OWN COOKING

“In the building practices of ancient Rome, when scaffolding was removed from a completed Roman arch, the Roman engineer who built the arch stood beneath. If the arch came crashing down, he was the first to know! His concern for the quality of the arch was intensely personal, and it is not surprising that so many Roman arches have survived.” Seth Klarman, ‘Margin of Safety’

"My family is the largest investor in the funds, so we eat our own cooking.” Mohnish Pabrai

"Yes, we eat our own cooking, and that's a good thing.” Bruce Berkowitz

"Eating home cooking is a cornerstone to our approach. But sometimes, home cooking isn't prepared in a microwave oven but in a crock pot. It'll be ready when its ready." Seth Klarman

"We eat our own cooking. It probably goes without saying that such a policy demonstrates the sincerity of our position – not necessarily the soundness of it.” Frank Martin

“There is something comforting knowing that managers have their own money on the line. It keeps them from taking undue risks if they hit a rough patch of performance.” Christopher Browne

“Most of our directors have a major portion of their net worth invested in the company. We eat our own cooking.” Warren Buffett

“When taking a flight, you want the pilot on the plane for the ride.” Leon Levy

“Eating the home cooking is true for us.” Wally Weitz

“There is no better place to begin one’s investigation than with personal ethics. Do they “eat home cooking?” I can think of no more important test of investment success of the integrity of a manager than his or her confidence in the approach pursued on behalf of clients.” Seth Klarman

“I cannot promise results to partners. What I can and do promise is that: my wife, children and I will have virtually our entire net worth invested in the partnership.” Warren Buffett 1962 Letter

“We have always believed in eating our own cooking. This alignment means that in addition to thinking about the upside potential of any investment, we also think about the downside. As fellow investors, we are also motivated to maintain a relentless focus on research and results while avoiding the conflicts that can arise when portfolio managers invest their own money differently than their clients’ money.” Chris Davis

“I will also say that it’s very important for me psychologically that I am also an investor in these strategies. That sense of sharing in the risk and the reward that we’re taking on behalf of other people’s precious savings. That’s important.” Nick Train

“I believe that a manager should have an investment in his fund that is significant in terms of his net worth, as a percentage of the fund’s total assets, and in absolute dollars. All too often the flaws of a fund are only evident when it is too late, and the confidence that an investor has in the manager may ultimately be the most important consideration.” Lee Ainslee

"You probably would not choose to dine at a restaurant whose chef always ate elsewhere. You should be no more satisfied with a money manager who does not eat his or her own cooking.” Seth Klarman

"We felt it was critical for each of us to invest virtually all of our personal wealth side by side with our clients. We were partners with them in each and every investment; their risks were our risks. Indeed, throughout my career; the great bulk of my personal net worth was always invested in my funds, and, to this day, I will not invest money with a manager who does not do the same.” Michael Steinhardt

"I am proud to say that the Quantum Group of Funds, with which I am associated, managers have a substantial ownership interest in the funds they manage. That is a key point. Our ownership is a direct and powerful incentive to practice sound money management." George Soros

"I put all of my investment capital into my funds. So it's a true partnership." Li Lu

"We believe the investment decisions we make for you should be bound to the decisions we make for ourselves, so we at Fairholme put our money where our mouths are by staying personally and increasingly invested in our funds and ideas. We succeed when you do, and lose if you do." Bruce Berkowitz

"It is crucial to me that clients of Giverny and its portfolio managers are in the same boat.” Francois Rochon

"Be assured that I eat my own cooking. The vast majority of my net worth, aside from money set aside for modest living expenses, is in the fund." Michael Burry

"I eat my own cooking, the teams eats their own cooking. We prosper most when we get it right and we hurt the most when we get it wrong." Leon Cooperman

"I've got a stake. I've got skin in the game. Just like I make sure my people have skin in the game in our investments at EGI." Sam Zell

“I have substantial amounts of money in the three different funds that we manage. That is the first due diligence question, does the fellow have skin in the game?” Jim Simons

“Nearly all of my own wealth is in the fund. My investors and I are all in the same boat – when they lose money, I lose money.” Robert Vinall

"If you can make sure the investors' interests are aligned with the manager's, and if the manager has real skin in the game, you've taken care of most of the important diligence questions." Izzy Englander

“We have a very large balance sheet. That gives us the opportunity to invest side-by-side with our investors and put much more of our own capital into any transaction we might do.” Henry Kravis

"Nobody [at Century Management] is allowed to own any other stocks or investments other than our stocks. We're all in the middle of an ocean, we're all in the same boat, and our hands are tied to the oar; we're all rowing the same way." Arnold van den Berg

“There are many Berkshire centimillionaires and, yes, billionaires who have never studied our financial figures. They simply know that Charlie and I – along with our families and close friends – continue to have very significant investments in Berkshire, and they trust us to treat their money as we do our own.” Warren Buffett

“When I think about hedge fund investments from an investor's perspective, the things I'd really be interested in knowing are how well the managers interests are aligned with mine, and how much of their personal net worth the managers have invested in the fund. I guess I also want them to have a sizeable net worth so that their investment will mean something and they'll care about protecting it. In our case, my biggest personal investment, by a fair measure, is my investment in Millennium.” Izzy Englander

“It's always been a profound part of our culture to have our money, our partners, our families and our Directors invested alongside our clients.” Chris Davis