shruti@safalniveshak.com

“Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.” ~ Nicole Sobon

“The hardest part is starting. Once you get that out the way, you’ll find the rest of journey much easier.” ~ Simon Sinek

If I look back at the most difficult period I went through in my journey of Safal Niveshak, it was the time when I was making the decision to start. The usual fears of quitting a well-paying job and thoughts of not being able to earn enough to feed my family were my chief concerns that led me to several pauses before I finally decided to start this journey.

As I have realized over and over again, and I am sure you would vouch for it, starting something is the hardest part of anything — of cleaning the house, getting into yoga, becoming fit, planning a trip, writing a post like this, learning meditation, building a relationship, or even investing your money.

Starting is no doubt the steepest step, the biggest hurdle, the most giant obstacle standing between where you are and what it is you want to achieve.

Now, the reason starting is often so hard is because that first step is the heaviest, the one with the most resistance. That first step requires the most effort and the most motivation to move through.

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John Neff is one of the best known mutual fund investors of the past four decades, notable for his contrarian and value investing styles as well as heading Vanguard’s Windsor Fund. Windsor was the best performing mutual fund during his tenure and became the largest fund closing to new investors in the 1980s. Neff retired from Vanguard in 1995. During his 31 years (1964 to 1995; a very long time in the mutual fund management business) of managing Windsor, the fund returned 13.7% annually versus 10.6% for the S&P 500. That means a US$ 10,000 initial investment would have grown to close to half a million by the end.

Neff was considered the “professional’s professional,” because many fund managers entrusted their money to him with the belief that it would be in safe hands.

So why was John Neff so successful? The reason in his own words – “We relied on relentless applications of low P/E sympathies, abetted by attention to fundamentals and a liberal dose of common sense.”

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In the first part of this series to highlight the biggest ideas from the world’s best investors, I present the ideas from
the legendary Philip Fisher. If you want to become a successful investor, you cannot ignore what Fisher suggests.

If you are a Warren Buffett fan, chances are slim that you haven’t heard of Philip Fisher. He belongs to the league of those very few super investors who have shaped Buffett’s investing style.

In his 2013 letter to investors, Buffett rankedFisher’s book next to Ben Graham’s books –

 …Phil Fisher put it wonderfully 54 years ago in Chapter7 of his Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, a book that ranks behind only The Intelligent Investor and the1940 edition of Security Analysis in the all-time-best list
for the serious investor.

Despite being considered as a super investor, Philip Fisher was little known to general public and rarely interviewed. He is widely respected and admired in the value investing circles all over the world. He is also known for his ‘scuttlebutt’ approach, which simply means seeking information from competitors, customers, and suppliers, all of whom have a vested interest in the company.

He wasn’t among those who made decisions just by reading annual reports. He believed in getting first hand information about the company from various sources.

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