The Investment U E-Letter
Friday, May 30, 2003
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The Best Book of 2003
Around the World with Jim Rogers
By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud
President, Investment U
Jim Rogers is the real deal. And his just-released book Adventure Capitalist will turn out to be one of the most important investment books of 2003… and 2004… and 2005… and…
The basic story is about Jim's car trip through 116 countries over three years. But the benefit to you and me is the wealth of investment knowledge imparted, which will pay us dividends for years to come.
While the cost of this book is around $25, Jim should instead be selling it to professional investors for $25,000 or more. The value of what it can mean to your investing success-and your bottom line-is priceless. There is no more knowledgeable international investor on the planet. You really couldn't pay for stuff this good anywhere else.
Dinner With Jim
In my career, I've found that most "big name" investors don't live up to their hype. Jim lives up to it, and then some. He came from a town in Alabama so small, his phone number was only one digit. From there he - along with George Soros - went on to create the greatest long-term investment track record in history by running the Quantum Fund. And they, of course, both became extraordinarily wealthy in the process.
I first met Jim Rogers many years ago at a private black-tie dinner in New Orleans. There were about 25 of us there, mostly speakers at the New Orleans Investment Conference. I was a fan of Jim's first book, Investment Biker , and I was really looking forward to getting to talk with him.
He arrived at the dinner with a beautiful girl (maybe half his age), and he took a seat. I watched and waited, but nobody took the seat next to him. After quite awhile, I noticed that the chair next to Jim was still empty. So I went ahead and took it. Good thing for me that he wasn't particularly interested in his date… We spent the next few hours talking about the world and investing.
I challenged him and tested him. I didn't care if we agreed or disagreed. What I was interested in was the clarity of his thought process… Was he as great a thinker as his track record suggests? After the long dinner I'd say that Jim was as real as it gets, and that if you're going against him in a trade, you'd better be pretty darn sure of yourself.
What You'll Get
The car trip in the book was itself astounding… Who drives into Myanmar? Well, Jim does. (Indeed, Jim was the first foreigner to cross over the border into Myanmar since World War II.) Outer Mongolia? Jim. An Iranian island? Jim. Jim's stories are outstanding… from eating snake (many times), to stopping at a Christian church in China (think about that one for a second), to the chase for his South American broker who ran off with his money a dozen years before, you'll be stunned and laughing out loud at the same time. The conclusions and investment discoveries Jim comes to are surprising as well. Thumbs down on investing in Russia and India, for example, regardless of natural resources or technology skills. Thumbs up on China, Uruguay, Mongolia and Tanzania. I'm not joking. How about the major places, like Europe and the States, or the major themes, like the dollar and oil prices? He calls it like he sees it every time, with some controversial opinions. Read the book to find out. After reading so many financial books, if only one page of a book is unique or interesting, or sparks an idea, that book is a worthy read. This book however is exceptional - it sparks an idea or teaches you something new at least every other page. Read it, and you'll not only be a better investor, you'll learn more about the world than you've ever learned in one sitting. Don't miss this one. Good Investing,
Steve
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