具体描述
内容简介
Phil Town is now a very wealthy man, but he wasn't always. In fact, he was living on a salary of $4000 a year when some well-timed advice launched him down a highway of investing self-education that revealed what the true "rules" are and how to make them work in one's favor. Chief among them, of course, is "rule #1": "don't lose money." Other rules are: don't diversify...think like an owner, not an investor ... never, ever be seduced into thinking the market is efficient. Town also believes strongly in "betting on the jockey," putting your faith in managers who've proven their financial mettle. Not only does Town reveal fresh methods for identifying who the truly reliable managers are, but he shows you how to test whether they really have faith in the businesses they're running.
By far, the most controversial of the audiobook's assertions will be that giant 401(k) type mutual funds can't help but regress to the mean, and in the next twenty years, the mean could be very disappointing indeed. There's a very real chance that a 401(k) investor could see his holdings not grow at all in the next few decades. Fortunately, Town's stockpicking techniques are meant to walk investing phobes through the do-it-yourself process, equipping them with the tools they need to make quantum leaps toward financial security.
Rule #1 says something new, and it says it in a way that every listener can understand. 作者简介
He isn’t your typical Wall Street guy. An ex-Green Beret and former river guide, Phil Town is a self-made millionaire several times over and America’s most widely sought-after speaker on investing. In his new book, RULE #1, he describes the Rule #1 personal financial strategy in detail so that anyone, even first-time investors,can get–and stay–rich.
Phil Town is the classic Everyman, albeit one whose education and resources were more limited than most. An average high school student, he completed college on his fourth try. Of his early working years, he says he “mostly got dirty for a living,” taking on jobs such as digging ditches and pumping gas. Town spent three and a half years in the Army. He returned from the Vietnam War and found a job in the States as a river guide.
Drifting through California, Utah, and Idaho, he subsisted at poverty level, combining his wages from the guiding season and unemployment. He wore black leathers, sported a goatee, lived in a teepee in the woods near Flagstaff, Arizona, and “drove around in a really loud black Harley Davidson.”
In the early ‘80s, Town’s life changed radically. He was guiding trustees from the educational program Outward Bound down the nastiest rapid on the Grand Canyon’s Colorado River, when his split-second decisions saved a boatload of people from a whitewater disaster. A grateful and financially astute client returned the favor by guiding Town into serious, successful investing using the first rule of investing as ascribed to by Warren Buffett: Don’t lose money. Within five years, Town had built a borrowed $1,000 into $1 million. His fortunes improved radically, and rapidly, from then on.
Phil Town appears regularly on the same dais as Rudy Giuliani, Jimmy Carter, and Colin Powell as part of the “Get Motivated” touring success seminar. He speaks to more than 500,000 people annually about Rule #1.
Town lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 精彩书评
"For amateur investors who admire the incredible returns produced by Benjamin Graham-Warren Buffett-style value investing but can't figure out how to replicate these billionaires' methods at home, Town's investment guide is manna from heaven. A former river-rafting guide, Town learned how to calculate such crucial numbers as Return on Investment Capital and Equity Growth Rate from "Wolf," a wealthy rafter whom Town saved from a rapid in 1980. Under Wolf's tutelage, Town learned how to turn $1,000 into $1 million in five years, but the selection of lucrative stocks took weeks of library research. In this engaging and accessible book, Town shows readers how to replicate that sort of exhaustive market research on the Internet-and shorten the research time to just a few hours per stock. Fans of The Intelligent Investor will recognize that Town's Rule #1 formula-"1) Find a wonderful business, 2) Know what it's worth as a business, 3) Buy it at 50 percent off, 4) Repeat until very rich"-is a variation of Benjamin Graham's investment philosophy. (Graham and Buffett are cited heavily throughout the book.) But Town's ability to break down that philosophy into a detailed, step-by-step program that can be understood by any reader with basic math skills is unique. His chummy, reassuring tone ("If you're finding yourself already a bit overwhelmed, take a deep breath") will leave readers feeling empowered and ready to manage their money themselves."
--Publishers Weekly
好的,这是一本关于在复杂商业环境中制定和执行核心原则的图书简介: --- 《基石:在变局中坚守的商业智慧》 探寻企业穿越周期、实现永续增长的底层逻辑 在当今这个信息爆炸、技术迭代日新月异的时代,商业环境正以前所未有的速度经历着重塑与颠覆。无数企业如同在迷雾中航行的船只,渴望找到一个稳定可靠的灯塔,指引方向,抵御风浪。《基石:在变局中坚守的商业智慧》正是这样一本旨在为决策者提供清晰、坚实指导的著作。它不关注追逐转瞬即逝的风口,而是深入剖析那些历经时间考验、被无数成功企业奉为圭臬的、不可动摇的核心原则。 本书的作者群体汇集了来自不同行业、拥有数十年一线管理经验的资深专家。他们摒弃了空泛的理论说教,转而聚焦于商业世界中最本质的要素:价值创造、风险管理、组织韧性以及长期主义的战略眼光。 第一部分:价值的本源——为何而战 成功的企业无一例外都建立在清晰且无可替代的价值主张之上。然而,随着市场竞争的白热化,“价值”的定义正在被不断稀释和模糊。本书的第一部分,将带领读者穿透市场噪音,直抵价值创造的核心原点。 1. 洞察需求而非迎合欲望: 我们将详细探讨如何区分客户的“表面诉求”与“深层痛点”。很多企业失败的原因在于,它们过于专注于满足客户即刻可见的欲望,却忽视了驱动这些欲望背后的结构性需求。本书提供了一套系统的“需求穿透分析模型”,帮助企业构建难以模仿的“护城河”。 2. 重新定义“壁垒”: 传统的竞争壁垒,如专利、资本投入,在信息时代正变得越来越脆弱。本书强调,真正的壁垒在于“知识复利系统”和“品牌信任资产”。我们将分析亚马逊、丰田等巨头如何通过其独特的运营哲学和文化,构建起一种内生的、自我强化的竞争优势。这不仅仅是技术领先,更是对商业运作流程的深刻理解和系统化沉淀。 3. 利润的结构性来源: 盲目追求规模扩张往往导致效率低下。本书深入解析了不同商业模式下的“利润结构”,引导读者识别并优化那些能带来持续、高毛利回报的业务环节。我们将探讨规模不经济的陷阱,以及如何通过“杠杆效率”实现增长,而非单纯依赖资源堆砌。 第二部分:风险的哲学——敬畏与预见 商业世界充满了不确定性,但卓越的领导者并非是那些能预知未来的人,而是那些能更好地管理未知的人。本书的第二部分,着重于培养决策者对风险的“敬畏之心”和“系统化预见能力”。 1. “黑天鹅”背后的常态化风险: 许多灾难性的事件并非完全不可预测的“黑天鹅”,而是由一系列被忽视的、常态化的微小失误累积而成。本书引入了“风险的层叠效应模型”,分析了组织内部沟通不畅、技术依赖单一化、以及过度自信如何逐步将企业推向临界点。 2. 财务稳健性的内在逻辑: 现金流是企业的血液,而“健康负债”与“过度负债”之间的界限常常被忽视。本书提供了详尽的案例分析,揭示了在经济下行周期中,那些看似激进扩张的企业如何因缺乏足够的流动性储备而轰然倒塌。强调审慎的资本结构规划,以及建立冗余性(Resilience)的重要性,而非仅仅追求极限效率。 3. 决策的心理学陷阱: 人类心智在面对高压和信息过载时,极易陷入确认偏误、锚定效应等陷阱。本书邀请认知科学家参与撰写,剖析了高层决策中常见的心理偏差,并提供了一套“去情绪化”的结构化评估框架,确保决策基于事实与逻辑,而非一时的情绪波动或群体压力。 第三部分:组织的长跑——文化与人才的淬炼 伟大的战略需要强大的组织来执行。本书的第三部分转向内部,探讨如何构建一个能够长期适应变化、持续自我优化的组织生态。 1. 文化的“硬性”作用: 许多企业将文化视为软性的、口号式的装饰。本书则论证了文化如何成为最强大的“行为约束器”和“决策加速器”。我们将分析那些成功抵抗了“组织惰性”的企业,它们是如何将核心价值观内化为日常行为规范,从而在没有层层审批的情况下,依然能做出符合公司长期利益的反应。 2. 人才的“错配”成本: 招聘是投入产出比最高的环节,也是最容易被低估的风险点。本书超越了简单的技能匹配,深入探讨了“价值观对齐”和“潜力对齐”的重要性。我们提供了识别高潜力人才的工具,以及如何设计一个能够留住“A级人才”而非仅仅是“合格人才”的激励机制。 3. 持续学习的机制设计: 在快速变化的市场中,组织必须比环境变化得更快。本书提出了“故障容忍度”的概念,鼓励组织将小的失败视为低成本的学习机会。我们将介绍如何建立有效的知识回传系统,确保经验教训不会因为人员流动而流失,从而实现组织智慧的积累和迭代。 结语:回归常识的勇气 《基石:在变局中坚守的商业智慧》并非一本速成手册,它是一部需要反复研读、并付诸实践的案头常备之作。它要求读者具备一种回归商业常识的勇气——这种常识要求我们必须保持谦逊,理解商业的本质规律,将目光投向十年、二十年之后。 本书旨在帮助企业领导者明确自己的“不可退让的底线原则”,并以此为核心,建立一个既能灵活应对短期挑战,又能在长期中稳步前行的坚固商业帝国。它鼓励的不是僵化不变,而是“在核心原则上坚定不移,在执行细节上灵活机变”的领导艺术。 ---