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Monday 10 February 2014

Beginning of A New Journey: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

When I first listened to the famous speech delivered by Steve Jobs  at Standford University, my reaction was similar to that of many others. I was moved, motivated and challenged! But as it had happened numerous times in the past, I assumed that the effect of this too would be ephemaral. However, as years passed by, the words spoken by this self made creative genius, lingered onto my psyche much longer than I had anticipated!

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

 And

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary "

Eventually,  One more emotion that his speech evoked was  that of "determination"! Determination to follow my heart and eventually settle for nothing less than what I like doing for rest of my life with same passion.  I kept looking, with the hope that one day I will come across something which will garner my undivided attention. Something that will ignite passion and give satisfaction every time I did work. Then came a moment, when I was introduced to this concept of Value Investing.It was indeed "love at first sight!". Simple, subtle and powerful! But, as in love, the first impression and first reactions can sometimes be treacherous. One has to spend enough time with each other before making a life long commitment! Hence, I started spending more and more time to get better grasp of value investment philosophy. Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, Phil Fisher, Peter Lynch, Mohnish Pabrai, Howard Marks, Seth Klarman, Prof. Sanjay Bakshi and many other senior value investors became my "virtual" gurus! I was learning vicariously.. following the teachings of my great gurus! With all the theories and concepts in stride, now was the time to test my mettle in the battleground and start investing serious money! It's been 4 years since I started managing my personal and family's capital by applying value investing philosophy. Though 4 years is not a long time in life span of an investor, the results so far has at least given me the confidence to pursue this journey further. It is satisfying to note that in the tumultuous market of last few years, I have been able to compound the capital at more than 40%+. Also for each of the individual years and cumulatively, the fund has outperformed the benchmarks by a wide margin.  These four years have also been fabulous in terms of learning new concepts, meeting some well entrenched value investors and paying up "huge tuition fees" for the mistakes I made!

Hence, finally, I felt the time had  come to make the commitment! I have decided to devote significant portion of my time to Investing. To begin with, I will largely manage my friends and family's portfolios. The scope may expand eventually, but definitely not for now. I also intend to eventually start an investment advisory firm  rooted in value investment philosophy. My motivation to start an investment advisory stems from my strong belief that value investing is an extremely powerful and yet hugely underrated and unknown philosophy for creating disproportionate long term wealth for many ordinary mortals like me! I can add my "bit" of value to the society if I can help some people create wealth from themselves.

I also want to acknowledge that taking this decision was not easy at all! It meant making tough choices. It also meant, changing the status quo. It meant, moving out of the realms of known world to chartering into hitherto unknown territories. Though it was difficult, I had a promise to keep to myself! Once again quoting Steve Jobs showed me the way

"You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life"

One thing that I have realized in last 4 years that I have spent as an active investor: Ability to correctly differentiate between risk and uncertainty  can be very rewarding. In the same vein, it is also equally true, that not getting this distinction right can result into substantial permanent loss of capital. I only wish that I have got this distinction right this time.....




33 comments:

  1. Very interesting post Dhwanil. Yes its not easy to do what you love and to do what to like on full time basis is even more challenging. 40% CAGR performance is really great....All the best...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Anil,

      Thanks for your wishes.

      Best Regards,
      Dhwanil Desai

      Delete
  2. Good decision. All the best.

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  3. Very nice post dhwanil. It would be good if you can teach some people how to identify good companies and the models to be followed.

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  4. Dhwanil - all the best - may you do well

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  5. Hey Dhwanil,

    Wish you all the very best. I'm sure you will do very well.

    Hope to have more discussions with you now :)

    Regards,
    Ayush

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Ayush,

      Thanks. I too am looking forward to more interactions with you, Donald, Hiteshbhai et al.

      Delete
  6. Hey Dhwanil,

    Thats an inspiring post. I am also following a very similar path as yours.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jeet,

      Hope to get your company somewhere along the way! :-)

      Delete
  7. Wish you the best !
    Hope to read more from you :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Gunjan,

      Thanks for your wishes! Have been caught up in number of things since I returned to Ahmedabad but hope to meet you soon.

      Delete
  8. Dear Dhwanil,

    Really excited after hearing this.
    All the best.

    Expecting a lot from u through this blog.......

    regards,
    Shanid V H

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Shanid for your wishes. I will try to live up to the expectations.

      Delete
  9. Hi Dhwanil,

    All the best for the journey. Co-incidentally I too have decided to walk this path :).
    Also, I wanted to connect with you sometime, would love to learn from you.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Rohit,

      That's wonderful to hear that we are travelling the same path! Sure, let's connect up over mail/phone.

      Best Regards,
      Dhwanil Desai

      Delete
  10. Congrats and best of luck, Dhwanil! I have enjoyed reading your posts which reflect your clarity of thought. I'm sure you will do well.
    - HG

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    Replies
    1. Hi HG,

      Thanks for your kind words. You have been through with me in this journey since beginning. Please keep sharing your views/ideas as that makes the whole process valuable and exciting.

      Best Regards,
      Dhwanil Desai

      Delete
  11. Hi Commander,

    First of all my Best wishes on new phase of your professional journey.
    Secondly, please do let us know if any help is required from our side.
    I have been regular reader of your blog from Day One and know your clarity of thought.

    Regards
    Karun Sandha

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    Replies
    1. Hi Karun,

      Thanks a lot for your support throughout this journey! Look forward to your continued participation in dialogue on this blog.

      Best Regards,
      Dhwanil Desai

      Delete
  12. Congrats Dhawnil.. Hope to do the same thing one day...

    Regards,
    Chetan Chhabria

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    Replies
    1. Hi Chetan,

      I am sure, you can make it happen one day! So awaiting your company in the journey sometime...:-)

      Delete
  13. I always liked the thoroughness of your articles. Great decision!.

    Looking forward to see more from you

    Regards,
    Sreekanth

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  14. Hi Dhwanil,
    Very nice and inspiring post!. All the best!

    Regards,
    Prashant

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  15. hi
    great decision.best of luck.
    we are in same boat ,almost for same duration. i also started on this path 4 year earlier and now i am full time money manger for my family and close friends
    will definitely will like to keep in touch.
    abhishek

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    Replies
    1. Hi Abhishek,

      It's always good to be in the company of the people walking on the same path, especially when the path is not so crowded! So sure, let's be in touch and keep sharing/exchanging ideas. My e-mail id is desaidhwanil@hotmail.com

      Best Regards,
      Dhwanil Desai

      Delete
  16. Welcome to the Club, Dhwanil..:-)

    This the best thing you could do...earlier the better. Hope Rohit also follows suit soon. :-)

    I had posted a detailed comment to Rohit's interview on Safal Niveshak, part of it goes like this: "Anyway, only person that comes close to Rohit’s style of Thinking and Temperament is a young lad: Dhwanil. He moved to Mumbai (I guess from Ahmedabad)….don’t know what happened to him or his blog."

    You see my admiration and respect for you!!

    I don't know whether you will make 1000 Cr or not in this lifetime..but will definitely make 100 Cr for sure..:-)

    It is a coincidence that I also quoted Steve Jobs Stanford speech on my blog sometime back, though in a different sense:

    http://mypursuitofperfection.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/connecting-the-dots/

    So..welcome to the Pursuit of Perfection..:-) and sharing the wonderful journey with others.

    Vikas

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    Replies
    1. Hi Vikas,

      It's my privilege to get admiration from a person like you. Thanks for your so very kind words! It's the moral support from people like you that keeps me going and I was able to gather enough courage to take this decision.

      I am not sure about how much money I will make eventually, but it's only consequential and not instrumental in my choosing this journey! What matters to me is I am doing what I like doing the most..

      Also as Charlie Munger puts it so beautifully, The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want! So, our job is to make sure we make ourselves good enough to "deserve" a great life, and rest we leave to destiny/god/karma..

      I must say that every time I read your blog, I thoroughly enjoy it not only because of impeccable writing style but also because of the genuineness of the experience/point of view you bring forth!

      Hope to keep in touch with you.

      Best Regards,
      Dhwanil Desai

      Delete
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  18. Hi Dhwanil,
    I am glad I found your blog, I have been reading about the great investors you have mentioned and got some new names from your blog. I am happy to find some people practicing this philosophy in indian market. I think the opportunity is much greater in indian markets as I think most people don't get it right
    I will go over all your posts and hopefully get into full time investing sometime soon :). Wish you all the best and I have subscribed to your blog for future. I would love to know more about you.

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