The education of a value investor : my transformative quest for wealth, wisdom and enlightenment

The education of a value investor My transformative quest for wealth, wisdom and enlightenment

Guy Spier

Book - 2014

"What happens when a young Wall Street investment banker spends a small fortune to have lunch with Warren Buffett? He becomes a real value investor. In this fascinating inside story, Guy Spier details his career from Harvard MBA to hedge fund manager. But the path was not so straightforward. Spier reveals his transformation from a Gordon Gekko wannabe, driven by greed, to a sophisticated investor who enjoys success without selling his soul to the highest bidder. Spier's journey is similar to the thousands that flock to Wall Street every year with their shiny new diplomas, aiming to be King of Wall Street. Yet what Guy realized just in the nick of time was that the King really lived 1,500 miles away in Omaha, Nebraska. Spier determ...inedly set out to create a new career in his own way. Along the way he learned some powerful lessons which include: why the right mentors and partners are critical to long term success on Wall Street; why a topnotch education can sometimes get in the way of your success; that real learning doesn't begin until you are on your own; and how the best lessons from Warren Buffett have less to do with investing and more to do with being true to yourself. Spier also reveals some of his own winning investment strategies, detailing deals that were winners but also what he learned from deals that went south. Part memoir, part Wall Street advice, and part how-to, Guy Spier takes readers on a ride through Wall Street but more importantly provides those that want to take a different path with the insight, guidance, and inspiration they need to carve out their own definition of success"--

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Subjects
Spier, Guy.
Investment advisors > Biography.
Investment bankers > Biography.
Investments.
Published
New York : Palgrave Macmillan [2014]
Language
English
Main Author
Guy Spier (author)
Physical Description
214 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-207) and index.
ISBN
9781137278814
  • Introduction
  • 1. From the Belly of the Beast to Warren Buffett
  • 2. The Perils of an Elite Education
  • 3. The Fire Walk: My First Steps as a Value Investor
  • 4. The New York Vortex
  • 5. Meeting a Master
  • 6. Lunch with Warren
  • 7. The Financial Crisis: Into the Void
  • 8. My Own Version of Omaha: Creating the ideal Environment
  • 9. Learning to Tap Dance: A New Sense of Playfulness
  • 10. Investing Tools: Building a Better Process
  • 11. An Investor's Checklist: Survival Strategies from a Surgeon
  • 12. Doing Business the Buffett-Pabrai Way
  • 13. The Quest for True Value
  • Acknowledgments
  • Bibliography and Guide to Further Reading
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

"Investing is about much more than money. So as your wealth grows, I hope you will also come to realize that the money is largely irrelevant": this puzzling statement opens a career advice roundup from Spier, who transformed from a self-centered investment banker to a socially-conscious value investor and business commentator. After graduating from Oxford University and Harvard Business School, Spier landed his first job with a shady investor, and soon found himself jobless and miserable. After picking himself back up, he began to explore value investing and became friends with investor Mohnish Pabrai. This friendship led him to a life-changing lunch with Warren Buffet in 2008 (for which he bid over $650,000 at an auction). A fan of leadership gurus like Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie, and Napoleon Hill, Spier decided to make a change to be able to take pride in his work and improve the world. Here, he shares lessons learned, many garnered from that lunch, such as how to preserve your reputation, weather enormous changes like the financial crisis, and find the perfect investment environment. Also included are rules, routines, and habits that he learned from Pabrai. This vanity project will likely appeal most to Buffett fans. Agent: William Clark, William Clark Associates. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Spier, a value hedge fund manager, writes of his journey of self-discovery in the world of professional investing. After earning degrees from both Oxford and Harvard, the author embarked upon a Wall Street career but found the climate to be at odds with his personal sense of ethics. Spier reveals how he has slowly reinvented himself to follow Warren Buffett's approach to value investing. He and another hedge fund manager won a coveted charity auction lunch with Buffett, and Spier tells readers what he learned. He explains how he has become a better manager by distancing himself from the daily noise of Wall Street and by changing personal habits and his approach to life. Through a series of rules and case studies, the author lays out a path that readers can take to improve their investing. Mainly, though, he emphasizes the importance of valuing all aspects of one's life by striving to be the best person possible. VERDICT Readers will find Spier's story uplifting, but it lacks the vigor and edginess of James J. Cramer's 2002 classic Confessions of a Street Addict.-Lawrence Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Aquamarine Fund founder Spier, widely known for his sharedvictory in the 2007 auction of a lunch appointment with Warren Buffett, showshow the legendary investor from Omaha became an example, guide and mentor inhis own journey to master the secrets of value investing.Educated in economics at Oxford University and HarvardBusiness School, where he excelled, the author assumed he would transitionsmoothly into a fast-track career on Wall Street. However, Spier began withdisillusionment. At his first job, he found the aroma of corruptionunacceptable and left. Later, that company's officers were indicted on 173counts of stock fraud. The author escaped the worst, but he understood that hewas "potentially teetering on the edge of a moral cliff." He also began torealize that his education had not provided him with either the knowledge orpractical skills to survive in the modern financial world. Consequently, Spierdecided to build his own company, using Buffett as his model. Later, heestablished a friendship with another fan of Buffett's investing methods,Mohnish Prabai, who shared the 2007 auction victory with Spier. The authorwrites that he learned an important lesson at that lunch. "Seeing him in personthat day," he writes, "I was left with no doubt at all that I could ever hopeto match him." But rather than competing with Buffett, Spier aimed to changehis lifestyle and become the best he could be, beginning an "inner journey" for"true value" and meaning that goes beyond just making money. For the author,this includes philanthropy and generous donation to charities, including SanFrancisco's Glide Memorial Church, favored by Buffett, and his friend Prabai'sDakshana Foundation, which educates children in India.A wide-ranging journey in which money isn't everything, but itsure does seem to help. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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