Buffett's Mistakes Had One Cause | The 100 Year Thinkers on the Hardest Part of Holding Forever

Chris Mayer and Robert Hagstrom join Matt Zeigler on 100 Year Thinkers to explore how investors can identify great businesses, hold them through volatility, and let compounding work over decades.

Drawing on Mayer's book The Investor's Odyssey, they discuss Warren Buffett's investing philosophy, durable competitive advantages, investor psychology, and the portfolio management decisions that help long-term investors stay the course.

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Chris Mayer on Twitter
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Robert Hagstrom on Twitter
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Topics covered:

• The original Buffett partnership investor who held Berkshire Hathaway for decades

• Why individual investors can have an advantage over professional money managers

• The coffee can portfolio and resisting the pressure to trade

• How loss aversion and constant price updates undermine long-term investing

• High returns on capital, reinvestment, and the power of compounding

• Assessing whether competitive advantages can survive AI and new competitors

• Distinguishing temporary stock declines from deteriorating businesses

• Why great investment track records include periods of underperformance

• Invisible moats, employee incentives, and lessons from companies that survived 100 years

• Position sizing, letting winners run, and combining stock picking with index funds

Timestamps:

00:00 Chris Mayer's The Investor's Odyssey and the Berkshire buy-and-hold story
04:20 Why more investors don't hold great businesses for decades
09:44 Resisting financial media and the pressure to act
15:59 Loss aversion and protecting yourself from market noise
21:12 Compounding returns and how long a competitive advantage lasts
26:25 Separating AI disruption fears from business fundamentals
30:38 Why outperforming investors still lag the market frequently
36:45 Evaluating the business before the management team
41:26 Invisible moats in trucking and insurance brokerage
48:03 Building a business culture that outlasts its leaders
53:05 Position sizing and why stock picking is only half the job
58:06 Combining index funds with a patient stock portfolio

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No information discussed in this podcast should be construed as investment advice. Securities discussed may be held by the hosts and guests, their firms or their clients.