{"id":16711,"date":"2023-02-26T23:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/?p=16711"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:46:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T02:46:44","slug":"personality-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Personality has a decisive impact on investment success or failure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Personality_determines_the_success_or_failure_of_investment\" >Personality determines the success or failure of investment<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#The_importance_of_personality_cannot_be_overemphasized\" >The importance of personality cannot be overemphasized<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#How_to_assess_my_personality\" >How to assess my personality?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#No_perfect_match_word_in_English\" >No perfect match word in English<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Humans_are_extremely_complex_animals\" >Humans are extremely complex animals<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Related_contents_in_my_book\" >Related contents in my book<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Personalities_are_helpful\" >Personalities are helpful<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Willing_to_make_long-term_investment\" >Willing to make long-term investment<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Patience\" >Patience<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Willing_to_change\" >Willing to change<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Invest_only_in_you_are_most_familiar_with\" >Invest only in you are most familiar with<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Fact-based\" >Fact-based<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Reading\" >Reading<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-14\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Stay_away_from_crowds_and_media\" >Stay away from crowds and media<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-15\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Closing_words\" >Closing words<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-16\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/#Related_articles\" >Related articles<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Personality_determines_the_success_or_failure_of_investment\"><\/span>Personality determines the success or failure of investment<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>George Goldman (with Pen name of Adam Smith) said, &#8220;The&nbsp;stock doesn\u2019t know you own&nbsp;it. If you don\u2019t know who you are, the stock market is an expensive place to find out. We human beings are a bunch of emotions, prejudices, and twitches and that makes it hard for us to understand the market. You will never know how it\u2019s going to behave when. What is more important is how you\u2019ll react when markets don\u2019t react in your favor.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_importance_of_personality_cannot_be_overemphasized\"><\/span>The importance of personality cannot be overemphasized<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Although I have emphasized the importance of &#8220;temperament&#8221; to investment in the blog before, after publishing the two articles &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/12\/11\/must-be-clearly-answered\/\">Questions must be clearly answered before entering the stock market<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/05\/04\/investor-temperament\/\">The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect&#8221;<\/a>, It has also been a while, and I think &#8220;personality&#8221; is too important, and it is necessary to discuss this topic again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_assess_my_personality\"><\/span>How to assess my personality?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I suggest that you can take a DISC test by yourself, so that you can know your own personality. For details, please refer to my previous article &#8220;&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/17\/investors-disc-test\/\">Investors&#8217; DISC test to assess your traits<\/a>&#8220;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"No_perfect_match_word_in_English\"><\/span>No perfect match word in English<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Personality is mostly translated into personality, character in English; perhaps identity and individual must be added. But I always feel that there is not a single word that matches exactly in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Humans_are_extremely_complex_animals\"><\/span>Humans are extremely complex animals<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I agree that &#8220;personality&#8221; may be the most difficult part. Everyone has their own unique characteristics. Personality is difficult to &#8220;describe&#8221; in words, and there is no certain &#8220;expression&#8221; method; but the impact is comprehensive. My own experience, the books I have read, and what I have learned from the few investment masters worthy of emulation in the world make me think more and more that this is one of the final determining factors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most investors believe that personality is innate, and I do not deny that innateness does affect it, but I think that people are extremely complex animals. The acquired life course, age, learning, and lessons (but I think it has nothing to do with rank, IQ, or It doesn&#8217;t matter if you have academic qualifications, which most people value; all of them will describe the unique personality of each person. This is an important point, and I will talk about it some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_contents_in_my_book\"><\/span>Related contents in my book<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the preface of my book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.books.com.tw\/products\/0010889106?sloc=main\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Rules of Super Growth Stocks Investing<\/a>&#8220;, I mentioned several things in my investment career, which I didn&#8217;t discover at the time, but in retrospect, they are very helpful for investment. These findings will be shared with you in the next paragraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Personalities_are_helpful\"><\/span>Personalities are helpful<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The following list is my own personal experience. After induction, I think that these characteristics will be of great help to investing in stocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Willing_to_make_long-term_investment\"><\/span>Willing to make long-term investment<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to accumulate satisfactory wealth in the stock market, long-term investment is a prerequisite. But it is difficult for most people to accept this fact, especially investors in Taiwan stocks. For long-term investing, see my article &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/06\/21\/why-long-term-investment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Why long-term investment is better?<\/a>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have devoted considerable space to this subject in two of my books:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The advantages of long-term investing are discussed on pages 49-50 in Sections 1-4 of the book&#8221;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.books.com.tw\/products\/0010889106?sloc=main\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Rules of Super Growth Stocks Investing<\/a>&#8220;.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.books.com.tw\/products\/0010935641?sloc=main\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Rules of 10 Baggers<\/a>&#8220;, section 4-1, pages 184-192, there is a discussion about &#8220;buy right&#8221; and &#8220;long hold&#8221; to own 10 times shares.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Patience\"><\/span>Patience<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Put in the time and tireless basic research. Sometimes, need to endure tedious and routine daily jobs on your investment homework. The most important thing is willing to be long-waiting for the buying opportunity of margin of safefy, willing to give the company enough time to let the stock price rise slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Willing_to_change\"><\/span>Willing to change<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Change is never easy, and the difficulty scales inversely with your age. Be willing to find out why you make mistakes, be honest with yourself, and don&#8217;t report good news or bad news. The point is to make a change, and even a little noticeable change can go a long way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Invest_only_in_you_are_most_familiar_with\"><\/span>Invest only in you are most familiar with<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Don&#8217;t touch things you don&#8217;t understand. It is the best way to only invest in companies within your circle of competence. Regarding the circle of competence, you can refer to the discussion in my previous article &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/08\/31\/circle-of-competence\/\">The importance of circle of competence<\/a>&#8220;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Fact-based\"><\/span>Fact-based<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Personality of seeking truth from facts, patience, discipline, stressing facts and evidence in everything, comparison and analysis of basic figures and materials<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Reading\"><\/span>Reading<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue to read books related to investment and financial management, the more the better, the more extensive the better. Especially the annual reports of listed companies in your investment portfolio. If you have never read them, my suggestion is that you sell them immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Stay_away_from_crowds_and_media\"><\/span>Stay away from crowds and media<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The crowds, the media, colleagues, relatives and friends, authorities, experts, social consensus, and social networks; in most cases, they are anti-indicators for stock market investment. I admit that it is difficult for modern people to resist these things, but it is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before everyone wakes up, have the courage to walk alone in a thousand mountains and endure loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Closing_words\"><\/span>Closing words<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Others can&#8217;t help you on personality; you have to be willing to change yourself, even a small change is a huge improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his <a href=\"https:\/\/berkshirehathaway.com\/letters\/2006ltr.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2006 shareholder letter<\/a>, Buffett wrote: &#8220;Temperament is also important. Independent thinking, emotional stability, and a keen understanding of both human and institutional behavior is vital to long-term investment success. I\u2019ve seen a lot of very smart people who have lacked these virtues.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"176\" height=\"172\" src=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/p-1600x1200-1.jpg\" alt=\"personality\" class=\"wp-image-16746\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">credit: wikimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_articles\"><\/span>Related articles<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/12\/11\/must-be-clearly-answered\/\">Questions must be clearly answered before entering the stock market<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/05\/11\/memory\/\">Memory is an edge to investment success<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/11\/18\/doom-to-fail-if-not-good-at\/\">Doom to fail if you&#8217;re not good at investing<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/05\/04\/investor-temperament\/\">The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2023\/02\/26\/personality-impact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Personality has a decisive impact on investment success or failure<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/17\/investors-disc-test\/\">Investors&#8217; DISC test to assess your traits<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/08\/31\/circle-of-competence\/\">The importance of circle of competence<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/06\/21\/why-long-term-investment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Why long-term investment is better?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Disclaimer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The content of this site is the author\u2019s personal opinions and is for reference only. I am not responsible for the correctness, opinions, and immediacy of the content and information of the article. Readers must make their own judgments.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>I shall not be liable for any damages or other legal liabilities for the direct or indirect losses caused by the readers&#8217; direct or indirect reliance on and reference to the information on this site, or all the responsibilities arising therefrom, as a result of any investment behavior.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Personality determines the success or failure of investment. If you don\u2019t know who you are, the stock market is an expensive place to find out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574,69,68,17,397,71,70,67,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-temperament","category-discipline","category-insight-second-level-thinking","category-investing-psychology","category-margin-of-safety","category-out-of-the-ordinary","category-patience","category-perseverance","category-buffett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16711"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40092,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16711\/revisions\/40092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}