Introduction
In my 2005 book, Universal Wisdom, I profiled seven people who had changed the world. One of those people, Warren Buffett, was to have a significant impact on my career. I have been reading about Buffett since 1991, when I was 17 years old. He struck me as not just a man of brilliant ideas but also one who had implemented those ideas with real commitment.
In 1991, Buffett wrote:
John Maynard Keynes, whose brilliance as a practicing investor matched his brilliance in thought, wrote a letter to a business associate, F. C. Scott, on August 15, 1934, that says it all: “As time goes on, I get more and more convinced that the right method in investment is to put fairly large sums into enterprises which one thinks one knows something about and in the management of which one thoroughly believes. It is a mistake to think that one limits one’s risk by spreading too much between enterprises about which one knows little and has no reason for special confidence…One’s knowledge and experience are definitely limited and there are seldom more than two or three enterprises at any given time in which I personally feel myself entitled to put full confidence.”
Six years later, those words and a Buffett mantra would play a huge role in my own success.
When I lost an investment banking job in 1997, I had the realisation that I now had the freedom to choose my own path. As I wrote in the introduction to Collective Wisdom, I realised I did not want to live according to other people’s expectations of a normal life for me and that whether you deal well with people is the ultimate determinant of your own happiness, meaning in life and success.
With that in mind, I embarked on a journey of ideas. In 1998, I published the first edition of Collective Wisdom; in 2005, it was Universal Wisdom, followed in 2012 by Business Owners’ Wisdom and now, in 2019, Investment Wisdom. Every seven years, a new book.
This idea was inspired by the Up series of documentary films from British television. Beginning in 1964, they look in on the lives of 14 British women and men every seven years, starting from when they were children just 7 years old. To date, the series has featured nine episodes, covering 56 years. The 14 children who were chosen for the original show, Seven Up, were picked to represent Britain’s various socioeconomic backgrounds back in 1964. The idea was that their class would determine their future. For each new documentary, the director, Michael Apted, films material from those of the 14 who choose to participate. The most recent instalment, 63 Up, premiered in the UK on 4 June 2019.
It is the most magnificent study of people and their progress over time. The late, revered film critic Roger Ebert called the series “an inspired, even noble, use of the film medium”.
“To look at these films, as I have every seven years,” Ebert wrote, “is to meditate on the astonishing fact that man is the only animal that knows it lives in time.”
My effort, to date, is relatively modest; my first book was written the year I turned 23 and this year I turned 45. Why do I do it? Because by revealing my personal insights via this project, I hope that I can learn and share with others a growing understanding of life over time. But freedom to choose my own path has led me to do more than write. It has shaped my career in business as well. Warren Buffett and his world once again showed the way.
Focusing on the future forces you to think, I had heard Buffett say. Look at least 20 years down the line. He insisted on it. So when I started Kelly+Partners Chartered Accountants in 2006, I decided taxes were a good place to invest my efforts, because they would be with us for the foreseeable future.
And when it was time to determine exactly how my business should evolve, Warren’s business partner, Charlie Munger, set the bar. Charlie is one of the world’s wittiest and wisest men. He is also an investing legend. Many people don’t know that his background is as a Harvard-trained lawyer and founder of his own law firm, Munger, Tolles & Olson. Over time, Charlie became a huge influence on me – and a challenge. Could I build my accounting firm as an investor would grow a business and ultimately become regarded as someone who could help others invest as well?
Since I founded Kelly+Partners in 2006, the implementation of my investment ideas has been influenced by distant mentors like Warren, Munger and Keynes. It centres on taking a concentrated position and investing all my talents, energy and financial resources to make a difference in the lives of my clients, team members and communities. My Pollyanna theory was that in doing great I could feel great, buoyed by the meaningfulness of the work, the relationships I formed and the people we helped – while making industry industry-leading returns. Was it possible? Or should I just agree with the miserable industry-leading voices that always told me what couldn’t be done and how my views were too idealistic?
Off we went with KPG. We grew revenue by an average of 35 per cent annually for almost 14 consecutive years and listed on the ASX in 2017 as the 24th-largest firm in the country – 40 partners, 230 team members, 7000 clients and 14 locations. Our ‘crazy’ ideas have been well received and we’ve compounded the initial invested capital at 57 per cent a year over nearly 14 years.
I know that none of that success and fulfilment would’ve been possible without the access I’ve had to the inspiring example of great investors. This led to the bright idea for the concept and writing of Investment Wisdom. I wondered: Who are Australia’s great investors here at home, who could show me their insights, wisdom and character in a face-to-face interview? As I had seen in my previous books, people enjoyed the opportunity to get an insight into people who were living their dreams. The chapters would be manageable reads that might inspire further research on someone who appealed to the reader in some way.
The process has been invigorating and refreshing, as you will see within these pages. The generosity with which people share their insights is normally in direct proportion to their competence and confidence in themselves. I would like to say thank-you to these generous people, who helped make this book possible.
Please enjoy and let me know any feedback.
Brett Kelly