Becoming Rich: The Wealth-Building Secrets of the World's Master Investors Buffett, Icahn, Soros

I have spent part of the month in Ocean City, Md., enjoying the waning days of summer, the salty sea breeze and hypnotic crashing of the waves on the shore. One book I read inspired many thoughts: Becoming Rich, by Mark Tier, published last year. Tier begins with a sound premise, one that I use myself in studying investing. It is simply that he starts by studying the greatest investors. This immediately limits the field. It eliminates the talking heads on television and radio and wipes out the authors of most books and magazine articles. The greatest investors have long track records, measured in decades. (And don't limit yourself to the living - I've learned many things from studying the dead investors of long ago.) The subtitle of his book is "The Wealth-Building Secrets of the World's Master Investors Buffett, Icahn, Soros." This gives you some idea of his method. The book is mainly about Buffett and Soros, two great investors that likely need no introduction. Tier's book walks through 23 winning investment habits (as well as seven deadly investment sins) that he maintains all the great investors he's studied share. Perhaps you can add these to your repertoire and start seeing immediate results. One of Tier's habits: Bet Big. In the hands of some novice investors, this advice is financial suicide. But the fact remains that many of the great investors got that way by making big bets on their favorite ideas, instead of spreading out their money over many smaller positions. There is a great story about George Soros that Tier relates. A trader has put on a successful trade, and Soros asks him how big his position was. "$1 billion," the trader confidently reports. Soros' next comment has since become part of Wall Street lore. Soros said: "You call that a position?" and encouraged the trader to double his position. Making big bets goes counter to mainstream financial advice, which encourages balanced portfolios with a little bit in stocks and bonds, diversified across sectors, etc. Yet such diversification only prevents you from losing a lot of money. No one ever got rich following a great diversification strategy. Of course, betting big without having a well-thought out investment strategy is probably a recipe for disaster. You need more than just this single idea - which gets back to what I was saying about great ideas working in combination. Another Tier Habit: Start with the As. One of my favorite Buffett anecdotes in the book is when a reporter asks Buffett where he gets his investment ideas. He replies that he reads annual reports and learns about every company in the United States with publicly traded securities. "But there are 27,000 public companies," the reporter responds. "Well," replied Buffett, "start with the As." The great part of this story is that it illustrates how diligent great investors are. They are constantly searching for new investment ideas. And the scope of their search is extensive. You have to read a lot and rea

I don't agree with absolutely everything that Mark Tier writes in this book - but the points I disagree on at least get me to think. I think there are more differences between Soros and Buffett than Tier would like. Some of the rules are relatively but not absolutely true - for example the don't diversify rule is relative. Buffett is in fact very diversified today across investments and operating businesses as a result of the pure size of Berkshire though insurance remains the primary business. Soros always diversified across individual stock investments but would take large futures positions. But the insights in the book far outweigh any of my criticisms. For the guy who says the book is worthless - the book is not very useful to someone with no experience in trading and investing. You need to come to this book with a lot of experience and maybe limited success and it will open your eyes. Having previously read biographies of Soros and Buffett and their own writings will help put things in context too. This is very much an advanced level text :)

Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn and George Soros all started with nothing, and yet made billion-dollar fortunes solely by investing. Their secrets turn out to be the same properity mental habits and strategies they all practise constantly and religiously. Commenting on these prosperity mental habits and strategies, Peter Lynch, who produced an annual return of 29% during the years he ran the Fidelity Magellan Fund once said, "I've studies and worked with Barnard Baruch, Sir John Templeton and Philip Fisher. All of them practice exactly the same mental habits as Buffett, Icahn and Soros. The late Harold Geneen, the legendary CEO who made ITT the largest conglomerate during his lifetime once said: "A three sentence course on business management: You read a book from the beginning to the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it" ("Managing", NY: Granada, 1984 p 26). I agree with Mr Geneen's advise wholeheartedly. In studying Mark Tier's book, it would create a more speedy osmosis if you start with Appendix 1: "The 23 Winning Investment Habits" and then go back to the beginning and read the book through. In fact, it is a testimony to his sagacity that Mr Mark Tier has seen fit to give us this valuable summary. Mark Tier walks his talk. He is an Australian writer and businessman who now lives and works in Hong Kong since 1977. 7 years ago he adopted the wealth-building habits in this book, sold his business interests, and now lives solely from the return on his investments. Like Warren Buffett, Mr Tier's job title is "capital allocator". The mental habits and strategies Mark Tier emphasize include: (i). Buffett, Icahn, and Soros do not diversify. When they buy, they buy as much as they can. Mark Tier put all his assets in one basket and watch the basket (For a further elucidation of this principle see M Gunther's "The Zurich Axioms". London: Souvenir Press, 1985);(ii).They're not focused on the profits they expect to make. Going in, they're not investing in the money at all. Prof Viktor Frankl, the founder of Logotherapy, har argued that true happiness comes at not being directly aimed at (See his "The Unheard Cry for Meaning". NY: Simon and Schuster, 1978); (iii). They don't believe that big profits have to involve big risks. In fact, they're far more focused on not losing money than making it. In short, either they concentrate on the world's finest companies or they look at companies with wide economic moat;(iv). Wall Street Research Reports? They never read them. They're not interested in what other people think. The only subscription Warren Buffett has is "Value Line". He reads voraciously 6-8 hours per day and form his own opinion on how things will evolve. In summary, this is definitely the best investment (how to make money?) book in the past 100 years. The book goes underneath the ups and downs of financial (accounting) numbers, and way beyond what Mr Market signifies. Mark Tier's view of the significance of financial statements remind

i don't have a degree in business, i've only recently returned to looking at stocks since being mostly wiped out (what i had invested, which luckily wasn't too much), and like 5 yrs ago, i hear and read conflicting advice an example is: "double down" and "don't double down" this book by mark tier, is the first that lets me begin to see where these contradictory viewpoints are actually real-world money-making completely valid: for that particular master investor and that's the key within the keys to success i think, listed in "becoming rich..." personalizing the varied approaches you can recognize as compatible with you then sticking to it (with review) the side by side comparisons and real life financial examples between sometimes several investing modes in illuminating applying the information is excruciating, but fun i only wish there'd been more examples from graham's investing style; much like what is found on the author's website where he has a neat self test to see what percentages of which styles one seems to fit within (and what may also need work :-)

In 1969, as a youthful 23 year old I invested in Australian mineral stocks which were then running hot. Poseidon was the leader and others were in hot pursuit. 6 weeks later the market came crashing down and I virtualy lost my entire investment. For the next 36 years I never bought another stock. Mark Tier's book has changed all that. In a little over 200 pages of well written and thoroughly reasoned text he has provided a succinct analysis of the strategies behind such successful investors as Warren Buffet and George Soros. He has converted me back to equities, and given me the encouragement to invest again. My only regret is that the book wasn't available 20 years ago. I'd thoroughly recommend this book to anyone wanting to adopt a relatively cautious but nevertheless winning strategy for investing in the stock market. Thanks Mark, it's never too late to start over. Warren Buffet, here I come!