Founders
Episode 160 #160 Peter Cundill
Founders

Episode 160: #160 Peter Cundill

Founders

Episode 160

#160 Peter Cundill

David Senra is the host of Founders, where he studies history's greatest entrepreneurs. This is what he learned from reading Routines and Orgies: The Life of Peter Cundill, Financial Genius, Philosopher, and Philanthropist by Christopher Risso-Gill.

What I learned from reading Routines and Orgies: The Life of Peter Cundill, Financial Genius, Philosopher, and Philanthropist by Christopher Risso-Gill.

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Excellence as a goal in itself had been drummed into him from early boyhood.

I’m convinced that to achieve real greatness a person needs above all to have passion but at the same time immense discipline, concentration, patience and an unshakeable determination to become a master of his craft.

There is a choice of courses in life: either to seek equilibrium or to enjoy the heights and suffer the depths.

You need to get into some situations which make your gut tight and your balls tingle.

Do the unappealing things first.

Once you have done your homework properly and are absolutely convinced that an investment is right you should not hesitate or wait for others to share the adventure. The price at which you start buying will almost invariably be imperfect but that should never discourage you.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit. (Aristotle)

The more that I think about the way the Greeks, especially the Spartans, regarded the subject of exercise and the necessity of maintaining peak levels of physical fitness, the more I am convinced that the health of the mind and the spirit are either bolstered or hampered by the condition of the body.

Concentrate with absolute clarity on one thing at a time.

The mantra is patience, patience, and more patience. Think long term and remember that the big rewards accrue with compound annual rates of return.

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#160 Peter Cundill

Introduction

"This book is a biography, not an investment manual. But those seeking insights into the thinking of one of the greatest value investors of all time will find it has much to offer. It is more by way of an epic, describing a journey that span more than 70 years, most corners of the globe and a broad array of human endeavor, commercial, artistic, romantic, and adventurous. It is a tale of hard-won professional development, extraordinary challenges faced and survived, sometimes only barely so. It is supported by 44 years of meticulously kept daily journals, written in tiny script, which are intimate, utterly frank, self-admonishing and confessional."


"They encompass every aspect of what Peter Cundill justifiably referred to as his wonderful life. His professional career with all of its vicissitudes, his numerous love affairs, and his sporting achievements. His passion for the kind of physical challenges that not only test endurance but also confront the participant with moments of stark terror usually associated with war or natural disaster. The journals explore depression and self-doubt. They tell not just of successes, but also of failures and the lessons learned as a result."


"And they serve the function of a commonplace book in which Peter noted passages from his extensive reading, commented on them, and often developed the ideas they prompted. His interest spanned a diversity of disciplines, springing from a genuinely insatiable curiosity, a characteristic he regarded as a vital component in every aspect of life and especially in his professional life. The journals also exhibit a thoroughly open intelligence. Peter was ready to try almost anything and prepared to work to achieve success in any venture or in the acquisition of any skill he decided to undertake."


"Mastery often came at a real personal cost because as he freely confessed, he was far from being naturally gifted at everything. What counted always was the learning process, the importance of continuing to learn throughout his life was a recurring theme. In his professional journey, Peter became more than a highly regarded and immensely successful mutual fund manager who made fortunes for himself and others. He was also a teacher and mentor, generous with his time and fully prepared to share his experience with aspiring new practitioners."


"This dedication to his profession to the encouragement of its new blood and the propagation of the principles of value investing on the foundations laid by Graham and Dodd would have been continuing today. And this book would have been an autobiography had Peter not been struck by the affliction of Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome, a neurological disease whose symptoms closely resemble that of Parkinson's, but it's far less amenable to treatment. The story of Peter's life is now, of course, concluded. But as I was working with him daily on this and the previous book, I came to realize that his finest hour was, in fact, in his brave struggle with his deteriorating disability. He was entirely without self-pity, good natured and full of humor and determined never to surrender to hopelessness or despair. In this book, the reader will make the acquaintance of a remarkable, generous, multifaceted, and complex man who I had the privilege for over 30 years of calling a friend."

That was an excerpt from the book I'm going to talk about today, which is Routines and Orgies: The Life of Peter Cundill, Financial Genius, Philosopher, and Philanthropist, and it was written by Christopher Risso-Gill. And this was another book I only found because it was recommended to me by a listener. I saw the title I was like, what is going on here? So I downloaded the Kindle version, read the sample, loved it from the very beginning and quickly ordered the book. I need to address the title though. And it's actually a quote from a writer and philosopher that Cundill loved, and that's Aldous Huxley, I think it's how you pronounce his first name. And this is a quote from his book, Beyond the Mexique Bay, which is where Peter got the idea for the title of his book. And he said, this is Huxley writing. "The commonest one might call it natural rhythm of human life is routine punctuated by orgies. Routine supports man's weaknesses, makes the fatigue of thought unnecessary and relieves them of the intolerable burden of responsibility. Orgies, whether sexual, religious, sporting or political, provide that periodical excitement, which all of us crave."

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