Well I’m no great golfer so I only play with those people, ONCE
Because even great golfers hit bad shots, it’s guaranteed!
David Duval, who won 13 PGA events, once shot 9 over par on ONE HOLE in the 2019 Britsh Open
It was the WORST score, on ANY hole, in ANY major, in 28 years!
And he was a former World Number One!
So I prefer to play golf with those who say, “Great shot” when it occasionally comes together
and say nothing when I fluff it
Yes, it makes for some quiet rounds…
But that’s how our Ranmore team behaves
We congratulate each other when a call “lands on the green”
And say nothing when there’s a “splash”
It’s not necessary
The person who “hit the ball in the water” also heard the “splash” and will be beating themselves up anyway – they don’t need a Team member to climb in
And yes of course we analyse what went wrong and learn from the case study
But not then
Saying “I told you so” is also discouraged in our team (and my home)
We want to build each other up, not tear each other down
A fellow boutique Value manager praised Meta in a tweet yesterday while attaching my comment from 2022 where I wrote why we weren’t buyers
I’m not sure why he felt the need to highlight one of my bad calls to all his followers rather than one of his,
But not getting every call right will come as no surprise to our clients – it’s in our presentation!
We just try and make more on the winners than we lose on the losers
Besides, our clients like that we have an Active share of 99% and source performance outside of the herd favourites – it gives them diversification
And thankfully our largest holding rose even more than Meta on Friday but that’s a topic for our fact sheet which is out later this week (potential investors can subscribe on our website)
In a similar vein, I was asked this week if I’m “whipping myself” about “leaving some money on the table” with Sanmina’s surge
“Not at all I replied”, we made good money on Sanmina and if I “whipped myself” over leaving money on the table, there’d be nothing left of me after leaving a large fortune on the Nvidia table years ago when it was 10x earnings …
At the end of the day, the best golfers can hit all the shots perfectly – drives, chips, putts, fades, you name it
But what separates the “good from the great” is their mental strength to put their bad shots behind them and focus on their next shot
So if you’re like me and want to invest for the next 40 years
while remaining sane (with your team and family intact!)
You better not “whip” yourself every time you fail to:
enter at the bottom,
exit at the top, and
catch a winner
Just apply a disciplined process that works
And accept the outcome positively