At first glance, Guy Spier's book seems to be another book like so many others. But it is not: because the author is not like the others. He embodies unconventional ways, endless curiosity and, above all, sincere self-reflection. This book is not one of those typical ones that rehash the same content for the hundredth time. He shares with us his experiences, which he has always found to be a school of life, and the conclusions he draws from them, in a humorous, refreshing and incisive way.
This book is not a guide to proper value investing, nor is it a how-to book. Rather, it takes us on the personal journey of an inspiring man and provides insights into the sometimes crazy things he has learned on his journey. At the same time, this book is full of life lessons and does not disguise the author's weaknesses, flaws and idiosyncrasies, as is unfortunately so often the case. He was also not a value investor all his life. Life led him to that as well. He started out as a trader, and we can sympathize with him when he turned off his Bloomberg monitors and gave up his dangerous addiction to watching stock prices and candles every minute.
Using the rules of investing that he has learned to understand over the years, Guy Spier draws conclusions about life itself together with us. After all, many of the insights he has gained from his business dealings become figurative life lessons. For example, he has discovered over time that investing is about much more than money per se. With this book, he hopes to teach us that as our wealth grows, we too will eventually come to the realization that money is actually largely unimportant. And that it will be the desire of all of us to give much of our wealth back to the community.
In addition to his enormous success as a value investor, Guy Spier has also had an instructive development as a human being and repeatedly gives us deep insights into his thoughts and feelings along the way. For him, it's about giving something back. Helping people, simply going from being a taker to a giver, and in the end getting more than you ever thought you would.
The impetus for his development was countless books. They became the guidelines of his life. But he didn't read them to show off his knowledge. He worked through the books in search of useful ideas for his life. In the end, they provided him with the decisive impulses in his development into a successful value investor and business and husband man. It was these books and valuable encounters with Warren Buffett and Tony Robbins that led him to think more practically about people and how the world really works. It changed not only his thinking, however, but with it his actions and his entire life.
From Warren Buffett - with whom he bought a dinner at auction on Ebay - he learned the importance of keeping out the noise and creating a set daily routine. He is also impressed by modesty.
It really is an incredibly beautiful story that I enjoyed reading. Definitely very worth reading!
I have now already read many books in this area, but THE LEARNING AND CHANGE YEARS OF A VALUE INVESTOR by Guy Spier stands out from the crowd with its personal and honest portrayals. On the one hand, it excitingly and authentically passes on the essence of the author's success, and on the other hand, he is not too shy to speak self-critically and openly about his hard lessons learned.