The Education of a Value Investor

June 23, 2014
“Investing is about much more than money. So as your wealth grows, I hope you will also come to realize that the money is largely irrelevant”: this puzzling statement opens a career advice roundup from Spier, who transformed from a self-centered investment banker to a socially-conscious value investor and business commentator. After graduating from Oxford University and Harvard Business School, Spier landed his first job with a shady investor, and soon found himself jobless and miserable. After picking himself back up, he began to explore value investing and became friends with investor Mohnish Pabrai. This friendship led him to a life-changing lunch with Warren Buffet in 2008 (for which he bid over $650,000 at an auction). A fan of leadership gurus like Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie, and Napoleon Hill, Spier decided to make a change to be able to take pride in his work and improve the world. Here, he shares lessons learned, many garnered from that lunch, such as how to preserve your reputation, weather enormous changes like the financial crisis, and find the perfect investment environment. Also included are rules, routines, and habits that he learned from Pabrai. This vanity project will likely appeal most to Buffett fans. Agent: William Clark, William Clark Associates.

July 15, 2014
Aquamarine Fund founder Spier, widely known for his sharedvictory in the 2007 auction of a lunch appointment with Warren Buffett, showshow the legendary investor from Omaha became an example, guide and mentor inhis own journey to master the secrets of value investing.Educated in economics at Oxford University and HarvardBusiness School, where he excelled, the author assumed he would transitionsmoothly into a fast-track career on Wall Street. However, Spier began withdisillusionment. At his first job, he found the aroma of corruptionunacceptable and left. Later, that company's officers were indicted on 173counts of stock fraud. The author escaped the worst, but he understood that hewas "potentially teetering on the edge of a moral cliff." He also began torealize that his education had not provided him with either the knowledge orpractical skills to survive in the modern financial world. Consequently, Spierdecided to build his own company, using Buffett as his model. Later, heestablished a friendship with another fan of Buffett's investing methods,Mohnish Prabai, who shared the 2007 auction victory with Spier. The authorwrites that he learned an important lesson at that lunch. "Seeing him in personthat day," he writes, "I was left with no doubt at all that I could ever hopeto match him." But rather than competing with Buffett, Spier aimed to changehis lifestyle and become the best he could be, beginning an "inner journey" for"true value" and meaning that goes beyond just making money. For the author,this includes philanthropy and generous donation to charities, including SanFrancisco's Glide Memorial Church, favored by Buffett, and his friend Prabai'sDakshana Foundation, which educates children in India.A wide-ranging journey in which money isn't everything, but itsure does seem to help.

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October 1, 2014

Spier, a value hedge fund manager, writes of his journey of self-discovery in the world of professional investing. After earning degrees from both Oxford and Harvard, the author embarked upon a Wall Street career but found the climate to be at odds with his personal sense of ethics. Spier reveals how he has slowly reinvented himself to follow Warren Buffett's approach to value investing. He and another hedge fund manager won a coveted charity auction lunch with Buffett, and Spier tells readers what he learned. He explains how he has become a better manager by distancing himself from the daily noise of Wall Street and by changing personal habits and his approach to life. Through a series of rules and case studies, the author lays out a path that readers can take to improve their investing. Mainly, though, he emphasizes the importance of valuing all aspects of one's life by striving to be the best person possible. VERDICT Readers will find Spier's story uplifting, but it lacks the vigor and edginess of James J. Cramer's 2002 classic Confessions of a Street Addict.--Lawrence Maxted, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

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