Chapter 1. Intellect, Instinct, and Guts: Understanding the Psychological Profile
At the age of 30, Charles Luckman was named president of the Pepsodent toothpaste company and later became president of Lever Brothers. Luckman knew from the age of nine that he wanted to be an architect but went into sales after graduating from the University of Illinois. Despite his great success in business, he eventually resigned from Lever Brothers to take up his architectural dream. From that point forward, he helped design such architectural wonders as the CBS Television City Center in Boston, the new Madison Square Garden in New York City and the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. So, how did this businessman and architect who was once known as the "Boy Wonder of American Business" define success? "Success," Luckman said, "is that old ABC—ability, breaks, and courage."
Luckman's life was a remarkable demonstration of an amazingly simple yet complex formula for success, something that I have been searching for in my work with traders. For many years now, I have been trying to define the key ingredients of successful traders and portfolio managers (PMs) by exploring a range of personality strengths and weaknesses among them. To do this, I have asked such questions as:
What are some of the different combinations of traits that contribute to individual success stories?
How much "talent" is inborn, and what can be learned?
How can hedge fund managers recognize talent and capitalize on it? ...
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