李錄關於能力圈的一段談話

From Li Lu’s 2010 Columbia University Lecture:

So how do you really understand and gain that great insight? Pick one business. Any business. And truly understand it. I tell my interns to work through this exercise – imagine a distant relative passes away and you find out that you have inherited 100% of a business they owned. What are you going to do about it? That is the mentality to take when looking at any business. I strongly encourage you to start and understand 1 business, inside out. That is better than any training possible. It does not have to be a great business; it could be any business. You need to be able to get a feel for how you would do as a 100% owner. If you can do that, you will have a tremendous leg up against the competition. Most people don’t take that first concept correctly, and it is quite sad. People view it as a piece of paper and just trade because it is easy to trade. But if it was a business you inherited, you would not be trading. You would really seek out knowledge on how it should be run, how it works. If you start with that, you will eventually know how much that business is worth.

"A certain industry might have characteristics that make it different than others. In certain industries you might have better prospects than others. Find the best of the players in the industry and the worst players. And see how they perform over time. And if the worst players perform reasonably well relative to the great players — that tells you something about the characteristics about the industry. That is not always the case but it is often the case. Certain industries are better than others.

So if you can understand a business inside out you can then eventually extend that to understanding an industry. If you can get that insight, it is enormously beneficial. If you can then concentrate that on a business with superior economics in an industry with superior economics with good management and you get them at the right price — the chances are that you can stay for a very long time.

我個人覺得這段話比較有意思，與我的一些投資思考有相似 。 

加國的銀行業的特點，

一百多年的時間裏，任何時候以任何價格買入加國銀行股長期持有，都能獲得豐厚的利潤。
而TD 和 RY 又是行業中明顯的姣姣者，投資TD和RY的長期回報大大超出其它銀行。 

在加國，銀行業是個很能掙錢的行業，投資這個行業 ，怎麽投都能掙錢，如果能夠選其中的優秀者，能掙更多的錢。