The Only Three Questions That Still Count: Investing By Knowing What Others Don't, 2nd Edition

Johns Hopkins, My Grampa, Life Lessons and Pulling a Gertrude

This chapter expands on examples of how Question One helps uncover false myths “everyone” knows even though no one bothered to fact-check. But first, pardon me as I digress while getting personal before we start on these examples.

Like many of you, my paternal grandfather was very important in my youth. My mother’s father passed away before I was born. But my father’s father—I idolized him from before I can remember. I was his favorite. We were playful pals until he passed on when I was eight. I still keep pictures of him all around wherever I sit. He was my hero. I wanted to be a doctor, just like him. For no other reason than I idolized him. I didn’t learn until later I didn’t like any of the parts of doctoring—particularly blood. Yes, I appreciate we need doctoring; I just don’t want to be the one doing it.

But Grampa did a superbly cool thing. Arthur L. Fisher was in the third graduating class of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, graduating and becoming Arthur L. Fisher, MD in 1900. By definition, he started at Hopkins before it had graduated its first full class and well before it built its reputation. He was a pioneer, doing something before others knew how to do it—on a very different scale, a similar leap of faith Bill Gates would make starting Microsoft. After all, there were computers and software before Bill Gates. He just changed everything with a pioneering vision. In medicine, Johns Hopkins changed everything. ...