Friends,
If historians put together a list of America's greatest authors, few names would rise to the top quicker than Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens). By the time of his death in 1910, the author of The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn was one of the most popular figures in the country.
His creativity was unmatched. His lifetime earnings were prodigious (Grok estimates it to be at least an inflation-adjusted $40 million). His investing acumen, however, was horrendous.
During his lifetime, he invested huge sums in a failed typesetting machine, an independent publishing company, speculative mining ventures in Nevada, and even a milk-derived protein supplement.
It's no surprise that by 1894, he was forced to declare bankruptcy. If not for his close friendship with Standard Oil's Henry Rogers, it could have been even worse. Rogers saved his royalties from being included in the bankruptcy proceedings, and handled many of his finances following the episode.
By the end of his life, Twain had learned his lesson, saying:
"There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it, and when he can."
This underscores an important point: Twain was brilliant beyond belief. But that brilliance -- and his endless search for dopamine hits -- was just as much a liability in investing as it was an asset in writing.
At the end of the day, there are zero points for style in investing. Your balance in your brokerage account doesn't care how it got there -- it just tells you where things stand.
That's not to say creativity itself is bad -- it's just better left applied to endeavours outside of investing. Over the long run, that's where it creates the most value.
Wishing you investing success,
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Brian Feroldi, Brian Stoffel, & Brian Withers
Long Term Mindset
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