P V Ramanathan

Forget "get rich quick"! The OG moneymakers of value investing built fortunes on patience & smarts. Here are the 12 creators behind value investing's most successful strategies:

Read everything you can. The more you learn about different industries, the better your decisions become.

Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing. Understanding the business is the best risk management. Where do you still feel gaps in understanding?

In my 30 years of business, I’ve seen this play out countless times: The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting. Great opportunities come to those who stay patient and don’t force decisions.

Don’t look for seven-foot bars to jump over. Look for one-foot bars that you can step over easily. Where are you still searching for the high bar?

Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. Always maintain enough margin of safety. How wide is your current margin?

Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful. The best decisions often come in panic, not celebration.

“Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.” Focus and deep understanding beats spreading thin. Where are you currently most focused?

The best businesses don’t need much capital to grow. When you find one, hold it tight because they are rare. Have you found one like that?

In my decades of investing, patience has proven to be the entire game. The ability to wait separates successful investors from the rest.

In my years of decision-making, Buffett’s distinction has stayed central: Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. It remains one of the most important concepts.

Quality businesses at reasonable prices will always be my preferred approach. The combination of both is rare, but worth waiting for.

In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable. The best opportunities come when the path feels uncertain. When did discomfort last lead you to a good decision?

Never invest in a business you cannot understand. This rule has saved me from many expensive mistakes. Where have you stretched beyond understanding?

The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient. I’ve watched this truth unfold over the decades. Where do you place yourself on that spectrum?

Time is the friend of the wonderful business and the enemy of the mediocre one. The longer you hold quality, the more powerful the compounding becomes. How long are you willing to hold?

The biggest investment mistakes come from overconfidence, not lack of knowledge.

The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect.