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“If… I could have adopted Joe as my father, I would have.”
So says investment legend Warren Buffett… about an investor you’ve never heard of before. This humble man turned $11 million in 1968 into more than $1 billion by 2000. He did this as the investment director for a tiny liberal arts school in Iowa—Grinnell College.
By the end of his tenure, the school had the largest endowment per student of all private liberal arts colleges in the U.S.
The man’s name is Joe Rosenfield. And as you might expect, his investment approach mimics much of Buffett’s: Buy extraordinary businesses trading at good valuations… then hold them forever. Here are his other key suggestions:
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1. Do a few things well. Master a particular type of investment—learn everything there is to know about its market—and you will be able to produce oversized returns over time. 2. Sit still. Never let a short-term disappointment spook you into selling. If your investment thesis still holds true, stay the course. Incredible returns materialize over the long run, not the short. 3. Invest for a reason. Money is only a means to an end. And that end is doing good things with the resources you acquire. Never lose track of your real goals. |
To learn more about the life and lessons of this humble investment genius, read this free excerpt from the June 2000 issue of Money.