Edward Quince's Wisdom Bites: Nomads and Motorcycles: The Equilibrium of the Long Haul

 If you spend any time on this blog, you know my mantra: Patience never trends on X. The market screams, "Don't just sit there, do something!". But the real wisdom, as we’ll see, is that sitting still is often the highest form of action.

The Nomad Investment Partnership attributed their success, in part, to the "aggregate patience of its Partners", achieving phenomenal results simply by making money "sitting on their assets". Their strategy centers on owning shares for "very long periods," consciously minimizing "more frequent or detailed reporting" which they viewed as unnecessary and even counterproductive. They recognized the profound power of compounding, noting that the only factor in the compound interest equation that is exponential is 'n' (time). In other words, patience isn’t just a virtue—it’s the variable.

Now, consider Pirsig's instruction for climbing a mountain:

"You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you're no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn't just a means to an end but a unique event in itself."

This equilibrium mirrors the disciplined patience required for long-term investing. The restless desire to constantly buy and sell is often just noise. The true path requires finding a balance—not hyperactivity, nor total inertia—but a steady, measured pace. When you detach from the destination (the future price target) and focus on the process (the quality of the current decision, the soundness of the company), the journey transforms.

The great investor Charlie Munger summarized this perfectly, saying, "The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting". This aligns perfectly with the Nomad approach, where longevity and avoiding unnecessary interruptions to compounding are cardinal rules.

The Financial Takeaway:

Your primary competitive advantage isn't being brilliant—it's outlasting the rest. The Nomad founders, recognizing that they operated in a probabilistic field, focused intensely on process over outcome and understood the crucial role of time. Trying to maximize every move or react to every headline breaks that equilibrium. As Mr. Miyagi warned, 'Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later—get squish just like grape.' The same applies to investors.. Adopt the philosophy: "No hurry, no pause".