A few months ago, I bought the book “The Daily Stoic” by Ryan Holiday. For each day of the year there is a passage from either Seneca, Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. The teachings by these ancient philosophers are then explained in more modern language by Holiday. The passage from today was too good not to share.

The investing parallels here are obvious:

Have realistic expectations.
Plan for both best case and worst case scenario.
Having the contrarian mindset of wanting things to go wrong. (Buying when everyone is selling)

We all want the hot stock, the new fad, a quick fix. But, the real key to it all lies in ancient wisdom.