Get Rich Slowly

“The people who have gotten rich quickly are also the ones who got poor quickly.” – John Templeton

A Forbes article of July 1974 profiled John Templeton and highlighted some of the wisdom he implemented in his investment process. The article touched on his discipline of consistently praying to God “for wisdom and clear thinking” at the start of each directors meeting for the Templeton Growth Fund. John Templeton noted that even with prayer they still “make hundreds of mistakes, but we don’t seem to make as many as others.” In the article, Templeton also advised that the “ninety-nine percent of investors shouldn’t try to get rich too quickly; it’s too risky.” He advised, “Try to get rich slowly.” Sir John Templeton is on nearly every short list showcasing the most successful investors of all time, and certainly held in high esteem among value and contrarian managers like us.

Templeton’s words bring scarce wisdom to today’s investing landscape, where the world has again become fixated – perhaps hypnotized – by an extremely narrow set of companies believed to have found a high-growth elixir. In many ways, these companies rule the world of today. They seem destined to dominate as they consolidate power and control the lives of humans in an ever concentrating, if not imposing way. These “Frightful Five” (Alphabet, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook) have been awarded the prized “halo effect” by investors. Investors and numerous TV commentators have moved into the realm of applying new adjectives and buzzwords to describe the activities of these entities at the center of a financial frenzy. We hear the talking heads espousing such narratives as Artificial Intelligence/AI, Internet of Things/IOT, Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, or the latest one (for those keeping score), Ambient Tech, which speaks to the type of technology that displaces the need for humans altogether.