Top 50 Microcap Manager List: Christian Olesen
Christian Olesen is the founder and fund manager of Olesen Value Fund in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Christian grew up in Denmark and studied business, later he transferred to The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. His professional career began at Stern Stewart & Co. where he started as a Financial Analyst and progressed to a Senior Financial Analyst. Following, he was a Senior Associate of Research at Debt Traders Inc. Prior to founding Olesen Value Fund 12 years ago, Christian was an Analyst/Trader at Xaraf Management LLC. Xaraf was a sub-advisor to Paloma Partners, a multi-strategy hedge fund with approx. $2 billion under management at the time. At Xaraf, he performed fundamental research on companies as well as some trading responsibilities.
Read our feature on Christian here
Staying Curious
On the 10th anniversary of Steve Jobs’s death this month, Jony Ive wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal discussing what he missed most about Jobs, his close friend of around 15 years. Ive wrote that it’s just that Jobs was naturally curious, but that he also actively practiced that curiosity:
He was without doubt the most inquisitive human I have ever met. His insatiable curiosity was not limited or distracted by his knowledge or expertise, nor was it casual or passive. It was ferocious, energetic and restless. His curiosity was practiced with intention and rigor.
Many of us have an innate predisposition to be curious. I believe that after a traditional education, or working in an environment with many people, curiosity is a decision requiring intent and discipline.
…Our curiosity begs that we learn. And for Steve, wanting to learn was far more important than wanting to be right.
“Use it or lose it” is applicable to many things, curiosity included. We are born naturally curious, but it often fades over time through the routines and comforts of life. There is a section in Poor Charlie’s Almanack summarizing the investment philosophy of Charlie Munger titled “An Investing Principles Checklist,” and one of those principles reads:
Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day
Whether it’s in business, investing, or some other field, those that can be curious and avoid being judgmental in the search for knowledge don’t just have a competitive advantage, but they also have more fun. There is almost always something that people can learn from you, and the same is true about what you can learn from them.
Curiously Quotable:
“Curiosity is the engine of civilization. If I were to elaborate it would be to say read, read, read, and don’t forget to talk to people, really talk, listening with attention and having conversations, on whatever topic, that are an exchange of thoughts. Keep the reading broad, beyond just the professional. This helps to develop one’s sense of perspective in all matters.” —Peter Cundill
“Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Curiosity is antifragile, like an addiction, and is magnified by attempts to satisfy it—books have a secret mission and ability to multiply, as everyone who has wall-to-wall bookshelves knows well.” —Nassim Taleb, Antifragile
From Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson:
In addition to his instinct for discerning patterns across disciplines, Leonardo honed two other traits that aided his scientific pursuits: an omnivorous curiosity, which bordered on the fanatical, and an acute power of observation, which was eerily intense. Like much with Leonardo, these were interconnected. Any person who puts “Describe the tongue of the woodpecker” on his to-do list is overendowed with the combination of curiosity and acuity.
His curiosity, like that of Einstein, often was about phenomena that most people over the age of ten no longer puzzle about: Why is the sky blue? How are clouds formed? Why can our eyes see only in a straight line? What is yawning? Einstein said he marveled about questions others found mundane because he was slow in learning to talk as a child. For Leonardo, this talent may have been connected to growing up with a love of nature while not being overly schooled in received wisdom.
In Case You Missed It…
Save the Date: Tuesday, October 12, 2021: Quality Shareholders: Who They Are and How Do They Add Value?
The Greatest Industry in the History of Mankind? - by Chris Mayer
Massif Capital’s Q3 Letter to Investors: Industrial Literacy
Fireside Chat w/ David Einhorn & Mike Green
Understanding and Assessing SmallCap Boards
Good Reasons to Ignore Valuation by Brian Feroldi
Chris Bloomstran on the Market Champions Podcast
Jeff Gramm on the Investing by the Books Podcast
A Seth Godin Q&A podcast episode
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