#186 Tom Gayner: Short-Term Patience, Long-Term Results

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

Farnam Street

Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2024

⏱️ 129 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of The Knowledge Project, Shane Parrish sits down for a wide-ranging interview with Tom Gayner, a leader in investment strategies and friend and disciple of Charlie Munger. Gayner and Shane reflect on the most important life lessons they've learned from Munger (including their first-hand observations), what to look for when evaluating a company, and the importance of evaluating your opportunity costs before making decisions.

Gayner shares his philosophy about debt, why he disagrees with Munger about the value of reading fiction, and how simplicity is the superior management philosophy. He also talks about the importance of playing a long-term game in a short-term world and how to overcome the obstacles of doing so. Plus, Shane and Gayner discuss the biographies that have impacted their lives and thinking most.

Gayner is currently the CEO of Markel Group and the Director of The Coca‑Cola Company. He also serves as chairman of the Davis Series Mutual Funds board and on the boards of Graham Holdings and Markel.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And there do come points where you're past the point of no return.
0:04.4	Those words exist. That sentence exists because it means something.
0:08.8	Acknowledge the point is out there and just try to be thoughtful and aware and make a decision that you think is
0:14.6	reasonable, rational, thoughtful.
0:18.0	If you're judging yourself by the outcome in the short run, you're going to make more mistakes
0:22.4	than you otherwise would. You should have some sensation of the process and doing the right sort of process which again is that discipline of just being thoughtful about things. That I think is going to be the best the Knowledge Project, a podcast about mastering the best of what other people have already figured out so you can apply their insights to your life.
1:01.0	I'm your host, Shane Parish.
1:05.0	Every Sunday I send out the brain food newsletter to over 600,000 people.
1:09.4	It's considered noise cancelling headphones for the internet,
1:12.2	and it's full of timeless
1:13.5	wisdom you can apply to life and work. It takes about five minutes to go through
1:16.9	every week. Sign up for free at FS. blog slash newsletter. If you're listening to this you're missing out, if you'd like access to the podcast before public release,
1:27.0	special episodes that don't appear anywhere else, hand-edited transcripts,
1:32.0	where you just want to support the show you love, you can join at
1:35.1	FS.
1:36.1	Check out the show notes for a link.
1:40.7	Today my guest is Tom Gaynor, the CEO of Markel Corporation.
1:45.0	Tom is widely respected for both his investment, Acumen, and his character.
1:50.0	He joined Markel in 1990 and has been instrumental to its growth.
1:54.7	It's the first time I've really gotten a chance to sit down and chat with him.
1:58.3	We've had casual conversations before, but this was different.
2:01.4	In this episode, we talk about the lessons
	...

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