LEARNING

“The doors of wisdom are never shut.” Benjamin Franklin

"Education isn't something you can finish." Isaac Asimov

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow but learn as if you were to live forever.” Mahatma Gandhi

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Benjamin Franklin

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” Abraham Lincoln

"Better capital in a man's head than capital in a bank." Dickson G Watts

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” Henry Ford

"The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity." Josh Waitzkin

"Lifelong learning is a must for everyone in this knowledge economy, with rapidly changing technology." Lee Kuan Yew

"Remember that you can never learn too much. Always be ready and willing to learn something new; never have a fixed idea that you know it all." William D Gann

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." Eric Hoffer

"Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much." Sir Francis Bacon

"One thing I’ve learned is to always inquire. Always ask questions.” Charlie Munger

“There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.” Charles Proteus Steinmetz

“Always ask questions and never be afraid to do so. The only dumb question is the one you do not ask.” Jim Rogers

"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” Epictetus

“Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time.“ Thomas Jefferson

“There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.” Hindu Proverb

“As long as you're green you're growing, as soon as you're ripe you start to rot.” Ray Kroc

“It isn’t the learning that’s so hard. It’s the unlearning.” Charlie Munger

“You want to build knowledge by continually learning. There is not set preparation.” Li Lu

"I think that the most important investment you can make is in yourself." Warren Buffett

"The turtles who outrun the hares are learning machines." Charlie Munger

“The best people are always learning.” David Abrams

“Investing is one of the few professions where you can objectively improve every day until the day you die.” Naval Ravikant

“Learning is a lifetime endeavour. Upon graduation you need to keep studying and keep reading. Look for patterns because you’re going to be building this mental database, a framework of your experience that you’ll be able to rely upon to help guide your decision making.” Jim Brilliant

“In investing, all knowledge is cumulative.” Monhish Pabrai

"The beauty of it is that knowledge is cumulative. And even what you're learning about Company A will help you thinking about Company B." Warren Buffett

"It is compound knowledge. You get better and better at it. It's spotting those gating factors. I can look at a bank or certain companies and certain sectors much faster than I would five, ten years ago." Todd Combs

“Investment knowledge is cumulative.” Brian Bares

“When you have the right approach and are doing the right things, you will see that your knowledge accumulates in the same way the economy grows. It’s a process of compounding.” Li Lu

“You don’t have to have good hand-to-eye co-ordination to be a good investor if you have the benefit of accumulated and compounded knowledge.” Mario Gabelli

“The power law of compounding cannot only be applied to investing but it can even, and more importantly, be applied to continued learning. Compounding knowledge through a multidisciplinary framework is an individual’s greatest enduring advantage.” Christopher Begg

“This business requires constant learning, even sometimes abandoning precepts about industries and geographies that no longer apply. If you’re not willing or able to do that, I think the environment ahead means you’re in for a very tough time.” John Burbank

“We still have much to learn.” Nick Sleep

“If you’re going to live a long time, you have to keep learning - what you formerly knew is never enough. So if you don’t learn to constantly revise your earlier conclusions, and get better ones, you are - I always use the same metaphor - you’re like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.” Charlie Munger

"If you really want to learn how to hit a baseball, don't start by asking a rookie. In fact, avoid a rookie even if you have no alternative. Bad advice is worse than no advice at all. On the practical side, unlike any others to follow, Buffett doesn't sell advice but rather takes his own, for which he is in every sense accountable." Frank Martin

“Learning from others is a huge part of investing – every mistake has already been made and you can add years to your life learning from them vicariously.” Morgan Housel

“The beauty of this business is that you can always be learning – from the markets and from each other.” Larry Robbins

“Even Ben Graham had a lot to learn as an investor.” Charlie Munger

“I still learn something new every day, which is why I like my job so much.” Daniel Kruger

"Warren Buffet is a learning machine." Charlie Munger

"If I am constantly learning, that is fun." Sam Zell

”We are always learning and we should take something from every investment - good or bad.” Jeffrey Ubben

"This is a learning business." John Harris

“We learn each day how much there really is to know, and how little of it we actually know.” Christopher Bloomstran

“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day-if you live long enough-like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.” Charlie Munger

“I try to be more knowledgeable each year as an investor.” Sir John Templeton

"Go to places where you can learn. You can learn from every experience, but just provide yourself with the best opportunities to work with people who you think are smart and who you respect." Barry Rosenstein

"If a week goes by that I haven't learned something new, then that is really a wasted week. Sometimes, I'll discover another way of evaluating a particular stock or hear about a decision by a management team that could be interesting." Lee Ainslie

“I'm not Warren Buffett and neither are you. You have to think for yourself, be original, use your particular talents and learn." Lisa Rapuano

“The game of life is the game of everlasting learning. At least it is if you want to win.” Charlie Munger

"The markets are a classroom where lessons are taught everyday. The keys to investment success lie in observing and learning." Howard Marks

“Every day is a learning day.” Chuck Akre

“The most productive course of action we can take is to continue to get smarter every single day, study more business models, read voraciously, and ultimately trust this process to lead to an actionable insight.” Fred Liu

“Every day provides tactile learning experiences.” Ray Dalio

“You want is to have the humility of always learning. So every day I want to learn something, I want to read more about an industry, a business, about how the world is changing.” Francois Rochon

"I always try to learn something new from every investment conversation I have." Peter Lynch

“Those who keep learning, will keep rising in life.” Charlie Munger

“The secret to being successful from a trading perspective is to have an indefatigable and an undying and unquenchable thirst for information and knowledge.” Paul Tudor Jones

"Berkshire’s record would have been terrible compared to the way it turned out if Warren hadn’t kept learning and learning and learning all the way. I mean, each decade, to make the record decent, he had to learn to do some things he didn’t know how to do at the start of the decade." Charlie Munger

“To be a successful investor learning is essential.” Irving Kahn

“You have to keep learning about new things and generate new ideas. I’ve always said that if you don’t enjoy the process of learning, you shouldn’t be in the investing business.” Morris Mark

"I'm always learning, which keeps it exciting and new. I'm not doing the same thing I was doing ten years ago. I have evolved and will continue to evolve." Steve Cohen

“I learn from every experience. When you get your fingers mashed in the door, you don’t go back to the door.” Boone Pickens

“I think there’s something to learn from everyone. And even if, you know, let’s say both of you have disagreeing views on a certain stock, there’s always that those are the best conversations right. So I try to meet everyone that I can to get a holistic view of a certain topic that I’m trying to have a better grasp upon.” Fred Liu

"Start by learning from the best - listening, studying and reading." Li Lu

"I think a life properly lived is just learn-learn-learn all the time. I think Berkshire's gained enormously from the investment decisions by learning over time. We're way better off by doing it so long. The decisions blend and the one feature that comes through is the continuous learning." Charlie Munger

"People who are curious are going to be better investors and better stewards of others’ money." Henry Kravis

"I have an insatiable curiosity." Sam Zell

"I love learning about businesses and the intellectual challenge of investing." Ricky Sandler

"I enjoy being a perpetual student." Marty Whitman

“Everyone who faces the intellectual and emotional challenges of the capital markets needs to keep learning.” Nick Train

"We are avid students of investing." William Browne

"One thing nice about the investment business is that, even though I am 68, I continue to learn. You learn something every month and every quarter." Leon Cooperman

"We are constantly reminded of the fact that we are in an unforgiving business, and we do our very best every day to be better than we were the day before." Andreas Halvorsen

"We never stop learning about businesses. School is in session every day but exams tend to come in a cluster, which brings to mind a Bill Parcells quote: “This is what you work all season for. This is why you lift all them weights.” Similar preparation allows us to be ready when the inevitable opportunities present themselves." Steven Romick

“Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.” Charlie Munger

“We lean on experience, collaboration, and endless learning to power our approach.” Steve Mandel

"If life ever ceased to be an educational experience, I probably wouldn’t get out of bed." Paul Tudor Jones

"The only way people can get to the right place is to educate themselves." David Swenson

"I am continuously learning. I have never finished my education and probably never will." Peter Bernstein

"I'd stop living if I didn't have the opportunity to learn something every day." Roy Neuberger

"Nothing has served me better in my long life than continuous learning." Charlie Munger

"I never stop learning from those who never stop teaching. It's no more the application of common sense: If I wanted to learn how to hit baseballs, I'd buy a copy of Ted Williams' The Science of Hitting long before I picked up a bat." Frank Martin

"You should learn a bit more every cycle - if you don't your business isn't vibrant." Jeffrey Ubben

"The only one thing one can do is to try to be what Munger would call a ‘continuous learning machine’ You try to keep learning to find evidence that shows your accepted practices could be better or different." Mohnish Pabrai

“I have always wanted to improve what I do, even if it reduces my income in any given year. And I always set aside time so I can play my own self-amusement and improvement game.” Charlie Munger

"I think self-improvement is the only way to keep moving forward." Kyle Bass

"George and I, every day, try to get better—we try to make ourselves better and try to make this firm better. You build your reputation a brick at a time." Henry Kravis

"I have a very deep interest in so many areas of life. I like to keep studying and learning." Mark Mobius

“You should consider it a moral duty to compound your knowledge and your ability.” Li Lu

“If you do not train and refine your learning style, you cannot see great investments if they were right in front of you.” Yen Liow

“There is an optionality that people don’t understand. Optionality means to pursue things you are interested in because the optionality is really high. You need to pay some premium, time, expense to learn. Often getting to the right place is not saying I know its going to happen, its saying this looks like a place I should be going towards.” John Burbank

"I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.… so if civilization can progress only with an advanced method of invention, you can progress only when you learn the method of learning." Charlie Munger

"If I am correct in the premise that speculation is a business in itself, those engaging in that business should determine to learn and understand it to the best of their ability with informative data available. In the forty years I have devoted to making speculation a successful business venture, I have discovered and still am discovering new rules that apply to that business." Jesse Livermore

"This is a business where you want to be a student, you want to learn. You want to keep educating yourself." Mohnish Pabrai

"I think it's important to our efforts that we're constantly learning and building our reservoir of knowledge on great businesses." Christopher Begg

"The game of investment is really continuous learning." Li Lu

“It’s a life-long game, and it you don’t keep learning, other people will pass you by.” Charlie Munger

“The investing industry should be approached with the goal of lifelong learning and an understanding that you’re compounding your knowledge over time. It’s important to keep in mind that the industry lives on an exponential curve. This means you will experience long plateaus without noticeable improvement, with the key word being ‘noticeable.’ There will be inflection points; you just won’t know when. Grow to embrace, or even love, the plateaus.” Jeff Mueller

"Munger has said, 'Warren is better in his 70's and 80's, in many ways, than he was when he was younger. If you keep learning all the time, you have a wonderful advantage.'" Guy Spier

“As I look at the past fifteen years, I’m amazed at how much I have learned and how far along I’ve come. I’d have remained an investing ape without continuous learning.” Li Lu

“We’ve learned enough to know there’s always more to learn.” Steve Mandel

"Each period, whether a day, a month, a year or longer, represents an infinite number of possible learning opportunities, revealing more and more about correlations, hedging, law, regulation, culture, sizing positions, trading versus holding, activism, bankruptcy law and practice, government action and political impacts on investing, organizational realities and growth, as well as the kind of personal characteristics that are required to do this job well." Paul Singer

"Just keep accumulating knowledge. That’s one of the beauties of the business that Charlie and I are in, is that everything is cumulative. The stuff I learned when I was 20 is useful today. Not in necessarily the same way and not necessarily every day. But it’s useful. So you’re building a database in your mind that is going to pay off over time." Warren Buffett

“Do case studies. Deeply study the best and worst investments in history. Even better, do it with a bunch of friends. Learn in clusters. This business is about pattern recognition. The more cases you do, the more you can create conviction around pattern recognition. This is how you learn in dog years. You need to be deeply prepared for luck to be successful.” Yen Liow

“There's nothing better than investing in yourself & investing in your education. An education investment over the long-run always produces the best compounding results that you could never imagine. The best investment on yourself /friends /relatives & society” Lei Zhang

“Knowledge compounds almost in the same way that your money compounds. In fact, only when your knowledge compounds at a faster pace, your money is safe. To me that is a very fascinating journey and rewarding life.” Li Lu

Further Reading:
‘Learning from the Masters,’ Investment Masters Class. 2017.
‘Investing Mentors,’ Investment Masters Class. 2017.
‘Learning From Podcasts,’ Investment Masters Class. 2018.
‘Staying Curious,’ Investment Masters Class. 2018.