Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on the part of the world you’re in. This is Jonathan Satovsky of Satovsky Asset Management and on this episode of “Seeking Wisdom, Wealth, and Wellness,” I want to talk about Jean-Marie Eveillard, someone of great wisdom, whose notes I happened to stumble upon 10 years ago in 2012.
What’s interesting is that he described his view of Wall Street as being, “a vast promotion machine” or “a den of thieves,” and that struck me very heavily because I was feeling that, but I never heard anyone articulate it quite this way. Because I started in the business of trying to help people with money in 1993, I was close to 20 years into the business and was disgusted by many of the people that I was surrounded by. But I didn’t want to hold on to anger—I wanted to hold on to hope.
So, Eveillard had formulated a couple of central themes for long-term success.
1. Humility.
Remember the future is always uncertain.
2. Caution.
Prepare for good and bad times. Remember to always have a cushion and remember the importance of having a margin of safety.
3. Order.
Sometimes mistakes are going to be made, so you have be mindful about starting and ending with your balance sheet and having an understanding of the value of good security, good business, good process and continual improvement.
And then lastly, to spend half your time thinking and reading.
Now back in the day, 10 out of 10 value investors did extraordinarily well, but most people don’t do it because it requires an immense amount of patience. It also is such a situation that stepping back and being out of sync with people for a long stretch of time is extraordinarily emotionally difficult. So, I share this wisdom with you as we try to use some of these principles over the decades to come, to be able to help people for multiple generations to seek their own Wisdom, Wealth, and Wellness through humility, caution, and order.
Have a great day.
