ESL

 I once made many mistakes with SHLD in my life, but that is another story for another day. I just read a short post on Lampert successes with AXP, IBM, AZO, and AN in his past.

 From 1988 to 2002, ESL’s gains averaged 24.5%, nearly double that of the S&P’s 13% annual return, with only one down year in 1991. AUM rose from a mere $28mm to $5bn, with prominent L.P.s including media mogul David Geffen, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, and Ziff Brothers Investments. Although he briefly contemplated retiring, Lampert compared himself to Michael Jordan, saying that people kept criticizing him, but he kept on winning [1, 2, 5, 6].

Trading at a little over $20 per share in 1997 when he began building his stake, Lampert ultimately exited this investment for between $500 to $600 per share in 2012 for a total of approximately $1.5bn. 

A 30x in 15 years is 25.5% CAGR. If he had held, AZO from June 2012 for 12 more years to today, it would have 8.41x for 19.4% CAGR. 

Moats in Networks

If you don't have a moat, you don't have a competitive advantage. If you don't have a competitive advantage, you have no edge. Networks are one type of moat. I just read a post on four types and wanted to journal it to remind myself:

1. Physical network like pipelines

2. Platform network like Windows or Android

3. Data network like NFLX or Google

4. Marketplace network like Amazon or Airbnb

It does not matter how big or small of a company you are looking at. It's fine to gamble, but to have an edge, you have to have a moat/competitive advantage.

Two 2024 Commencement Speech Takeaways

 Federer at Dartmouth

1. Effortless is a myth and discipline is a talent.

2. It's only a point as he won 54% of the points in his career.

3. Life is bigger than the court and you need a team as his partnership with Tony is called "Team8."

Seinfeld at Duke

Fascination is better than passion. Give up finding one thing. Just be willing to do your work as hard as you can with the ability you have. 

1. Make an effort.

2. Pay attention.

3. Fall in love.