So, I was reading book reviews on amazon for
another book, “Expectations Investing: Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns”
-> Which hopefully I’ll get to some day.
But that review actually mentioned this book, “If you want a confusing
investing book full of fun (but useless) war stories, read the fictional
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator or 99.9% of nonfiction investing screeds.”
I wouldn’t disagree. It was a book full of fun! This is probably not as fun for people not
interested in investing/speculating/gambling…
But I thought it was a lot of fun.
This book is a storybook. The book does not teach you how to invest,
the 10 steps to get rich, or even much details.
However, I would disagree with the book being useless. Written nearly a hundred years ago, I can’t
believe so much truth still holds. Even
today, just now, I was very frustrated and ANGRY at a business situation I
have. I took the matter pretty
personally. Then, I realized I just read
this few days ago:
Normal
business hazards are no worse than the risks a man runs when he goes out of his
house into the street or sets out on a railroad journey. When I lose money by reason of some
development which nobody could foresee I think no more vindictively of it than
I do of an inconveniently timed storm. Life itself from the cradle to the grave
is a gamble and what happens to me because I do not possess the gift of second
sight I can bear undisturbed.
Being in business is never going to be smooth. I will again and again make mistakes, or face
unpleasant situations, or work with unpleasant people… Unavoidable if I want to walk this path. Then I must remind myself, I consciously
chose this path. These problems are part
of the journey, and I need to manage these situations better instead of being
angry all the damn time.
There are unreasonable people that get into
business. There are unreasonable and
dumb people that I will cross-paths with.
I may even have to work with them, work for them, or work under
them. It’s going to suck. But I should manage what I can manage. That is myself. That paragraph will probably be very
important to me for the next few years, to keep me sane. That is a lot of value for me already.
I didn’t take a lot of notes reading this
book. I did copy a lot of quotes that
struck home with me. 100 years, and the
game is still the game. So, just a list
of cool quotes from the book…
- My mind was untrained and my ignorance was colossal.
- The game taught me the game. And it didn’t spare the rod while teaching.
- The beauty of doing business with a crook is that he always forgives you for catching-him, so long as you don’t stop doing business with him.
- The average man doesn’t wish to be told that it is a bull or bear market. What he desires is to be told specifically which particular stock to buy or sell. He wants to get something for nothing. He does not wish to work. He doesn’t even wish to have to think. It is too much bother to have to count the money that he picks up from the ground.
- My one steadfast prejudice is against being wrong.
- All stock-market mistakes wound you in two tender spots your pocketbook and your vanity
- Of course, if a man is both wise and lucky, he will not make the same mistake twice. But he will make any one of the ten thousand brothers or cousins of the original. The Mistake family is so large that there is always one of them around when you want to see what you can do in the fool-play line.
- [the average American] He will risk half his fortune in the stock market with less reflection than he devotes to the selection of a medium-priced automobile.
- A man can excuse his mistakes only by capitalising them to his subsequent profit.
- To learn that a man can make foolish plays for no reason whatever was a valuable lesson.
- The big money in booms is always made first by the public on paper. And it remains on paper.
- All I asked of them was judgment in timing the selling and intelligent unselfishness in order not to be unintelligently selfish.
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