Howard Marks

Experience is what you got when you didn’t get what you wanted. The most valuable lessons are learned in tough times.
— Howard Marks

Howard Marks has always urged us to think in cycles. His favorite tool isn’t a spreadsheet or a signal — it’s memory. He reminds us that success in investing depends not on predicting the future but on knowing that things can go wrong. Very wrong.

That’s not always easy. Our mistakes come laced with discomfort. They’re moments we’d rather forget. But Marks said that good times teach only bad lessons. They lull us into thinking that investing is easy, that you know its secrets, and that you needn't worry about risk.

Marks called himself “fortunate” to have lived through every major financial cycle since the 1970s — from the go-go era to the Global Financial Crisis. He learned the hard way that markets could collapse. And he was a better investor because of it.

We recommend reading Howard Marks' book, The Most Important Thing, not because it promises profits, but because it teaches us how to think. Warren Buffett called it a rarity: "a useful book."

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