{"id":314,"date":"2021-05-07T23:56:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/?p=314"},"modified":"2025-12-05T10:58:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:58:47","slug":"why-successful-manager-usually-not-a-good-investor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/07\/why-successful-manager-usually-not-a-good-investor\/","title":{"rendered":"Why successful manager usually not a good investor?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I published on my blog a few days ago &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/02\/why-the-successful-skills-needed-for-stock-investment-is-opposite-of-successful-workplace-skills\/\">Workplace skills doesn&#8217;t help much in investment?<\/a>&#8221; The article arouses readers&#8217; recollection. Based on this, I would like to discuss another more thought-provoking phenomenon. That is, why professional managers who are successful in their careers, and company executives who are important in the company, usually not very good in investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\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\/2021\/05\/07\/why-successful-manager-usually-not-a-good-investor\/#The_reasons\" >The reasons<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/07\/why-successful-manager-usually-not-a-good-investor\/#Halo_effect\" >Halo effect<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/07\/why-successful-manager-usually-not-a-good-investor\/#Its_hard_to_get_rich_if_have_the_same_opinions_as_the_mass\" >It\u2019s hard to get rich if have the same opinions as the mass<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/07\/why-successful-manager-usually-not-a-good-investor\/#Business_owners_versus_stock_investors\" >Business owners versus stock investors<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/07\/why-successful-manager-usually-not-a-good-investor\/#Not_the_stock_that_the_company_grant_to_you\" >Not the stock that the company grant to you<\/a><\/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\/2021\/05\/07\/why-successful-manager-usually-not-a-good-investor\/#Related_articles\" >Related articles<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_reasons\"><\/span><strong>The reasons<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The reasons can be summarized as the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They are usually reused and promoted all the way in their careers, enjoying great glory and taking on more and more responsibilities. Of course it will be sought after by the company, because there are a lot of people waiting for their decision; but because of this, it is easy to lead to arrogance. They think the world is running around him, are smarter than others, and usually accustomed to command others, it is impossible to listen to other people&#8217;s different opinions; this is the root cause of their poor investment performance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Like all office workers, successful managers are more adaptable to being an office worker. They have higher than average career survival skills to make them successful, but they must also pay for it. You can read my blog article published &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/02\/why-the-successful-skills-needed-for-stock-investment-is-opposite-of-successful-workplace-skills\/\">Workplace skills doesn&#8217;t help much in investment?<\/a>&#8221; Moreover, most people can be promoted to high-level managers of enterprises relying on the skills of political struggle and the management of rich workplace contacts, which are all useless in investment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Senior managers usually have richer fixed salaries and can withstand larger investment losses. But because of this, they don&#8217;t take profit and loss as a matter of importance, so they don&#8217;t carefully review investment performance and improve their investment methods.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Really successful senior managers actually have endless meetings and travel every day, and they are much busier than ordinary people. Even if there is a rare holiday, almost all of them are emptying themselves. There is no time to absorb any information outside of my company\u2019s business, let alone conduct basic investment research. This is indeed a fact. On the road of investment, it is of course impossible to achieve success without enthusiastic dedication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Halo_effect\"><\/span><strong>Halo effect <\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>These views will subvert the views of many people, because they are very different from the perceptions of most people. Sure enough, after I published this article, I received many replies; most of them did not agree with me (this is the original intention of writing this article). To be honest, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised. Most people think that they are successful managers (especially the managers of their own companies, the so-called successful people around them, or well-known professionals on the screen), it should be very successful in all aspects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psychology calls this phenomenon the &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nngroup.com\/articles\/halo-effect\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Halo effect<\/a>&#8220;: if a person is marked as good, he will be enveloped by a positive aura and be given to him everything will be a good established impression. I have observed that most people have this myth before publishing this article. If my opinion is the same as everyone&#8217;s, then there is no need to spend time writing my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will not try to think about changing the views of most people. I know many so-called successful people based on my own life experience. Few people should believe that many of them lives paycheck to paycheck; most of them have terrible investment performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Its_hard_to_get_rich_if_have_the_same_opinions_as_the_mass\"><\/span><strong>It\u2019s hard to get rich if have the same opinions as the mass<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Investment is a profession and has nothing to do with IQ (otherwise the world&#8217;s richest man should be Nobel Prize winners), and it has nothing to do with your educational and economic status. If your opinion is the same as that of most people, it is difficult to get rich by investing. We are investing, not voting. If your opinions are the same as most people, in the end, you will surely buy the same stocks as most people. Of course, the best result is just the market average (usually only worse than the market). This is the eternal truth of stock market investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"192\" height=\"146\" src=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/09\/mohamed_hassan-1600x1200-3.jpg\" alt=\"manager\" class=\"wp-image-14256\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">credit: mohamed_hassan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Business_owners_versus_stock_investors\"><\/span><strong>Business owners versus stock investors<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to prevent readers from misunderstanding my point of view (thanks to reader Ge Ba for giving me the opportunity to explain my point of view in depth), I would like to emphasize once again that this article refers to successful managers and refers to generally salaried managers. The manager is not the owner or major shareholder of the company, and even excludes the management team of a large or listed company (usually these people have a large number of shares). why? Please refer to my other blog article &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/08\/03\/business-owners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Differences between business Owners and stock Investors<\/a>&#8221; for the detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Not_the_stock_that_the_company_grant_to_you\"><\/span>Not the stock that the company grant to you<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me stress one last time, this article is not talking about the stock that the company distributes to the successful people who get rich; Allotment of stocks by the company will of course make successful managers rich. We exclude a very small number of extreme cases of super listed companies, but most of the stocks allotted by their own companies cannot become very rich (please pay attention to my terminology, there is a huge difference between rich and very rich). In short, what we are talking about is not the passive distribution of stocks by companies to successful people, but the active buying of stocks that are not their own companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"block-363b243e-6c12-4245-ac6f-6ad6e4c5766b\"><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\/2025\/12\/04\/fall-to-lower-class\/\">You might unknowingly fall to lower class<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/15\/crowd-get-lost\/\">The crowd tend to lose their judgment and get lost<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/09\/26\/out-of-the-ordinary\/\">How difficult to be out of the ordinary<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/02\/why-the-successful-skills-needed-for-stock-investment-is-opposite-of-successful-workplace-skills\/\">Workplace skills doesn&#8217;t help much in investment<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/07\/why-successful-manager-usually-not-a-good-investor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Why successful manager usually not a good investor?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/18\/companies-they-serve\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Should investors buy stocks in the companies they serve?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/03\/insider-institution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Changes in company insider and institution shareholding ratio<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/08\/03\/business-owners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Differences between business Owners and stock Investors<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/11\/25\/why-people-with-high-iq-prone-invest-failed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Why people with high IQ prone invest failed<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/03\/14\/too-high-iq-is-not-useful-in-investment-but-will-hinder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Too high IQ is not useful in investment, but will hinder<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li> &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/05\/03\/insider-institution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Changes in company insider and institution shareholding ratio<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Disclaimer<\/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>Why successful manager usually not a good investor? I published on my blog a few days ago &#8220;Why the successful skills needed for stock investment is opposite of successful workplace skills?&#8221; The article arouses readers&#8217; recollection. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,68,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-out-of-the-ordinary","category-insight-second-level-thinking","category-investing-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","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=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40516,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/40516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}