Brian Feroldi (🧠,📈) Profile picture
Aug 9 16 tweets 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Jeff Bezos is worth $162 billion.

He shared all of his core principles in 24 letters to shareholders.

I've read them all.

Here are 12 powerful lesson everyone in business should memorize: Image
• One way doors vs Two way doors

One-way doors: Decisions that can't be reversed.
Make these decisions slowly and carefully.

Two-way doors: Decisions that are reversible.
Make these decisions quickly.

Confuse the two and your organization will move far too slowly. Image
• Wandering vs efficiency

Efficiency can be great. But, it makes you fragile.

Without a counterbalance, there’s a world of missed opportunities.

The solution: encourage wandering Image
• Customers, not competition

Obsess over your customers. Focus on offering value and efficiency.

Work backwards from customer needs to know what to build next. Image
• Dreamy Businesses

Bezos looks for dreamy business has four characteristics:

• customers love it
• it can grow to a large size
• it has strong returns on capital
• it can endure long-term - decades

When you find these, go all-in.
• Be afraid

Not of your competition, of your customers. Image
• Only hire the best

Ask yourself these 3 questions:

1) Will you admire this person?

2) Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they're entering?

3) Along what dimension might this person be a superstar?

Hire people that raise the bar.
• Pay to Quit

You want people on the team who WANT to be on the team.

If they don't want to be on the team, encourage them to leave.

Amazon pays up to $5,000 to get people to quit.

This removes people who don't want to be there.
• Standards are contagious

Bring a new person to a high standards team and they quickly adapt.

The opposite is also true.

The longer low standards survive, the deeper the infection.
• Disagree and Commit

If you have conviction with no consensus, ask:

"I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?"

This gets you to a 'Yes' and keeps decision velocity high.
• Think long term

Your success will be measured over the long term.

The longer your horizon, the better the decision you will make.

Don’t get fixated on short-term numbers Image
• Plant seeds and wait

Make a lot of small bets that could grow into meaningful new businesses.

It takes discipline, patience, and a willingness to look stupid, but the long-term rewards can be huge. Image
• Always Day 1

A Day 1 mindset is always about growth & progress.

A Day 2 mindset allows stasis, irrelevance, decline, and ultimately death. Image
I keep a Google Sheet that links to the best books, tools, shareholder letters, podcasts, and youtube channels I've ever found.

Want to access it (for free)?

Check it out here:

https://t.co/Z106cfXFWibrianferoldi.com/resources
Image
Like this thread? Follow me @BrianFeroldi.

I demystify the stock market with daily tweets and weekly threads like this.

To share this thread with your audience, ♻️ retweet the first tweet below.
If you liked this post, you'll love my free ebook.

I organized 50 of the most powerful investing images I've ever seen.

Want a free copy? Get it here:

brianferoldi.com/50visuals

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Brian Feroldi (🧠,📈)

Brian Feroldi (🧠,📈) Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @BrianFeroldi

Aug 11
If you buy stocks, you MUST understand moats.

7 Powers is the best book on competitive advantage I've ever read.

Here's a breakdown of how the 7 Powers -- and how they can help you invest better: Image
1: Counter Positioning

When a new company adopts a superior business model which the incumbent can't (or won't) copy.

Ex:
-Netflix vs Blockbuster
-Tesla vs GM

The new model could enable lower costs, recurring revenue, or better margins. Image
Why can't the incumbents copy the better model?

-It would destroy an existing business
-Internal cultural/contract issues (especially with unions)
-Management incentivizes

Business model innovation can be just as disruptive as technological innovation.
Read 15 tweets
Aug 6
I've been investing for 19 years.

Here are 10 painful investing lessons I learned the hard way: Image
1: You don't need leverage

Margin & options are fun on the way up, but BRUTAL on the way down.

I’ve lost more than 100% on investments before.

Why? Leverage.

Buffett & Munger said it best:
Image
Image
2: Optimize for longevity, not upside

Compound interest is the most powerful wealth-building force that exists.

But it only works if you SURVIVE long enough for it to work.

I used to optimize for upside. Now, I use the barbell method to optimize for longevity. Image
Read 15 tweets
Aug 4
10 BRAND NEW charts every stock investor needs to see:

1: The YTD rally has caused the forward P/E ratio to trade near its 2022 peak Image
2: While high, the S&P 500's forward p/e ratio is still WITHIN one standard deviation of its 25-year average. Image
3: The 10 biggest companies in the S&P 500 ($AAPL, $MSFT, $GOOG, $AMZN, $NVDA, $TSLA, $BRK-B, $META, $V, $UNH) now comprise 31.8% of the total market cap, a 25-year high Image
Read 14 tweets
Aug 1
Capitalism is brutal.

If you invest, you MUST know how to identify a moat.

Here are 9 financial “rules of thumb” that Warren Buffett uses to tell if a company has one: Image
1: Gross Margin

Found: Income Statement

Formula: Gross Profit / Revenue

Moat: Consistently above 40%

No Moat: Under 40% & volatile Image
Buffett’s logic:

A consistently high gross margin signals that the company isn’t competing exclusively on price.

A high gross margin also provides ample gross profit to pay expenses and leaves money for shareholders.
Read 25 tweets
Jul 30
I’ve been investing for 19 years.

I've bought DOZENS of bad stocks that lost me money.

Here are 8 unforgettable failures (and the expensive lesson I learned the hard way):🤦‍♂️ Image
Loser #1 - 3D System - $DDD

3D printing was all the rage in 2013.

3D Systems was a top dog & first mover. The business was BOOMING (so was the stock).

With "unlimited" growth potential, I bought into the hype.
After a massive run-up in 2013, the bubble burst in 2014

3D System’s growth started to slow and the stock fell HARD

I didn't understand the hype cycle, which cost me a bundle

Lesson: The hype cycle is real. Study this image! Image
Read 21 tweets
Jul 28
The P/E ratio SUCKS.

It’s a flawed metric that deceives investors.

Here are 8 reasons why the P/E ratio can be INCREDIBLY misleading (and what to do instead): Image
What’s wrong with the price-to-earnings ratio?

It all boils down to the many ways that “earnings” can be misleading.

The P/E ratio becomes useless if “earnings” aren’t sustainable or artificially inflated/depressed.

Here are 8 reasons why that can happen:
1: Accrual Accounting

The GAAP income statement uses accrual accounting.

Accrual accounting is useful, but it’s basically an accountant’s opinion.

Here are some of the expenses that can cause “earnings” to be higher or lower than the actual cash flow of a business Image
Read 23 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(