Nick Mitsakos's new book, “Investment Principles: Strategies for an Irrational World” Investment Principles: Strategies for an Irrational World discusses a range of topics including disruptive innovation and technologies, globalization, leadership, fiscal and monetary policy, and other topics usually relegated to economics or behavioral textbooks. Inferior performance comes from not understanding all these elements, that influence investment choices.
Nicholas Mitsakos not only discusses investment principles and strategies, he also analyzes disruptive innovation and the importance of effective leadership along with other critical factors for successful investing.
Nicholas Mitsakos's new book is not a “how to pick stocks” book. Along with useless platitudes, there are no simple formulas, heuristic, or any other effortless way to outperform the market. Deep thinking about the factors that matter is complex, challenging, unique to each situation, and escapes simple formulas.
Simple formulas are intended, more than anything, to make the reader feel good without giving him or her any useful information to think more deeply about analysis and conclusions that matter. Understanding what really influences the value of any given investment, how that value may change overtime, and the convergence of many factors that can accelerate either the increase or decrease in value goes well beyond simple statements. Deep thinking about the factors that matter is complex, challenging, unique to each situation, and requires deep thinking.
there is a full range of factors that matter. Understanding those factors is the other challenge. Since it is unique to each situation, there is no straightforward and simple algorithm that applies in all areas.
Nicholas mitsakos understands this complexity and the challenge is to think deeply about a full range of factors. Those factors are not just economic, but also include human behavior and emotions, as well as, as described by Mr. Mitsakos in his book, “The X Factor” which is effective leadership.
Leadership is not a single person, even though the popular press wants to personify success as a single person, whether that person is Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or someone else. Real success comes from a team of people.
Nicholas Mitsakos believes the successful companies are led by teams that work well together, are creative, but also have commercial discipline. There is only so much capital available to do innovative and disruptive things. Not all actions create value, but without commercial discipline combined with creativity (no small trick), it’s Essentially impossible to create real value that is sustainable.
Nicholas mitsakos new book is not organized as a straightforward narrative, but in sections addressing different topics the book can be a reference source, as well as a descriptive analysis.
Nicholas mitsakos used a 40-lecture series that he developed over the course of several years as the foundation for this book. Since he has been an entrepreneur, investor, and educator for over 30 years, there are many topics that Nicholas mitsakos has found essential to understanding the value of an investment and essential for any investment decision.
Since Nicholas mitsakos has served on over 35 boards of directors and been involved with over 50 startups, he has an acute and personal understanding of the factors that can create or destroy value. He has initially combined these experiences into his lecture series and also a series of articles on entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, disruption, and rational approaches to investing. It is these many experiences in business and academia which has formed the foundation for his new book. His academic experience includes lecturing and researching at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of technology, and UCLA.
Straightforward analysis and simple formulas are inadequate. In Nicholas Mitsakos's new book, “Investment Principles: Strategies for an Irrational World” (Investment Principles: Strategies for an Irrational World), he discusses a variety of disciplines that require a depth of understanding and analysis. Each one of these areas, ranging from economic analysis to globalization, to human behavior, would each require study and understanding. Interconnecting these and other areas is the key to investment success, so says Nicholas Mitsakos.
His book is organized in such a way that it can be read as a narrative on investing success, as well as be a reference book with distinct sections. Investment Principles: Strategies for an Irrational World is broken into several topics and subtopics meant to stand on their own. The book is as much a reference book, with distinct sections intended to deal with independent topics in greater depth and understanding. The book is organized this way, as Nicholas Mitsakos states, because he proposes that thoughtful observation of complex factors and understanding their interrelation are necessary but not sufficient for successful investing.
Investment success, according to Mr. Mitsakos, is accurately predicting the future. That requires a greater breadth and depth of understanding of many seemingly unrelated topics. Nicholas Mitsakos discusses this at length in his book and describes it as creating a context for understanding - a way to think about how to think. Nicholas Mitsakos believes approaching investment decisions with this methodology is more important than any simple formula or narrow analytical approach.
Those looking for a simple formula and they “how to pick stocks” book will be disappointed. Those who want their intelligence respected and given a methodology and foundation to think more thoroughly and successfully will be rewarded. In Nicholas Mitsakos's new book there is no simple formula. Complex factors, understanding their interrelation, and predicting the outcome of these interactions require “slow thinking.” This is demanding work, as Daniel Kahneman explained in his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” That is why the book does not contain a series of numerical models and algorithms. These tools are a simplified sideshow intended to turn numerous and dynamic factors into a simple, and typically misleading, analysis.
Nicholas Mitsakos believes reducing complex analysis to simple numerical models and algorithms delivers misleading and inaccurate results far too often. For the most part, he believes this approach is nonsense. Often, numerical models and algorithms are a simplified sideshow intended to turn numerous and dynamic factors into an easy-to-understand, typically misleading analysis, and ultimately worthless exercise.
Nicholas mitsakos believes it is important to consider a wide range of factors when looking at investment possibilities and developing a successful investment strategy. Many topics, including disruptive innovation, new technologies, globalization, leadership, fiscal and monetary policy, and other topics, usually relegated to economics or behavioral textbooks, play an outsized role in influencing investments and their ultimate value. Inferior performance comes from not understanding that all these elements, as well as human behavior and irrational choices, influence investments disproportionately. Reducing this to a formula is not effective and for the most part, wasted energy.
