As most readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of Warren Buffet’s partner Charlie Munger, but as a startup investor I follow Fred Wilson just as closely. I just read this Fred Wilson post and I swear Fred was channeling Charlie when he wrote it. If you don’t want to click through and read the full post, here’s an excerpt from Fred:
“Conviction and discipline are two sides of the same coin. I think you need to start with conviction…. [C]onviction isn’t worth anything if you don’t pair it with discipline. Once you have a thesis, you need to stick to it.”
And here are a few nuggets from Charlie on precisely the same themes:
“More important than the will to win is the will to prepare”
“Stick to a narrowly defined circle of competence”, and
“Good ideas are rare – when the odds are in your favor, bet heavily.”
It’s easy to think of venture investing and public market investing as entirely different animals, requiring different frameworks and attracting entirely different kinds of people. But as the examples above suggest, smart investing is smart investing no matter what you’re buying: know exactly what you want to buy, know exactly why you want to buy it, and have the patience to wait until you find exactly what you’re looking for at a price you know is fair.