There are many books which describe the mechanics of value investing, beginning, of course, with The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) (Collins Business Essentials) by Benjamin Graham. One might wonder what Guy Spier’s new book, The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom, and Enlightenment might have to add. Refreshingly, Spier has written a different book, one which is likely to be useful to even the most seasoned value investor.
The book is a quick read, weighing in at just under 200 pages. Spier details his journey from a young man with a top academic pedigree(Oxford and Harvard Business School) to D. H. Blair, a Wall Street firm of questionable quality. Spier wanted to be a Master Of The Universe, but found himself unhappy and unable to continue in such an environment, and unable to be employed elsewhere. Spier became a searcher and embarked a journey of self-discovery.
Spier describes the lessons he learned about life and about himself and gives us a glimpse into some of those who guided him. Clearly, his friendship with Mohnish Pabrai has had a profound, positive impact on him. Pabrai and Spier were the winning bidders for a lunch with Warren Buffett in 2008, and this was clearly a seminal event in Spier’s life. In the meatiest part of the book, Spier describes some of the rules he has created for himself and explains why they work for him. He also analyzes some of his failures in order to demonstrate how one might go about creating an investing checklist.
Spier embarked on a journey to find himself as an investor, and instead found himself as a person. He maintains, and I tend to agree, that the two are inextricably intertwined.