RWH070: Hunting For Hidden Treasures w/ Christopher Begg

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
You're listening to TIP.
You're listening to the richer, wiser, happier podcast, where your host, William Green, interviews the world's greatest investors and explores how to win in markets and life. This show is not investment advice, it's intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. All opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own, and they may have investments in the securities discussed. Now, for your host, William Green.

**William Green** (0:40)
Hi there, this is William Green, host of the Richer, Wiser, Happier podcast. Before I welcome today's very special guest, I wanted to share some news that I'm really excited about. Later this year, I'll launch a new Richer, Wiser, Happier masterclass for a small, very intimate group of 22 people who'd like to study with me over the course of a year. We'll meet once a month over Zoom to discuss the most important themes in my book, Richer, Wiser, Happier, and I'll also talk about how my thinking on these subjects continues to evolve, drawing on lessons from hundreds of hours of interviews that I've conducted with many of the world's greatest investors. Members of the masterclass group will also be invited to join me at two unique in-person events, starting with a two-day gathering in New York later this fall.
My goal in forming the masterclass is to create a year-long journey of exploration for people who are deeply interested in building lives that are truly richer, wiser, and happier. If this idea appeals to you, please email my friend and fellow podcast host, Kyle Grieve, who's in charge of the waitlist, and he can share details with you about prices and dates and the like. His email address is kyle, that's K-Y-L-E, at theinvestorspodcast.com.
I should also mention, this will be the third year in a row that I've hosted a richer, wiser, happier master class. The first two groups included an amazingly accomplished selection of people from many countries around the world, including some hugely successful hedge fund and mutual fund managers, various asset allocators, wealth advisors, managers of family offices, a management consultant, a doctor, several CEOs and entrepreneurs, and a renowned physicist turned quant fund manager. Part of the beauty of the master class lies in the very strong relationships forged between its members, many of whom have become really good friends. If you like the idea of studying with me and this extraordinary group of keen investors and passionate learners, please email Kyle at theinvestorspodcast.com. And if the stars align, I'd love to see you later this year when the master class begins. Thanks so much. And now on with the show.
Hi, folks. We have a very special treat for you today. I'm really excited to welcome back a terrific hedge fund manager who's one of the most thoughtful people in the investment world and one of my favorite people in the investment world too. His name is Chris Begg, and he's the CEO and the CIO, the Chief Investment Officer of East Coast Asset Management. Chris teaches the security analysis class at Columbia Business School that Ben Graham famously taught back in the early 1950s when his star student was Warren Buffett. He's also a dear friend, so I'm particularly thrilled to have him back on the podcast. It's wonderful to see you, Chris.

**Christopher Begg** (3:27)
William, it's great to be here as always. Thank you.

**William Green** (3:30)
And I was just explaining to you before we started that part of my challenge today is that you gave me so much to read of your unpublished essays and the like, that I ended up this morning with 42 pages of notes and questions that I put together while preparing for this interview.
I counted, it was almost 20,000 words, so there's this sort of perennial challenge of synthesis and distillation. I got it down to about 13 pages this morning. So if I'm confused, you'll know why.
So I've spent the last few days reading a lot of your unpublished essays, and I think our last count you'd written, so I'm like 46 of them, and I've read probably a couple of handfuls. I've listened to dozens of the 150 songs or more that you've written in the last couple of years. I reread your last year's year-end letter, Shell, which was 30 pages plus an addendum, an unpublished addendum that was another 11 pages. So as I was working my way through this, I was like, oh my God, my friend Chris, he's actually a much more prolific writer than I am. I started to realize, oh, this is really central to your process, the process of writing, and it's so key to you in terms of building your philosophy of investing business and life. So I wanted to start actually by asking you about the process of writing for you and why it's so important as part of this broader challenge that you have and that I have, which you describe as compressing complexity into essence.