{"content":[{"text":"A View From Here - January 2018","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.097918,"width":0.34835,"height":0.023576}},{"text":"30th Anniversary","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.135177,"width":0.15917699999999996,"height":0.020863999999999994}},{"text":"On the first Tuesday of January 1988, I arrived at the offices of Merit Investment Corporation for a job \n interview in my only suit and socks I borrowed from my father's drawer. After being led into an office and \n asked a few innocuous questions, I was instructed to walk around the office to see if I liked what I saw as \n my interviewer picked up the telephone and started calling out. On about the 10th trip around, I started \n peaking in his office, but saw he was still preoccupied, so I continued to wander the office until I saw that \n he was off the phone. After tapping lightly on the door, I told him that I liked what I saw and he said, \n \"Great, put your coat in the closet around the corner and get me a coffee. I like it black with one \n sugar.\" And that's how I was unceremoniously hired in the financial services industry. The better part of \n the next year was spent procuring lunches and doing personal errands for the CEO of the firm, which \n included all kinds of crazy things from changing flat tires to getting his toupees cleaned. I remember \n seeing friends from university while I carried a big box of other people's lunches, in my hand.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.170446,"width":0.7570800000000001,"height":0.162468}},{"text":"Even though the firm had no formal training program, there was the opportunity to work in different \n aspects of the brokerage firm as they sent me where I was needed including the securities cage and the \n floor of the Toronto Stock Exchange. In the fall of 1988, I began to work with one of the senior advisors as \n an assistant and then two individuals as their associate in mid1989. These mentors had taken me under \n their wing and showed me a more exciting world of options, trading and faster money and as much as I \n enjoyed that experience, I found trading securities without any understanding of a business akin to \n gambling. We had our first success in a company called Counsel Corporation, which was sold when the \n company announced, (but ultimately didn't follow through with), an offer to take the company private. I \n attended a presentation about hedging bonds in early 1990 that ultimately led me to another firm that \n focused on this investment in late 1991. As with every career move, it was a bold one that led me to think \n about investments in a deeper, more holistic way. I was learning that in order to achieve success, one \n had to have an almost obsessive and focused deep dive into understanding specific companies. This \n meant knowing as much as possible as I could about the companies we invested in and proved to be a \n road that I have only augmented since. I tried different strategies from using options and servicing clients \n who traded on 'hunches', which had lousy results. This was because they really didn't know what they \n were doing, and I felt more like a dealer in a casino than an advisor. Despite these ongoing changes, one \n thing remained constant; our investment success was based on our deep commitment to our \n holdings. This involved knowing as much as possible and having the patience and confidence to see it \n through to the end. But our long-term returns have suggested that what we do, very few have been able \n to achieve. For those who have been with our practice for a long time, think about all the companies we \n have owned that have been taken over in the past 30 years and ask if this is just a coincidence? Here \n are a few names to consider; Counsel Corp, Terragon Oil & Gas, Viceroy Homes, Rio Algom, Cominco, \n Sherritt Inc., Pet Valu, Softchoice, Glentel, and Journal Media.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.344726,"width":0.7637820000000001,"height":0.33669800000000005}},{"text":"While the industry practices and investment products are forever evolving, there is something that never \n changes; excellence comes from hard work mixed with caution, patience and humility. It's just not \n enough to work hard because that is a given, we have to remove ego and understand each value \n proposition so that we are best equipped to handle the curve balls that are thrown at us.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.693236,"width":0.749572,"height":0.060802000000000134}},{"text":"As I start my 31st year, there are a few things that I believe deep in my investment-advisory soul:","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.76585,"width":0.6992180000000001,"height":0.017279000000000044}},{"text":"1. Know what you own and why, so that you can understand how to deal with adversity when it comes; \n and it shows up in every investment, even the most successful ones. \n 2. The investment manager should have their skin in the game by owning the very same investments that \n they are recommending. \n 3. Diversification does nothing for you. It's like buying a whole lot of different food at the supermarket. I \n don't know of anyone who has built long-term wealth in a diversified portfolio. \n 4. Most professions will earn us a living. Wealth is built through investment.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.794789,"width":0.7594580000000001,"height":0.10439500000000013}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}