Mentors - Great article
great article, especially the last bit on mentors.
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If only it was actually possible to get access to high calibre individuals on a regular basis, then it would be more realistic. I dont think itd be reasonable to think you could get close to Dalio or Bass or Soros though.
2) Mentoring relationships in general need to be earned by the mentee; odds are you aren't gonna sit next to Dan Loeb on the subway and win him over with your charm. PT Jones may have gotten lucky to get an introduction to Eli Tullis but he wouldn't have earned a mentoring relationship if he didn't work for it and have the skill.
3) I disagree with his claim that Soros was a huge mentor to Druckenmiller or gave him his big break; Druckenmiller became head of research at a bank four years (!!!) after starting in finance and ran Duquesne for ~8 years before he went to Quantum, a job which he got because Soros wanted to step away from the daily management anyhow. Even the Biggs mentorship is questionable as had already been running Duquesne and working at Dreyfus for years when he married Biggs' niece.
See, I think the best investors are famous. Famous being having a great ability to market yourself to attract new capital/clients. Thats what I see whenever I look at Buffett.
That's important for maximizing your career success as an investor/building the best investing firm, and there are certainly people who are great at that who aren't "famous-famous" but meet your criteria-for example Seth Klarman isn't famous outside the investing world but he could raise $1bn at the drop of the hat if he wanted to.
To me though that's really secondary/tangential to actually being a good investor, and in cases where they overlap (like Klarman) I think you're looking at the chicken and egg situation backwards. Klarman has the cachet he does because of his success, not the other way around. Michael Burry is a great example of someone who is obviously very skilled at investing but has zero ability/interest in marketing himself.
Also Buffet is not really a great example for your argument. It's not like every time he gets written up in the WSJ new investors are writing checks. He hasn't managed traditional LPs since the 60's and Berkshire only "attracts new capital/clients" in so far as they use their stock as an acquisition tool (which granted they often do.) As I'm sure you know Berkshire stock going up or down doesn't directly impact the amount of capital he has to invest.
Thanks for the plug, couchy!
Also, regarding your point #3, Kenny: My point was that Drunkenmiller had a number of influential people in his life, just like everyone else on this list. I think the myth of the purely self-made was made moot by Malcolm Gladwell, K. Anders Ericsson, etc.
Everyone needs to find the right place at the right time and seize on that opportunity. These guys obviously crushed the latter part of that formula. I agree there's no disputing that.
I certainly don't argue that everyone has influential people in their life, but what about his (incredible) achievement of heading a bank's research division 4 years after dropping out of a PhD program? Didn't take him 11 years for that, nor did he meet either of your key figures until years later.
I agree with the intent of your article (mentorship is important, everyone's success is influenced by the people around them, and mastery of anything takes time and practice) but I think your article over-emphasizes people being "given" breaks by meeting famous people rather than the real value of mentorship, which is learning the skills that you need to as you put it seize the opportunity that was given.
Anyway not trying to be pendantic or argue minutia. Thanks for the blog, always an interesting read.
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