Benjamin Graham

I was reading an article on Fortune (Mar 21, 05) where Warren Buffet was talking about the best advice he has ever gotten. In case you are curious about the advice, it was from his mentor Benjamin Graham and he told him "You are neither right nor wrong because others agree with you. You're right because your facts and reasoning are right." But the thing that touched me is that he mentioned when he was working with Benjamin Graham, "... we kept pouring through the manuals, looking for cheap stocks. We never went out to visit any company, Ben thought that would be cheating." I mean WOW! Benjamin Graham at the time (1950's) might have a pretty good access to all these corporate managements, but with all his power, had the principal to be different, and to stick with the rules of the game, and claimed that he was going to do it with the data any regular investor could have. That is just too cool.

Just in case you wonder how did Benjamin Graham do as an investor, between 1929 and 1956, a time period spanning the Great Depression and several major wars, Graham's investments grew an average of about 17% per year.

More about Benjamin Graham and his book http://www.fool.com/foolu/askfoolu/2002/askfoolu020314.htm