In the recent years, there is a budding genre within value investing that applies lessons learned from the investing battlefield to life in general. Sir John Templeton started it as he moved from being an investment guru to a spiritual thinker (most of his books talk extensively about the intersection of worldly and spiritual wisdom).
Sometimes the problem with investment gurus like Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett and the polymath Benjamin Graham is that they are too naturally gifted that it is hard to be inspired that it is natural to ask - how about the rest of us? Can we do what they have done.
Enter Arnold Van Den Berg
One of the most inspiring stories (and I hope he writes his own memoir) is the story of Arnold Van Den Berg - a self educated value investor was not academically trained to be an investor. He did not finish his formal university education but went on to self educate himself in the tradition of Benjamin Franklin.
Many of his life advice and principles are practical and universal that the rest of us can apply.
Life Gems from Arnold Van Den Berg
1. The right mindset and guiding principle - seek the truth wherever it leads you
Arnold was raised as a Jew in Netherlands. He decided, however, early on not to limit himself and decided to seek the truth wherever it leads him. This is a liberating concept that expanded his horizon and decided to search for truth no matter what.
2. Have a principle you are willing to die for
While a young Jew smuggled into an orphanage, he struggled to understand why a young Christian girl risked her life to life about his identity so the Nazis do not send him to the concentration camp. What puzzled him more is that why would her father allow him.
A psychiatrist later told him: "if your life is more important than principles, you will sacrifice your life for your principles. If your principles are more important than life, you will sacrifice your principles for your life".
It is important to have principles you are willing to die for.
3. Understand the power of the subconscious mind
After having a principle you are willing to die for, keep the focus, clarity and strength to understand the truth. Have an extreme focus to develop a lifetime program studying your investment focus. Understand the extraordinary power we have.
He is one of the few investors who recommend books about self hypnosis and the power of the subconscious - topics which many rational people view as pseudo-science.
He recalled one experience where he saw a magazine cover about a successful investment manager and he looked at it with intense focus and visualized. Decades after, forgetting about this incident, it felt surreal when he saw himself in that magazine cover.
He recommended the following books on the power of the mind:
From Poverty to Power by James Allen
As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Self Hypnosis by Leslie Le Cron
Throughout his time as survivor from his days in the orphanage to his days when he was bullied and became a gymnastics champion, he has seen how the power of the subconscious mind can change you.
4. Develop your own personal curriculum
Having been disadvantaged because of his lack of formal education, he decided to develop his own learning curriculum. He educated himself reading the great works of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett. He was so intensely focused to learn that he broke up with his girlfriend then for refusing to let her interrupt his study.
Watch these two videos about Arnie to find out for yourself the amazing tenacity of this survivor: