Funny how things turn out, isn’t it? The idea for this book and the initial pitch for it happened way back in the summer of 2007. At the time, we Fools were simply marveling over the studies that had come out of the world of behavioral economics, showing that women and men tended to invest in very different ways. And we noticed something interesting—namely, that it appeared women invested with a very “Buffett-like” temperament. We’d long admired Mr. Buffett and his calm, patient, unflappable temperament. We saw this exemplary temperament as a defining characteristic and an explanation for his ability to build great wealth and beat the market over decades, putting charlatan after charlatan on Wall Street to shame. We knew the importance that Buffett himself placed on investors having the proper temperament, and we believed that by focusing our efforts for this book on uncovering and highlighting the keys to having the optimal temperament, we could help improve the long-term returns of all investors, men and women alike.
What we couldn’t have foreseen in our absolute worst nightmares was what was to come for the financial world a little over a year later. As it turned out, we all needed a lesson in temperament, perhaps more than ever before.
Of course, given the choice between watching numerous examples of temperament-gone-wrong unfold before our eyes and not having to see our portfolios and nest eggs absolutely demolished, I’m pretty sure we’d have chosen to skip the examples. But here we are, with an eye to the future, and, hopefully, you feel ready to face it with a steady, calm temperament. In fact, you, dear reader, are the first thank-you of many I must make here. Thank you for coming on this journey with me, and for reading this far (you didn’t just skip ahead, did you?!). I hope I’ve made it worth your while, and that you’ve learned and laughed along the way.
Thank you to Warren Buffett, for modeling the ideal temperament over decades and decades. Thanks, too, for so openly sharing your wisdom with investors everywhere over the years, and for (hopefully!) having a sense of humor about this book’s title.
Thank you to David Gardner, Tom Gardner, and Erik Rydholm for founding The Motley Fool oh so many years ago. It’s good to be a Fool. Thank you for making it possible and for giving me so many incredible opportunities over the years. And Tom, a special thank-you to you for writing the foreword, for trumpeting this project the whole way through, and for your friendship.
Thank you to Suzanne Gluck, our agent at William Morris Endeavor, for negotiating our book deal and for supporting The Motley Fool every step of the way.
Thank you to my editor at Harper Business, Hollis Heimbouch, for her constant encouragement, sharp edits, thoughtful suggestions, and enormous doses of patience and flexibility. Thank you, Hollis, as well, for your kindness and sense of humor. I couldn’t have asked for a better editor and will remain forever grateful.
Thank you also to the other excellent folks at HarperCollins for being as enthusiastic about this book as we are, including Kathy Schneider, Doug Jones, Angie Lee, Tina Andreadis, Samantha Choy, Mark Ferguson, Matthew Inman, and Colleen Lawrie. It’s wonderful to work with a team of people as excited about something as you are!
Thank you to Robyn Gearey, who found the time to make sure this book actually came together while also working triple time to oversee the launch of several new Fool newsletter services. Robyn, thank you for talking me through moments of existential angst, self-confidence swoons, and general freak-outs. Your calm demeanor and encouraging manner were a godsend. Thank you for always being there.
Thank you to money managers Lisa Rapuano, Lauren Templeton, Candace King Weir, Amelia Weir, and Bill Mann for taking the time out of their packed schedules to do interviews for this book. Thank you for sharing your experiences with all of us.
Thank you to Fools Mac Greer, Chris Hill, and Steve Broido for all their help nailing down interviews and quotes from folks like Roger Lowenstein, Andrew Kilpatrick, Prem Jain, and Nell Minow. Word to the wise: if you need to talk to anybody (seriously, just about anybody), these are the three guys who can pull it off.
Thank you to Fools John Reeves and Alex Pape for fact-checking this book within an inch of its life and for their excellent overall comments on the manuscript. Thank you both for saving me from my mistakes! Thank you also to Fools Hope Nelson, Paul Elliott, Todd Etter, Buck Hartzell, and Andy Cross for reading the manuscript and sharing your ideas on how to make it as good as it could possibly be. All of your suggestions were enormously helpful. Thank you all for taking the time to work on this when I know you had about a million other things going on at the same time.
Thank you to the Fool’s own marketing guru, the aforementioned Paul Elliott, and to the Fool’s public relations guru, Alison Southwick, for never shooting down a crazy idea and for their willingness to go all out to make this book a hit. Thank you to Fool Dan Stapleton for working his design magic on the cover. Thanks to Fools Ginni Bratti and Randy Coon for supporting this project. Thank you to Fool writers Alyce Lomax and Dayana Yochim for being such inspirations. Thanks to Joe Magyer and the entire Motley Fool Inside Value team for so graciously sharing their reading list. And thank you to Fool Jonathan Mudd for pulling one sentence buried within a book proposal to the forefront, thereby giving us our most excellent book title.
Last, but certainly not in any way least, thanks to Austin for your love and support as I sat hunched over my laptop, pecking away on this for seemingly days and nights on end. Thanks for making me laugh and smile when I needed it (a lot). Thanks for being sweet and understanding and patient. Thanks for making me endless cups of tea and pots of coffee. Thanks for distracting me with episodes of The Office just when I thought I’d reached my breaking point and needed some levity from that titan of the paper business himself, Michael Scott. Mostly, thanks for putting up with me. I appreciate it, and am more grateful for you than I can express. Thank you.