30 | Patient Investing, Part 2 of 7: The "Other People"

Investing in a manner that you believe in and in which you have a baseline understanding knowing that, regardless of strategy or plan, the only guarantees are that someone will always outperform you and that how you behave during the inevitable unsettling times will be the biggest determining factor in your lifetime returns. Owning businesses tends to increase potential returns, diversification tends to make the ride smoother, long horizons tend to increase the probability of positive returns, and above-average patience is a superpower.

Whether it's a day, a year, a decade, or a lifetime - someone, somewhere will always beat your investment returns.

If we can't establish this as gospel, then we'll be second-guessing ourselves to the grave.

Some people will actually outperform, while others will only claim it.

But it's a guarantee that you’ll never know who’s for real and who’s faking it.

Either way, your ability to ignore both groups is how you'll become a good investor yourself.

Once you're cared for some basics, intentional ignorance leads to extraordinary returns.

Whether we're talking about one day, one year, one decade or one lifetime - someone, somewhere will always have an investment strategy that performs better than yours.

As Elon would say and do, "let that sink in!"

If we can't establish this as an investing gospel, then it's going to be a long lifetime of second-guessing, social comparison, and useless woulda-shoulda-couldas.

Some people will legitimately outperform and others will claim to have outperformed when they actually haven't. It's close to a guarantee that you'll never know who's for real and who's faking it.

Either way, your ability to ignore and completely block out the "other people", especially when they have allegedly outperformed you, is likely the most important skill you'll have to hone to be a successful investor.

We used to live in a world where access to information and knowledge was limited, so it made sense to go searching for better options. Some people legitimately had access to things that others didn't, so the hunt might have made sense.

The world has changed and you have access to all the information and knowledge that you could possibly need. The problem now is that it's impossible to know which information and knowledge is actually useful. Speculating about the "success" that others are experiencing is only gas on the information-overload fire.

The hunt was worthwhile when scarcity of information was the issue. The hunt is pointless, even destructive, now that abundance of information is the issue.

In a world of abundance, the competitive advantage is some combination of a mental filter that can keep the useless information from ever hitting the radar and the ability to throw on blinders so you don't get spooked when something inevitably makes it through.

Additional Reading

Hope is not an investment strategy by Carl Richards

FOMO: The Worst Financial Trait by Morgan Housel

“The market has spoken” by Seth Godin