This article is excerpted from "Investment Habits of Buffett and Soros"
Obviously, Soros and Buffett have typical characteristics of geniuses. They are both investment pioneers, both invented their own unique investment methods, and applied these methods very successfully. Both are investors and innovators, and can be called Edison and Bell in the investment world.
Does this mean that there is a 24th winning rule: be a genius?
Maybe - if you want to do everything Buffett and Soros have done, including inventing or perfecting a completely new way of investing. But although you have to be a genius like Edison to invent a light bulb, you don't need to be a genius to turn on a light. When genius has paved the way for us, you don't need to be a genius to make a light bulb. For investors, this road has been paved, that is, the thinking habits and thinking methods that Buffett, Soros and other investment masters all devoutly follow.
As Buffett said, "You don't have to be a rocket scientist. When it comes to investing, a guy with an IQ of 160 is not necessarily going to beat a guy with an IQ of 130."
Buffett and Soros have many other things in common. They both live in New York, have similar political views (for example, both donated to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign), are men, wear glasses, and are married to a woman named "Susan." But none of this has anything to do with their investment success.
They also have one interesting thing in common: Neither has ever passed any of the many securities industry licensing exams that Wall Street employees must pass. When Buffett became CEO of Salomon Brothers in 1991, "as a rule, since I was an employee of a securities firm, I had to take the stockbroker license exam," he recalled. "I put it off until I left the company because I wasn't sure I could pass it."
Soros did take such an exam early in his career, but failed miserably.
My troubles came when they introduced a security analyst certificate, a kind of license. After hiding for a while, I took the test and got every possible question wrong. At that time, I told my assistant that you must take and pass the test. I thought that this certificate would not be very important in five or six years, and after five or six years, I would either have made great progress or failed. In either case, I would no longer need this certificate.
If the two greatest investors in the world are afraid of or fail to pass such professional qualification exams, how much real value can they have? Since Buffett and Soros do not have any professional qualification certificates, they are certainly not necessary for your investment success. What you really need to do is to learn the thinking habits and thinking methods of Buffett and Soros.
