Dear CU finance bros,

Jealous of all your pals geeking out about their favorite alumni? Feeling lost, like you have no one you can look up to? Look no further, for what I’m about to share will have your heart beating faster than when you hear that there’s a UBS rep on campus.

You may have heard of the Bible of fundamental value investing, The Intelligent Investor, but what you may not know is that it was written by none other than Benjamin Graham. Who is Benjamin Graham, you may ask? A London-born but New York City-raised son of Jewish parents, Graham grew up dealing with the financial burdens that were caused as a result of his father passing away. Although his father was a relatively wealthy businessman, after his passing, his mother made some unsavory moves on the stock market and quickly lost all of the family’s money. This was, perhaps, the impetus for Graham’s gift in finance. He was an extremely bright student and was offered a full scholarship to none other than Columbia University, wherein he achieved very highly and was adored by his professors. He was adored so much so that before graduation, the faculties of English, mathematics, and philosophy requested that he join them as a professor. Graham, however, chose a different path. He went for A Random Walk Down Wall Street and never looked back. 

Graham started an investment partnership which would thrive for many long years. During this time, he wrote two books which are now extremely well regarded. The first, already mentioned, is The Intelligent Investor. First published in 1949 but revised over the following decades, the book deals with value investing and emphasizes the need for patience and caution when investing. Preceding this was Graham’s Security Analysis, which expresses many of the same ideas found in The Intelligent Investor. 

Moral of the story? Be foolish, lose all your money in speculative investments, use your pain to grow your genius, reject Columbia’s job offers, and go off and start your investment firm. Good luck!

Information for this post was found here, here, here, and here.

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