Lessons from the Farm
I grew up on a horse farm in Pennsylvania. Recently, my family and I took care of the farm while my parents were on vacation in Switzerland. If you know anything about farms, you know that they represent an unending cycle of work. The work has to be done with no shortcuts. Shortcuts might speed up the work today but can lead to problems tomorrow. The same can be said about portfolio management and the research that goes into it. The work is unending, and especially during earnings season, heavy. But if you cut corners and put clean water into a half empty dirty bucket, pretty soon you will find yourself carrying a full bucket out to clean instead of a lighter one, and odds are you will also slop water down your leg.
It’s also best to plan ahead. Throw down the hay when you have time so that you aren’t caught with an empty feed room at 6:00 am with a bunch of impatient horses banging on the stall doors. The same can be said about research. It’s better to spend time researching a sector now, even if you discover that you are early to an investment opportunity, then to be chasing the horse down the lane when you didn’t check the gate. The securities that make it into our managed portfolios took time to research, to approve, to follow, but the securities that didn’t make it into the portfolios also took time because a large part of a research is spent making the decision to say no. That work, while not as tangible, is equally important. Adding the wrong horse to a herd can disrupt what was a harmonious farm.
Unlike previous times when we’ve helped out, my kids are old enough to provide meaningful assistance in the running of the farm. The extra time it is taking to teach them the ropes will pay dividends in the future, just as sharing what you know with colleagues ultimately makes for more productive work in the years to come. They are learning the hard lessons about paying attention to details, doing it right the first time, and that there are sometimes severe consequences if you make a mistake because farm life, like the stock market, is unforgiving. Lessons that they will carry with them the rest of their lives. So take the extra time, check the gate, clean the buckets, and sleep easy at night knowing that the horses are safely in their fields, at least for tonight because it starts all over again in the morning.
Meet Abby Just, Director of Portfolio Management »
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