#160 Peter Cundill

**David Senra** (0:00)
This book is a biography, not an investment manual. But those seeking insights into the thinking of one of the greatest value investors of all time, will find it has much to offer. It is more by way of an epic, describing a journey that spanned more than 70 years, most corners of the globe, and a broad array of human endeavor. Commercial, artistic, romantic, and adventurous. It is a tale of hard-won professional development, extraordinary challenges faced and survived, sometimes only barely so. It is supported by 44 years of meticulously kept daily journals, written in tiny script, which are intimate, utterly frank, self-admonishing, and confessional. They encompass every aspect of what Peter Cundill justifiably referred to as his wonderful life.
His professional career with all of its vicissitudes, his numerous love affairs, and his sporting achievements.
His passions for the kind of physical challenges that not only test endurance, but also confront the participant with moments of stark terror usually associated with war or natural disaster. The journals explore depression and self-doubt. They tell not just of successes, but also of failures and the lessons learned as a result. And they serve the function of a commonplace book in which Peter noted passages from his extensive reading, commented on them, and often developed the ideas they prompted. His interests spanned a diversity of disciplines springing from a genuinely insatiable curiosity, a characteristic he regarded as a vital component in every aspect of life, and especially in his professional life.
The journals also exhibit a thoroughly open intelligence. Peter was ready to try almost anything and prepared to work to achieve success in any venture or in the acquisition of any skill he decided to undertake. Mastery often came at a real personal cost because, as he freely confessed, he was far from being naturally gifted at everything.
What counted always was the learning process, the importance of continuing to learn throughout his life was a reoccurring theme. In his professional journey, Peter became more than a highly regarded and immensely successful mutual fund manager who made fortunes for himself and others. He was also a teacher and mentor, generous with his time and fully prepared to share his experience with aspiring new practitioners. This dedication to his profession, to the encouragement of its new blood and the propagation of the principles of value investing on the foundations laid by Graham and Dodd, would have been continuing today. And this book would have been an autobiography had Peter not been struck by the affliction of fragile X-associated tremor ataxia syndrome, a neurological disease whose symptoms closely resemble that of Parkinson's, but is far less amenable to treatment.
The story of Peter's life is now, of course, concluded. But as I was working with him daily on this and the previous book, I came to realize that his finest hour was in fact in his brave struggle with his deteriorating disability. He was entirely without self-pity, good-natured and full of humor, and determined never to surrender to hopelessness or despair.
In this book, the reader will make the acquaintance of a remarkable, generous, multi-faceted and complex man who I had the privilege for over 30 years of calling a friend.
That was an excerpt from the book that we talked about today, which is Routines and Orgies, The Life of Peter Cundill, Financial Genius, Philosopher and Philanthropist. And it was written by Christopher Risso-Gill.
And this was another book I only found because it was recommended to me by a listener. I saw the title, I was like, what is going on here? So I downloaded the Kindle version, read the sample, loved it from the very beginning, and quickly ordered the book. I need to address the title. And it's actually a quote from a writer and philosopher that Cundill loved, and that's Aldous Huxley. I think it's how you pronounce his first name. And this is a quote from his book, Beyond the Mexican Bay, which is where Peter got the idea for the title of his book. This is Huxley writing, The commonest, one might call it natural rhythm of human life, is routine punctuated by orgies. Routine supports man's weaknesses, makes the fatigue of thought unnecessary, and relieves them of the intolerable burden of responsibility. Orgies, whether sexual, religious, sporting, or political, provide that periodical excitement which all of us crave. And now, having finished the book, and looking back at the life of Peter Cundill, I think that's a good description of him as a person. Obsessed with her teen, completely single-minded, and focused on excellence, and yet filled his life with an amazing array of different experiences, events, and just crazy things that he went after. So I want to fast forward. I'm going to skip over his early life. I want to start when he is 25 years old, because this, I want to go right to the point which makes this book very, very unique. And it's this daily journal that he kept up for 40 plus years and is the main basis of the book. And when I look back on the parts I highlighted, almost all of it is his own actual words, taken directly from his journal. So I want to, let me just go right to the beginning where he gets this idea. He says, during this time, he's 25 years old at the time, Peter made a momentous decision. On August 16th, 1963, he began to write the journal that he then kept faithfully day by day for over 40 years.