It is customary in film circles to say “i was inspired by Kishore Kumar or S D Burman or …” what have you and then copy their song – either partially or in toto.

In fund management too you can copy and the advantage is your money in the bank, is yours.

Your money does not tell you “Oh, so you copied Peter Lynch or Warren or Prashant Jain or a Vallabh Bhansali” – and that is a huge advantage. And since we are comfortable with this concept let us look at what we can learn from Warren Buffet – after all if you are copying, you might as well copy from the greatest business manager. Warren Buffet.

Think 10 years, rather than 10 minutes.

Not too many brokers who read this will like this post. Warren Buffett, luckily, is a business manager and not a fund manager. In case he were a fund manager he would be worried about soft dollar commissions, asset management expenses, etc. There would also be a brokerage firm breathing down his neck to transact!

Clearly when he says think 10 years, the main thing that he is saying is “Create wealth for yourself, not for your broker”.

So be an investor and have patience. Thanks to compounding, success will follow!