HARD WORK & LOVE

“The used key is always bright.” Benjamin Franklin

“It is very difficult to invest money well.” Charlie Munger

"It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up you'd better be running." Leon Cooperman

"It is difficult to find creative investment ideas. Thinking is hard work. I have hundreds of thoughts and I study hundreds of companies but good investment ideas are few and far between. Maybe only 1 percent or so of the companies we study ends up being part of our portfolios." Ed Wachenheim

“The main reason why money is lost in stock speculations is not because Wall Street is dishonest, but because so many people persist in thinking that you can make money without working for it and that the stock exchange is the place where this miracle can be performed.” Jessie Livermore

“Many unsuccessful investors regard the stock market as a way to make money without working rather than as a way to invest capital in order to earn a decent return.” Seth Klarman

"In handling common stocks, as in most other fields of human activity, success depends on a combination of hard work, intelligence and honesty." Phil Fisher

“Recognise that this is a very competitive business, and that when you decide to buy or sell a stock, you are competing with people who have devoted a good portion of their lives to this same endeavour. In many instances, these professionals are on the opposite side of your trades, and on balance, they are going to beat you.” Michael Steinhardt

"Number one, passion. I mentioned earlier I was passionate about the business. The problem with this business if you're not passionate, it is so invigorating to certain individuals, they're going to work 24/7, and you're competing against them. So every time you buy something, one of them is selling it. So, if you're with one of the lazy people that are just doing it for the money, you're going to get run over by those people." Stanley Druckenmiller

“When you manage money, it takes over your whole life. It’s a 24-hour-a-day thing.” Julian Robertson

"I learned at a very early age how important it is to work hard and be honest." Warren Buffett

“A good work ethic is critical.” T. Boone Pickens

"The keys are discipline, hard work and practice. It's like playing golf - you have to work on it." Charlie Munger

“It cannot be said too often that in speculation and investment, success comes only to those who work for it. No one is going to hand you a lot of easy money.” Jessie Livermore

“I would attribute my success to hard work, surrounding myself with good people and a fair amount of luck.” Leon Cooperman

“Investing is fun, exciting and dangerous if you don’t do any work.” Peter Lynch

“Don't speculate unless you can make it a full-time job.” Bernard Baruch

“If you’re going to come to the poker table, you’re going to have to beat me. … We have 1500 people who work at Bridgewater. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on research and so on, we’ve been doing this for 37 years.” Ray Dalio

“The way to win is to work, work, work, work and hope to have a few insights…. And you’re probably not going to be smart enough to find thousands in a lifetime. And when you get a few, you really load up. It’s just that simple.” Charlie Munger

 “Success in speculation requires as much specialised knowledge as success in law or medicine or any other profession. It never would occur to anyone to open a department store in competition with Macy’s or Gimbel’s or to make motor cars against Ford and General Motors without prior training or preparation. Yet the same man will cheerfully toss his savings into a market dominated by men who are as expert in their line as Macy’s and the auto makers are in theirs.” Bernard Baruch

"Speculation is no simple business. The amateur cannot take a few thousand dollars' capital, fifteen minutes a day of time, treat it as a side-line and be any more successful than he would in any other business." Philip Carrett

"Of course, the dismal results for individual investors are partly their own fault as well. They are simply not equipped, either in terms of temperament, research resources or time commitment, to compete with the professionals. Rational individuals wouldn't dream of competing against professional athletes for money or against professional card players. Why would they in the financial markets?" Barton Biggs

"The investors work is so specialised and so intricate that there is no more reason why an individual should handle his own investments than that he should be his own lawyer, doctor, architect, or automobile mechanic. He should perform these functions if he has a special interest in and skill at the particular field. Otherwise he should go to the expert." Phil Fisher

“Most people would not consider building a house without hiring an architect to carefully design it before beginning constructions. Yet these same people might well spend the equivalent amount on a portfolio of stocks and bonds with no plan at all. As a result of this lack of planning, most security portfolios are unbalanced and contain numerous securities which are not suitable to the particular individual or his goals.” T Rowe Price

"Most individuals should not try to compete against talented professional investors any more than most weekend tennis players should try to play matches against world-ranked professional tennis players. They will lose, usually badly." Ed Wachenheim

"I think the two biggest mistakes traders make is that they don't do enough homework, and they are a bit too casual about risk.” Michael Platt

"You better do your homework. Markets know more than you." Jim Rogers

“If you consider yourself stock picker – At some point in your life you are going to have to do the work others aren’t willing to do and bet big on something you believe in. But it takes work and conviction. You must do the work and you must form the conviction.” Ian Cassel

"Shortcuts usually grease the rails to disappointing outcomes.” John Neff

"Alpha is personal. It's an art form. It's superior insight; some people just ‘get it’ better than others. Some of them are mechanistic quants; others are entirely intuitive. But all those I've met are extremely hard working.” Howard Marks

"The person who is better prepared, the person who has done the most work, has a huge edge because most people are lazy." Marc Lasry

"Hard work, honesty, if you keep at it, will get you almost anything." Charlie Munger

“At Baupost, we constantly ask: 'What should we work on today?' We keep calling and talking. We keep gathering information. You never have perfect information. So you work, work and work. Sometimes we thumb through ValueLine. How you fill your inbox is very important.” Seth Klarman

"Make no mistake, you have to work really, really hard in this business." Mark Unferth

"When beggars and shoeshine boys, barbers and beauticians can tell you how to get rich it is time to remind yourself that there is no more dangerous illusion than the belief that one can get something for nothing.” Bernard Baruch

"If you don't work very hard, it is extremely unlikely that you will be a good trader." Bruce Kovner

"It's a lot of hard work and you're competing with by and large, the best and brightest who work in finance." Ken Griffin

"We work hard. I think success is less about having great ideas and far more about good execution, and we work very hard every day at unglamorous tasks like analysing results, attending conferences, reading trade publications, and updating models." Terry Smith

"If you aren't working hard at this terribly competitive business, you aren't going to do very well." Ralph Wanger

"The only way to gain an edge is through long and hard work.” Li Lu

"There’s no magic to it. Investing is a lot of work, and a lot of research. And it’s a lot of judgement." Glenn Greenberg

"Achieving a good record takes much study and work, and it is a lot harder than most people think." Sir John Templeton

"I want to impress on you strongly that if you expect to make a success in the stock market you must put in plenty of time studying, because the more time you put in, the more knowledge you gain, the more profits you will take out later." William D Gann

"Did we ever mention that investing is hard work - painstaking, relentless, and at times confounding?" Seth Klarman

“Something I call the ‘Great Illusion of the Stock Market’ - Investing looks easy, particularly in a world of inexpensive software and online trading. Buying a stock is no more difficult than buying a book on Amazon.com. And because a great many people have gotten wealthy in the stock market, lots of others have come to believe that anyone can get rich with very little effort. They are wrong. All the people I know who’ve built wealth in the stock market have worked very hard at it.. The Great Illusion is just that—an illusion. If you want to get wealthy in the financial markets, you’ll need to engage in “hard and systematic work.” David Abrams

"When you start working there is no substitute for hard work. Be that person who is trying to learn everything, because many things tend to repeat themselves over time." Marc Lasry

"The people who are coming into the casinos to have excitement and thrills are transferring their money to people who are following laborious, boring routines. That's my metaphor for security analysis. Most of it is just plain, hard detail work. It's like doing low-order police work, if you will - making phone calls, checking sources, trying to figure out what's going on." Ralph Wanger

"It's hard to do this job if you want to do it well as you have to be so vigilant and monitor and pay attention to so many things." John Burbank

“The harder I worked the luckier I got. I would say that hard work has never killed anybody. I think to be successful in your chosen field of endeavour, be prepared to give of your bind, your body, your soul to achieve that success.” Leon Cooperman

“I’m also a big believer in the old expression, ‘The harder I work, the luckier I get.’ For me it just emphasizes the notion that this is all a journey and more will be revealed as you go along. I’ve always found approaching anything I do with that mindset helps a lot.” Chuck Akre

"The most important skill I have is a strong work ethic and a belief that I can learn and improve." Colm O'Shea

"I am not sure that I am that smart, I think we work harder." Sir Michael Hintze

"Do your homework. If you want to succeed you must never neglect it. My most successful investments were those in which I invested the most time and hard work, collecting all available information and researching every detail." Jim Rogers

“I’ve heard people say ‘I play the market’ or I want to ‘play the market. ‘Play’ is the wrong verb for the stock market. This is work. It can be fun work. You don’t get a tip on the bus and buy $10,000 in some stock. People are careful when they buy a refrigerator or do a vacation. You’ve got to do some research when you buy a stock. Whether you’re an amateur or a professional. ‘Play the market’ is buying an ETF or day-trading. That’s speculating, that's gambling, not investing. You have to separate investing versus gambling as gambling doesn’t work.” Peter Lynch

"Very few people really do their homework properly, so now I always check for myself." Peter Cundill

"I'm seventy-five, I work out every morning at 4.45, I'm at the office by 6.30 am, and I don't get home from work until 7:00 at night. I have plenty more to do, and a lot more to say. Everyday is an adventure." Sam Zell

"From my dad I learned so many lessons but maybe the most powerful one was that there are no shortcuts for doing the work yourself. My dad used to say that it's the legwork that can make the difference. So we go out and call on companies. We read the documents. We work the hours. There's simply no shortcut for it. And he reinforced that lesson in his own behavior. And it's become part of our culture." Chris Davis

“We train deeply, as investing is a game that never ends or stops adapting. We compare investing to a professional full contact sport, and all professional sports have a high training-to-playing ratio. We think it’s absolutely critical to have a high training-to-playing ratio. We train a tremendous amount, and I still think it’s not enough.” Yen Liow

“Once I was running my own business I was going 24/7, 365 days a year: public holidays, birthdays, anniversaries . .. nothing was sacred. Work came first, second and third.” Guy Hands

LOVE

“I knew I wanted to work on Wall Street and, once I made up my mind, I never thought about any other career. It was not work, it was joy. I came to love the risk taking associated with trading and the rush that comes when the risk pays off” Michael Steinhardt

“I have had two loves in my life; one is the stock market, the other psychology.” Leon Levy

“The most successful students are those that truly love what they are doing. Don’t go into this to make money.” Joel Greenblatt

“Good investors are data driven and enjoy the game. These are people doing what they love doing. It really is a game, a game they love.” Warren Buffett

"I love what I do. I love the investing process - the problems and the puzzle-solving and testing my wits." Dan Loeb

"I love what I do. I do it because it's fun." Stanley Druckenmiller

"I'm doing what I love doing." Paul Singer

“Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Seth Klarman

"I love my job." David Swenson

“I like it, I love the big picture. It’s what I love, it’s exciting.” Ray Dalio

"I would pay to have this job. I mean, it doesn’t get any better than this." Warren Buffett

"I am at an age where I don’t have to work. I work because I love the business and I love the business because when you do get a creative idea, it’s really exciting." Ed Wachenheim

“I’ve been doing this for thirteen years. And I love it. I’m lucky to have the kind of life where the differentiation between work and play is absolutely zilch. I have no idea whether I’m working or whether I’m playing.” Peter Cundill

"To me, making money is an interesting game. The reason I continue is similar to why top golfers keep playing. They're not doing it for the money; it's for the love of the sport." Warren Buffett

"For me, my love for investing was linked to my fascination with researching and learning in detail what was happening in different parts of the world. The least happy people I know are those stuck in jobs they don't love." Jim Rogers

"What motivates me first is my love for the business." Mark Kingdon

 "I’m 70 and in great health with enormous enthusiasm. I love what I’m doing." Steve Schwarzman

"I love this business." Julian Robertson

"I feel my success comes from my love of markets." Ed Seykota

“I love what I do. Follow the advice of Henry Ford .. ‘the best way to make money is not to think about making money’. Do what you love, love what you do. Because If you do what you love and love what you do, with a little bit of luck you’re bound to be successful.” Leon Cooperman"

“In my first week as a trainee investment analyst (having just abandoned a landscape architecture apprenticeship) one of the founders and fund managers of my new employee sat me down for some homely advice. In his broad Scottish accent he said, ‘well, young Nick’, there was then a long pause and he began to smile ‘this job is the best fun you can have with your clothes on’. He was right. Zak and I love running Nomad.” Nick Sleep

"Do what you love. I'm the happiest guy in the world. Every day, I do what I love. My advice to everyone is to find something that you love. You'll become so much more successful at something if you love doing it." C.T Fitzpatrick

“It isn’t work at all. I love it. I don’t want to acquire knowledge for knowledge sake, rather for wisdom’s sake.” Frank Martin

"I love what I am doing and hope to be doing the same thing in 10 years time." Robert Vinall

"I also still love the intellectual challenge of understanding companies and industries, of figuring out what something is worth, of playing the psychological game well." Ricky Sandler

"I love what I do. I'm in the cockpit managing information, coming in from all over the world. I can hire people who help me understand it. I have friends and associates all over the world in every major financial capital. How many people are willing to take calls at 3am." Bruce Kovner

 “I get to do what I love to do every day.” Warren Buffett

"The reason I gravitated towards running Pabrai Funds is that I love understanding businesses. I love understanding how the jockeys who are running these businesses, how they think about them and what they are doing with them." Mohnish Pabrai

"I love what I do and it's good to have the discipline of outside investors." David Tepper

“If you’re enjoying what you’re doing, you know, you’re likely to get a better result than if you go to work with your teeth clenched every morning.” Warren Buffett

"I love the mental stimulation of investing and reading newspapers with investment ideas in mind.. I'm just enjoying myself while studying things, trying to look for a bargain, playing the game." John Spears

"I don't work to collect money. I work because I love what I'm doing." Warren Buffett

"I think you have to be in the business for the right reasons. It's really important to be very curious and have a passion for investing because there are so many people out there competing with you. It's really important to love what you are doing." Alex Sacerdote

“The best investors are passionate, although obsessiveness does not guarantee investment success.” Nick Train

"Don't look for the money. Look for something you love, and if you're good, the money will come." Warren Buffett

"I love it... I think your classmates should pursue investing if they‘ll love it. That‘s why you should do it. The main reason you shouldn‘t do it is to make a lot of money, because number one, money isn‘t everything." Howard Marks

"Frankly, if you don't love it, there are much better things to do with your life. You can't trade because you think it is a way to make a lot of money. That won't cut it. No one who trades for the money is going to be any good." Colm O'Shea

"I simply love the markets. Ever since I was a kid, I liked playing games whether it is chess, bridge, backgammon, poker, or sports. I don't know a single great trader who doesn't share the same trait. If doing this was about the money, I would have quit a long time ago." Paul Tudor Jones

"Being a contrary investor - thinking and being ahead of the pack - is intellectually exciting and keeps me in love with the business." Ed Wachenheim

"I love what I do. I love finding investments that people have missed. I love the whole discussion and arguing cases with bright people, or reviewing an obscure company, or the best way to play that macro thematic on demand in that country. And I just hate to take no for an answer." Pierre Lagrange

"We have been through challenging cycles in the past and we always figure it out. That's the beauty of being in this business for more than 25 years. You come to understand the movements in the markets. There's never a dull moment and that's why I love it." Marc Lasry

"I have known plenty of investment professionals who didn't truly love the game and without exception they were all journeymen at best." Barton Biggs

“I’m doing today what I love to do and my greatest wish is to continue doing what I love—with people I love—for the rest of my life.” Francois Rochon

"One should only be in this business if you love this business." Mohnish Pabrai

“Charlie and I are not in any hurry to retire. He’s trying to outlast me, actually.” Warren Buffett

"One of the things I've learned is to stay with what you like to do rather than do something you don't like but think you can make money out of it." Walter Schloss

"Berkshire is my first love and one that will never fade: At the Harvard Business School last year, a student asked me when I planned to retire and I replied, ‘About five to ten years after I die.’" Warren Buffett

“I tell young people all the time, you have to find something you love. If you don’t love it, find something else. Because you can’t win a Nobel prize doing something you hate.” David Rubenstein

"The approach that worked for me was the title of a book written much later by my ex-sister-in-law, Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow." Ed Thorp

"I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to dedicate myself to work that I truly love." Ken Griffin

“At its core, we love this business because every day is dynamic and there are competitive bones in all our bodies. We want to win, and we want to do this for performance. It’s not about raising billions and billions of dollars; it’s about beating the market and being proud of it.” Sam Stewart

"Everything I've done has been because I've loved doing it, because it was enthralling." Sam Zell

"It is my game. I want - I love to play the game. I will for the rest of my life play the game." Ray Dalio

“I love it. I love trying to solve puzzles. I love trying to find investments. I love trying to figure out what it is that is motivating a situation where we have a difference of opinion.” David Einhorn

"You have to love something to do well at it. There maybe exceptions on that, but it's an enormous advantageous if you absolutely love every minute of it. And the nature of it is that intensity adds to your productivity. I love thinking about Berkshire, I love thinking about its investments, I love thinking about its business and managers. It's part of me. You can't separate the game from the scorecard. The proceeds to me are unimportant." Warren Buffett