Seth & Elon

Seth Klarman keeps a fairly low profile and is a proponent of value investing. Elon Musk enjoys the spotlight and is involved with several companies considered to be prototypical growth companies. Very different people who are both quite wealthy. Yet, they each shared similar sentiments on short-term thinking as it relates to the investing and running a business.

Seth Klarman (via Capital Allocators podcast)

"We've been very careful to avoid hot money type clients, short-term thinking type clients. The alignment is one of the most important success factors for any investor. If you don't have long-term oriented clients, you can't make long-term investments. And since I have no idea how how to make short-term investments that work I don't know how people without long-term money can invest. So it's very important to have a courtship period where you meet with clients. Literally I've had people offer us money and I've said I won't take your money until you read this annual letter, and you read the last five years, and you understand what we do, and you really appreciate. Because we don't want to be out of alignment, where we think we had a pretty darn good year, and you don't. So let's talk about what we are trying to achieve, what's attainable and what's not."

Elon Musk (via Q2 2023 Tesla earnings call)

"If someone's got a crystal ball for the economy, I'd really appreciate if we could borrow that crystal ball," Musk said. "One day it seems like the world economy is falling apart and the next day everything's fine. I don't know what the hell is going on to be totally frank."

Food for thought next time you're considering expressing a strong opinion on the state of the stock market or economy.

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^{Source: Capital Allocators podcast, Tesla Q2 '23 earnings call}