I’ve read several biographies of and books by notable investors who started their own investment firms: Howard Marks, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, T. Rowe Price, Mohnish Pabrai, Joel Greenblat, Adam Seessel, and more. They all mention value investing and its founder, Benjamin Graham. Graham was the only boss Buffett ever had, and Buffett still speaks well of his mentor, some 70 years after working for him. All this intrigued me and made me want to learn more about the man so many people hold in high regard. So I read The Einstein of Money, the biography of Benjamin Graham.

After reading this book, I understand why Graham developed the value-investing concepts that have endured for a century. His approach was the result of personal and professional pain. Graham watched his widowed mother struggle to raise her children, which left a deep scar on him. It made him aware of the value of money and motivated him to obtain it so he could have freedom and avoid what he endured as a child. After starting his own Wall Street investment firm, Graham lost substantial money in the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression—so much that his partnership almost went bankrupt and he had to move his family to a cheaper home and generate side income as an expert witness in legal cases to make ends meet. Graham reflected on what went wrong to cause all this pain. This led to insights that shaped his value-investing framework, which he documented in his investing classics Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor.

Graham went on to tremendous professional success, becoming a wealthy and highly respected investor and professor at Columbia and UCLA. But his personal life was filled with highs and lows. The lowest points were the deaths of his two sons. And he was imperfect and dealt with personal challenges, some of which led to marrying three times.

Graham was a brilliant person, and I now understand why so many accomplished investors respect him. His value-investing principles have endured the test of time, shaped the thinking of great investors like Buffett, and led to a cult-like value-investing movement.

I’m glad I read this book, and I want to read The Intelligent Investor too. Anyone interested in learning about the man Warren Buffett names as a major contributor to his success should consider reading The Einstein of Money.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 90
• Total blog posts published: 595

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed in the week ending 11/23/25 (link to the previous week’s commitments):

• Read Einstein of Money, a biography of Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, the only boss Warren Buffett ever had, and one of Buffett’s most influential mentors
• Finished my latest weekend project. I tested and updated every book image and confirmed and updated all links to Amazon.com. I’ll share more details in the coming days.

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book

Asks:

• No ask this week

Week two hundred ninety-five was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles related to this project

What I learned:

• The pain entrepreneurs experience when they make a material mistake is immense. That pain leads them to reflect, which in turn leads to insight and a valuable lesson. Entrepreneurs want to hear other entrepreneurs’ stories to fully understand the mistakes that led to insights and lessons learned. This is best done through conversation so questions can be asked.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.

Today I looked at the calendar and realized that Thanksgiving is next week. I feel like it snuck up on me. In 2023, I challenged myself and set an aggressive reading goal: read an 800-page book during that break (see here). I enjoy these holiday challenges. Even though I sometimes make them too aggressive, it’s definitely something I want to keep doing.

That said, I need to figure out what my 2025 Thanksgiving challenge will be. I haven’t thought about it at all and have no clue what I want to do this year. I do know it won’t be reading an 800-page book!

I’ll spend some time thinking about it this weekend so I can go into next week with a clear goal.

This week I listened to an entrepreneur explain an interesting situation with a large pilot customer. He’d had a six-month contract for a paid pilot with a large company. The idea was for the company to test his software and then agree to a longer-term contract. Because of internal dynamics at the large company, the pilot ended without a new contract being signed. So, the entrepreneur disabled the customer’s access to his software platform.

An interesting thing happened. The company reached out and asked if they could still access the platform while they worked toward another contract (which was expected to take several more months). Said differently, they wanted access to the platform again even though a new contract hadn’t been agreed upon and they weren’t paying the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur was in a tough spot because he didn’t want to say no and jeopardize ongoing contract negotiations. But he didn’t want to get the large company used to accessing his software for free either. He wasn’t sure whether to grant them access as a good-faith effort or to ask for advance payment.  

While this situation didn’t feel great to the entrepreneur, I viewed it as an overall positive that showed his software is valuable to this large customer. A classic product–market fit question is “What would you do if this service or product went away?” If the customer is unbothered, then you know the solution is a nice-to-have; they can live without it. You either don’t have product–market fit or the problem you’re solving isn’t painful enough to the customer. Neither is a positive sign. If the customer is worried about it going away, that’s a great sign that the solution solves a serious pain point and is a must-have for them. A very strong signal.

This founder’s situation went a step further. When he disabled access, his large customer requested that it be restored. To me, this is a sign that his software is solving a serious pain point for that customer. They’d grown used to his solution, and when it was removed, the pain was real and they realized how much they needed it. The sequence of events that led to this wasn’t ideal. Rolling the pilot into a new long-term contract without service disruption would have been ideal. But if I had to bet, I’d say this customer will end up agreeing to a longer-term contract with this entrepreneur.

Today I had a debate with a friend about the AI bubble narrative and the financial media. He said the debt issued by AI companies would be a problem. I asked him to prove it, and he showed me an article from a financial publication. I promptly rejected it and told him I wanted to see first-source data and for him to walk me through his analysis and conclusion based on that data.

I have no opinion on whether we’re in an AI bubble in public markets. But when I’m evaluating something, I aim to come to my own conclusions. I try not to rely on interpretations from people who aren’t deeply knowledgeable or involved in the situation. For that reason, I’m a fan of finding first-source data so I can see the facts for myself, analyze them, and come to my own conclusions.

When someone is trying to convince me of something I have no opinion on or knowledge of, I want to understand their conclusions and how they arrived at them. If they cite interpretations of others (especially the media), it’s often a sign they haven’t looked at the first-source data or done their own analysis to come to their own conclusion. Naturally, I’m more skeptical in those situations. Conversely, when someone has looked at first-source data and can articulate why they reached their conclusion based on it, I’m much more inclined—even if I disagree—to listen intently with an open mind.

I’ve been coaching a friend as she launches a new business. She used an AI website builder to create a fairly complex e-commerce website. The site is live and she’s open for business—a huge milestone. Now she’s tackling her next problem: how to make people aware of this new business.

It’s a classic dilemma. Some entrepreneurs have a field-of-dreams mentality: If you launch a business, customers will automatically come. The reality can be more discouraging. Building a new company or product is hard and forces you to learn new things. But the journey isn’t over when you check that box. Quite the opposite—the journey’s just beginning. You’ve finished a segment of it, and another one that you’re likely equally unfamiliar with awaits you.

Finding those early customers isn't easy, but it’s something you must figure out. If you don’t, you have no business. I’m excited for my friend as she embarks on the next part of her journey. I’m not sure how she’ll find early customers, but I’m pretty confident that she’ll figure it out and gain valuable insights as she does.

A few weeks ago, I read The Success Equation by Michael J. Mauboussin. He said that checklists are an important part of improving your decision-making process for activities influenced by luck. He mentioned the different types of checklists and a book that dives deeper into them.

The references to checklists stuck with me and reminded me of what Charlie Munger said about checklists. (See the post I wrote about that here.) It also made me want to learn more about the reasons checklists are so powerful.

So I read Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, the book Mauboussin referenced. It delves into why checklists are used in industries such as aviation and construction. And why they’re effective at improving outcomes (and preventing disaster). A central point of the book is that the world is becoming more complex. It’s hard to remember everything, especially in high-pressure situations. Simple checklists help improve outcomes in complex situations by reducing errors of omission—missing important steps—and errors of ineptitude—failing to apply knowledge we already know. Going through a checklist forces consistency in how you think and what you do, preventing critical items from being overlooked or forgotten and thereby improving outcomes.

The book also describes the two main types of checklists and when it’s appropriate to use each: do-confirm—you perform tasks from memory and then verify them—and read-do— you follow steps, line by line, in high-stakes or unfamiliar situations.

An interesting note: the author is also a surgeon, so the book details his experience in trying to get hospitals around the globe to adopt surgical checklists (spoiler . . . checklists significantly reduce patient complications and death rates!).

I also found his research on the aviation industry, specifically the origins of why the industry instituted and relies heavily on checklists before takeoff and during emergencies, to be eye-opening.

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

Cumulative metrics (since 4/1/24):

• Total books read: 89
• Total blog posts published: 588

This week’s metrics:

• Books read: 1
• Blog posts published: 7

What I completed in the week ending 11/16/25 (link to the previous week’s commitments):

• Read The Checklist Manifesto, a framework for improving how you think and act by reducing errors of omission—missing critical steps under pressure—and errors of ineptitude—failing to apply what you already know

What I’ll do next week:

• Read a biography, autobiography, or framework book

Asks:

• No ask this week

Week two hundred ninety-four was another week of learning. Looking forward to next week!

Current Project: Reading books about entrepreneurs and sharing what I learned from them

Mission: Create a library of wisdom from notable entrepreneurs that current entrepreneurs can leverage to increase their chances of success

What I struggled with:

• No material struggles related to this project

What I learned:

• Some people learn best in group settings, while others learn best when they have time to reflect alone. Entrepreneurs seem to tilt more toward the former. They build on each other’s insights to accelerate their learning. Conversely, investors tend to be in the latter camp, which makes sense when you think about it. Their goal is to get above-average returns. If they do what everybody else is doing, their results will be average, by definition.

That’s what I learned and struggled with last week.