not going to be easy. I have spent the past year searching for opportunities like this, but such opportunities are rare. So, if you are given an opportunity to work and learn in such a place, you should immediately grab it and jump in without hesitation.
At the same time, I know many of you (I've spoken to many of you in real life) are genuinely interested in investing and learning about business but are unsure of how best to do this. I hope my reflection piece might provide you with some insights or, at the very least, consolation in the same struggles I had. There is a saying that I love from Bertrand Russell: “One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.” As Stephen Fry rightly put forth, “Let Doubt Prevail!”
To round up my short reflection piece, I will state what I look forward to in the next decade of my life. Hopefully, when I look back, I will have remained faithful to my principles and goals. Firstly, I aim to join a place where I can truly learn and grow, surrounded by deeply passionate people who share the same philosophy and vision. Secondly, I aim to expand my worldview and knowledge. Lastly, I aim to be a better person. I want to remain humble in my mind but courageous in my actions. Kinder but resilient. Hopeful but realistic. These are the principles that I lean on, and hope fully would stick moving forward.
I guess I still retained a bit of my naivety in writing such a post like this. But hey, I like it. After all, writing is a personal activity, and one should be as vulnerable as possible.
Till the next decade!
Yours Sincerely,
Ryan