Model Portfolio timbo56:SSOF1

I just read a Fortune magazine article about Ken Heebner, the manager of GGM Focus fund, who has beaten the market by a huge margin over the past 10 years. The article is an object lesson in why we need Marketocracy. Heebner graduated from Amherst, an extremely prestigious college, and Harvard Business School. Nevertheless it took him 11 years of hard effort to get to the point where he had the chance, as a mutual fund manager, to show what he could do. He had just been fired as an assistant fund manager, for criticizing the head of the firm after having a few too many martinis over lunch. But he had developed enough of a reputation at that job to entice another mutual fund company to hire him. Lucky thing for him and all the people who have made big bucks investing with him.

What is wrong with this picture?? There is this brilliant guy, turns out to be a fabulous fund manager, but it takes him 11 years after graduating from the best business school to get to show his stuff as a fund manager. The point is that you can't tell who is going to be good at it till you give people a chance to actually do it. There were lots of other grads from Harvard Business School, how were we supposed to know that this one was the one who was going to be great as a fund manager?? And the skills that it takes to get that first crack at it in the "real world" are not the ones that it takes to do well after you get that first chance. Sure, there is some overlap. But it is far from a perfect match. Ken Heebner was not all that good at patiently accepting leadership that seemed questionable to him. He, perhaps, did not make the best impression on an interview. Those are the skills needed to get the first chance. His penetrating insight and admirable intellect got him the chance eventually, but it took awhile. Perhaps if Marketocracy had been around back then, it would have taken him a lot less time.