
An Optometrist Billionaire Investor - tbgvi
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2019/02/19/the-greatest-investor-youve-never-heard-of-an-optometrist-who-beat-the-odds-to-become-a-billionaire/
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jbyers
This article does its subject something of a disservice in the fourth
paragraph: "His fortune comes not from some flash of entrepreneurial
brilliance or dogged devotion to career, but from a lifetime of prudent do-it-
yourself buy-and-hold investing."

We learn later in the story that Wertheim did in fact demonstrate
enterpreneurial brilliance _and_ dogged devotion to his career _and_ was an
unimaginably successful buy-and-hold investor. The company he founded, BPI,
threw off up to $10M / year in cash that funded his investment portfolio.

That he he was successful not just as an investor, but also as an inventor and
entrepreneur, is what's truly amazing.

~~~
Arcuru
Actually, from the article it's unclear if he's beaten the S&P500 as an
investor. It doesn't mention much about what he invested in before 1980, but
it does say he lost about $50 million dollars in a margin call in 1982 so he
was already quite wealthy either from BPI (the company started in ~1971) or
from investing in the 60's/70's.

If his total investments at that time was $100 million, which seems somewhat
reasonable given how much he lost in the margin call, investing that in the
S&P500 would be worth $4 billion today, which is quite a bit more than the
$2.3 billion he's actually worth.

That's also ignoring his currently $10 million a year income from BPI, so he
could have spent 100% of that money.

~~~
mrcoder111
I wonder why internet commentators who haven't made billions always bring up
this index fund stuff, when no one who actually has made billions did it by
piling their money into the S&P 500.

~~~
mycorrhizal
Because it has been very well demonstrated that almost all active investors,
fund managers etc... virtually never beat the market cumulatively over
decades. There are some exceptions, but not more than you would expect from
random chance due to large sample size (a lot of people playing). So given
that information why should most of us spend the effort trying to beat the
market especially considering the low expense ratio on some really solid ETFs.
Generally speaking if you expect the economy to continue to grow for the next
few decades than index funds are a pretty good option.

~~~
barry-cotter
The weak form of the Efficient Market Hypothesis is true but the strong form,
which you’re expounding, is a crock. Warren Buffet has beaten the market for
longer than I have been alive at what the stock market is optimised to do.
George Soros made multiple fortunes as a trader and Julian Simons’ Renaissance
hedge fund mints money and has for decades. The only one of those you can
invest in is Buffett because it pleases him to run Berkshire Hathaway his way
instead of maximising his personal returns like the founders of the best hedge
funds. After fees the investors in them don’t beat the market but the
principles make giant piles of money for long periods of time.

Investing skill exists, is rare and often captures _all_ of the gains accruing
to it because wannabe investors bid for access to it and due to the winner’s
curse often overpay.

George Soros is like Steve Jobs. Making a giant fortune once could be luck but
if you can repeat it again and again the chances it was ever luck just go down
and down.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Superinvestors_of_Graham-a...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Superinvestors_of_Graham-
and-Doddsville)

> The speech and article challenged the idea that equity markets are efficient
> through a study of nine successful investment funds generating long-term
> returns above the market index. All these funds were managed by Benjamin
> Graham's alumni, pursuing different investment tactics but following the
> same "Graham-and-Doddsville" value investing strategy.

All that said. The weak form of the EMH is true. You personally are very
unlikely to beat the market over the long run.

~~~
sjg007
Book value vs market cap is the liquidator paradigm which is the advice that
Buffet professes. But really he buys distressed assets. Structural buy ins
such as American Express, GEICO, Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs, General
Electric, USG, Harley-Davidson and Bank of America.

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m3kw9
He got his first pot of gold from a very decent business, then brought into 2
of the best historic stocks of all times (AAPL and MSFT) at its lowest and
held to it longer than most.

~~~
gcb0
nothing to see be here other than survivorship bias cargo cult.

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ChuckMcM
I realize that this guy fits the profile of someone from the future who is
thrown back in time and left stranded :-)

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blaze33
> “My thing is I wanted to be able to have free time. To me, having time is
> the most precious thing.”

Interestingly it's a backward model when compared to people that use time as a
resource towards money/success/<your_goal>...

I guess actual freedom indeed requires both free time and available resources
(money/skills/knowledge/etc.).

I see many people always filling up their schedules months in advance while I
always feel better without the constraint to follow past decisions. Maybe
linked to control seeking & risk aversion vs. interest for unexpected
opportunities...

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RickJWagner
Apple and Microsoft?

How could this guy miss out on RED HAT?

~~~
ggm
Yes. I saw the photos and this was my first question. Mind you the free red
fedora they gave away around the time of the public share offering was truly
trashy-bad. I suspect anyone with a real fur fedora saw warning signs there...

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jedberg
1/3 of his net worth comes from a single good (almost lucky) investment in his
friend's company, which he was an advisor for. That's sort of on the line
between investor and entrepreneur.

He's done really well, but it's a bit disingenuous to say that he did all
through investing. He started a business that gives him 10 million a year to
invest with! Yes, he appears to have taken that and increased it many times
over, but it helps to start at a high base level.

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nathan_f77
I'm pretty sure they made a mistake with the "World Yacht". They linked to a
small boat in New York [1] that is used for weddings and other events, which
is pretty funny.

I'm almost 100% sure that they were talking about "The World" yacht [2]. I
found out about this last year, and I'd be tempted to buy an apartment if I
could ever afford it (you need at least $10 million.) The expeditions are
amazing [3], as well as the regular lectures and workshops [4].

It's also pretentious, dystopian, and a bit embarrassing. I don't know if
those are the sort of people I'd want to spend all my time with, but maybe
many of them are just ordinary people who happen to have a lot of money. It
would certainly be an interesting place to live.

[1] [https://worldyacht.com](https://worldyacht.com)

[2] [https://aboardtheworld.com](https://aboardtheworld.com)

[3] [https://aboardtheworld.com/rare-
expeditions/](https://aboardtheworld.com/rare-expeditions/)

[4]
[https://aboardtheworld.com/experience/enrichment/](https://aboardtheworld.com/experience/enrichment/)

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RickJWagner
“My goal is to buy and almost never sell"

Therein lies one of the great secrets to wealth.

Buffett, Bogle, etc. all espouse it. For those who are looking for ways to
level the economic field (at least personally), take note.

~~~
maxxxxx
Unless you bought Kodak, Enron or Pets.com. You still have to pick the right
stocks. For most it's probably better to buy an index fund. I bought Cisco in
1999 and I think it's barely back to that level right now and it will probably
go down once this bull market ends.

~~~
quietthrow
“Almost never sell” doesnt mean he never sells. Most people read this quite
literally. Giving it more weight than the actual investor. This guy by his own
admission sells off when is loss 25% or more. So those positions that you
mentioned would have been sold off for tax harvesting reasons. He might have
acquired a new position in the same stock if he believed in the company and
his investment thesis.

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davidkuhta
Let's all just take a moment to acknowledge the awesomeness of naming your
company Brain Power Inc.

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curiousDog
What would be some reasonably priced stocks you could buy today and hold onto
for the next 15-20 years? I'm thinking TSLA or may be AMZN too

~~~
mruts
In general, here's what I think a good long-term stock selection strategy is:
Look at all companies that will benefit from technology disruption and the
future and discount the companies that will be hurt.

An example of company that would be helped by future disruption would maybe be
Amazon or Tesla. Examples of companies that might be hurt by the future would
be Exxon or Phillip Morris or Safeway.

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cookieswumchorr
The secret: he can see all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky
Mountains

