Synopses & Reviews
Paul Orfalea is a revolutionary entrepreneur widely renowned for his success in growing Kinko's from a single copy shop to an industry leader with 1,100 branches worldwide. Less well known is his long history of successful investing, which dates back to his early teens, when Orfalea would skip school to spend afternoons at the office of his father's stockbroker. In 2000, Orfalea and Lance Helfert cofounded West Coast Asset Management (WCAM) on the same principles of value investing that Warren Buffett used to become one of the world's greatest investors.
Now, in The Entrepreneurial Investor, Orfaleaalong with Lance Helfert, Atticus Lowe, and Dean Zatkowskyreveal how you can use their version of this approach to achieve unparalleled success in your everyday investment endeavors.
Through solid examples and a light narrative, Orfalea and company skillfully explore the essence of the entrepreneurial investor, which includes balancing the art and science of this discipline, and viewing investing itself as a business. Along the way, they also examine how the elements of focus, opportunism, and involvement can improve your overall investment results.
Divided into four comprehensive parts, this reliable resource will put you in a better position to make profitable investment decisions. Some of the issues addressed include:
Think like an Owner: The Art of the Entrepreneurial Investor covers WCAM's investing philosophy and some of the context and chatter that can cloud one's thinking.
Companies Worth Owning discusses the heart of entrepreneurial investingchoosing to invest in individual companies rather than in mutual funds or "the market".
The Owners' Manual highlights some of the important information available to investorsfrom the advice shouted on television to annual reports,financial statements, and the ever-ambiguous subject of inventory.
What's It Worthto Me distinguishes investing from speculating and helps you understand the actual value of a company, so you can act when the price is low enough for buying or high enough for selling.
Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, The Entrepreneurial Investor will inspire you to treat investing like a business and to think of yourself as an owner. Once you realize that making money is your business, you'll be a better investor for it.
Synopsis
The Entrepreneurial Investor will inspire you to treat investing like a business and to think of yourself as an owner. Through solid examples and a light narrative, Paul Orfalea skillfully explores the essence of the entrepreneurial investor, which includes balancing the art and science of this discipline, and viewing investing itself as a business. Along the way, he also examines how the elements of focus, opportunism, and involvement can improve your overall investment results.
Synopsis
Paul Orfalea is the founder of Kinko's and cofounder of West Coast Asset Management (WCAM). He holds a business degree from the University of Southern California and has been investing successfully for more than forty years.
Lance Helfert is President and cofounder of WCAM. Previously, he oversaw a $1 billion portfolio at Wilshire Associates. Helfert has a BS in business administration from Pepperdine University.
ATTICUS LOWE is a CFA charterholder and Chief Investment Officer of WCAM. He has a BA ineconomics and business from Westmont College.
Dean Zatkowsky is the former vice president of marketing at WCAM and oversees their newsletter, Exclusive Outlook (please visit www.wcam.com to subscribe). He holds a BA in communication studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Synopsis
Praise for The Entrepreneurial Investor
"I very much enjoyed and recommend The Entrepreneurial Investor. The authors, highly successful entrepreneurial investors themselves, explain value investing in a clear and approachable way." --Whitney R. Tilson, founder, T2 Partners LLC, and Chairman of Value Investor Insight
"A wonderful, insightful collection of common sense and uncommon wisdom, written in a pleasantly entertaining fashion."--Vitaliy Katsenelson, CFA, Vice President/Portfolio Manager, Investment Management Associates, Inc., and author of Active Value Investing: Making Money in Range-Bound Markets
"An artfully written gloss on business and the market, drawing deeply upon the wit and wisdom of coauthor (and Kinko's founder) Paul Orfalea. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know the inner workings of the nation's financial engine."--Larry Light, Senior Editor for Money and Investing, Forbes magazine
"The framework used by the most successful entrepreneurs to allocate capital happens to be identical to the framework used by the very best value investors on the planet. Having Paul Orfalea's amazing entrepreneurial journey with starting and growing Kinko's into a household name as a backdrop to a book about investing is a wonderful gift. The Entrepreneurial Investor is one of those rare books that come along once in a long while. I strongly recommend this book to anyone looking to become a better investor."--Mohnish Pabrai, Managing Partner of Pabrai Funds, and author of two highly acclaimed investing books, The Dhandho Investor and Mosaic: Perspectives on Investing
"Paul Orfalea and his colleagues are brilliant investors. You can be, too, if you take to heart the lessons in this fun, easy to understand, little gem of a book."--John Davis, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
About the Author
"…the notion of looking at each investment through the lens of an entrepreneur and ignoring market noise is a good one." (
Financial Times, Tues 26th February 2008)
Table of Contents
Foreword By Neil Cavuto.
Introduction. Is Investing An Art Or A Science?
Part I: Think Like An Owner: The Art of the Entrepreneurial Investor.
Chapter 1: Eyes Believe What They See; Ears Believe Others.
Chapter 2: Others' Irrationality Is Your Opportunity.
Chapter 3: Dirty Harry's Investment Philosophy.
Chapter 4: Adversity In Diversity: Portfolio Concentration.
Chapter 5: Just Buy The Best (Which Does Not Include Most Mutual Funds).
Chapter 6: Inspirational Figures: Benjamin Graham.
Part II: Companies Worth Owning.
Chapter 7: Who Really Manages The Brand? (Hint: It's Not The Company).
Chapter 8: What Makes You So Special?
Chapter 9: Company Culture Is More Important than Ever.
Chapter 10: Bogie & Bergman Explain Elasticity of Demand.
Chapter 11: Red Flags and Roaches.
Chapter 12: Inspirational Figures: David Packard.
Part III: The Owner's Manual.
Chapter 13: Televised Advice: No Worse than Drilling Your Own Teeth.
Chapter 14: Lies, Damned Lies, and Financial Statements.
Chapter 15: How To Be an Annual Report Detective.
Chapter 16: How Inventory Can Skew The Financials.
Chapter 17: Great First Impressions: 10 Signs of a Strong Company.
Chapter 18: Inspirational Figures: Bernard Baruch.
Part IV: What's It Worth—To Me?
Chapter 19: The ABCs Of Market Inefficiency.
Chapter 20: "Wait Till the Moon Is Full".
Chapter 21: Today's Price for Tomorrow's Growth: The X Factor.
Chapter 22: The Long View, and Why Women Are Better Investors.
Chapter 23: Intrinsic Value: Putting It All Together.
Chapter 24: Inspirational Figures: Howard Hughes.
Epilogue: The Fortune Cookie That Ate Wall Street.
About The Authors.
Notice and Disclosures.
Notes.
Index.