No One Ever Told Us That: Money and Life Lessons for Young Adults

CHAPTER TWO

BEWARE OF EXPERTS

By now you're getting the picture that street smarts trump all in the advice department. None of you probably, at your stage of life, is going to have intimate conversations with the chief executive officers of the Fortune 500 companies—unless you are related to them. So you will have to get your life wisdom from the seasoned professionals with whom you work, particularly the ones who can talk as mentors and teachers, not those who preach from on high. Most of my investment ideas come from my smart clients and friends around the world, not from Wall Street analysts or research departments.

One of my clients, Peter Clark, ran a think tank in Pittsburgh, mostly concentrating on the defense sectors. I spoke to him perhaps 20 years ago and asked whether he had seen a certain article in the Wall Street Journal.

“I haven't read a newspaper in 15 years,” he told me, and this was the preference in news dissemination, because virtually every American read the papers.

“How can you not read newspapers?” I asked, surprised by his answer.

“Because 15 years ago I knew all about two subjects,” he said. “And every time I read about those two subjects in the papers they always got it wrong, so I said to myself, ‘If they're wrong about what I know, what about the stuff I don't know?’ And I figured if I don't read the press, I'll save over an hour a day of wasted time!” Apply this to your own wanderings through the media, and don't accept anything just because it's in ...