John Garrett is a Portfolio Manager at MA Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MAF) (formerly Moelis Australia) and shares investing wisdom on his website, mastersinvest.com. He joins Raymond Jang on The Australian Investors Podcast to share his investing knowledge and lessons with our investing community.

John's career in the financial markets has spanned across over nearly 25 years and currently manages three funds at MA Financial Group. His significant experience combined with an insatiable appetite for consuming books along with learning from the greats has helped him build an encyclopaedic knowledge of mental models to find great businesses, which can compound at high rates over long periods of time.

Talking points

- Which great investor resembles John the most.

- Importance of understanding the qualitative factors that drive the financial output and taking a holistic view of the business.

- Why companies that can 'fight the fade' are rare and can override a valuation model. Notable mentions include Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: FB), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) and REA Group Limited (ASX: REA).

- Why John believes management and culture are the longest forms of potential competitive advantages.

- How John devours so many books and retains knowledge to build his mental models. Book references include Let My People Go Surfing by the founder of Patagonia and Invention: A Life by James Dyson.

- How a concept in Nassim Taleb's book, Skin in the Game led to an investment in Australian Ethical Investment.

- Lessons about culture and incentive structures from reading Pride in Performance by Les Schwab along with further discussion about Johns Lyng Group.

- Why I quickly bought, In Search Of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman after my chat with John.

- John shares a personal anecdote to highlight how great businesses find ways to get the best of their employees.

- Why John has been devoting more time towards reading everything about technology.

- John provides his views on the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

- The emotional and psychological mindset required to be a great investor.

- What John does to overcome biases and he discloses the two biggest ones for him.

- John lets us know who has had the most influential impact on him as a person and investor.

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