Meet the Investor - Alix Pasquet III
Surround yourself with smart people; know your purpose; focus; reflect; take care of your health -nuggets of gold were shared by Alix Pasquet, a grounded and insightful investor. Now you get to learn
The Generation Z Club was honored to have Alix Pasquet III as a guest speaker during their recent "Meet the Investor" session on August 18, 2023. Alix Pasquet boasts an exceptional track record of success in his role as the Managing Partner of Prime Macaya. Under his guidance, the firm has achieved impressive feats and remains a significant driving force in the financial industry. Alix provided an impactful speech and valuable insights shared left a lasting impression. His eloquence and wisdom has added a dynamic touch to the session, making it an enlightening and enjoyable experience for us - we truly enjoyed it.
The insights shared by Alix during the session left a profound impact, offering practical advice that particularly resonated with young investors. The session was an enriching learning experience, providing valuable takeaways centered around the concept of scaling barriers, the strategies to overcome them, and useful tips for emerging investors.
From an investor's standpoint, the overarching objective should be the creation of asset value, with scale playing a pivotal role in achieving this goal. During the session, Alix meticulously outlined ten key barriers that investors can successfully navigate to facilitate the scaling of their funds. These barriers can be conveniently categorized into four distinct "P" elements in my view:
Philosophy: Establishing the right cultural foundation and leveraging structural advantages.
Performance: Identifying promising ideas, generating insightful perspectives, skillful risk management, and diligent performance tracking.
People: Collaborating effectively with investors, analysts, corporate management teams, competitors, and suppliers.
Protocol: Cultivating relationships with PMs, analysts, brokers, optimizing capital costs, identifying advantageous trends, and diversifying strategies.
Drawing inspiration from renowned investment figures like Buffet and Julian, Mr. Pasquet distilled their approaches into five essential "C" factors:
Capital: Skillfully convincing investors to allocate resources to the fund.
Community: Engaging with intelligent individuals within specific communities to facilitate idea exchange and best practice discussions.
Content: Crafting compelling content to engage customers, investors, and talented individuals.
Code: Establishing a robust set of guiding principles, including investment philosophies and methodologies.
Communication: Enhancing communication skills to articulate thoughts effectively through written and verbal means, fostering impactful connections.
Mr. Pasquet also provided invaluable advice, highlighting the importance of mentorship for young investors. This resonated with us, as many students have benefited from mentor relationships as I did when I began my internship journey. Ultimately I formed a mentor relationship with a seasoned Portfolio Manager within my company.
Reflecting on the session, it's evident that self-reflection plays a pivotal role in your life and investor’s journey, as advised by Alix. Utilizing questions such as "What did one accomplish today?" and "What lessons were derived from mistakes?" underscores the importance of introspection. As Alix eloquently stated, "The pinnacle of behaviorism involves using oneself as a counter indicator, rather than exploiting others."
Practical techniques for effective reflection were also shared. Waiting for ego to subside before assessing mistakes, leveraging mentors to uncover blind spots, and revisiting reflections periodically for ongoing growth were among the strategies discussed.
The journey towards establishing a contrarian culture involves openly addressing underperformance. This underscores Alix’s insight that culture is a reflection of actions, not mere words.
In conclusion, the principles of resilience, relentless effort, and embracing uncertainty encapsulate the mindset of investors. This journey entails surrounding oneself with intellectual peers, clarifying goals, maintaining focus, and prioritizing health through fitness and nutrition.
Attached below this article are some takeaways from members of the club. We cannot be more grateful and honoured that Alix chose to spend this time with us.
If you are interested in catching the recording, you may check it out here:
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Ruixiang TAN
CIO, VIP Greater China Chapter
In the entire meeting, there were quite a few exhilarating moments as I cannot believe I am having the chance to talk with Alix Pasquet. As someone who has admired him for the past year since he first appeared online through Frederick video, it is a real pleasure to co-host the session with him. As a result of the Alix meeting, I have numerous takeaways to share, but I will address them according to my priority realizations.
1) Game Selection:
Having read Michael Mauboussin’s book: “The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing” it has become clear to me that when we play a game, there is a LUCK factor and a SKILL factor involved and we need to assess how much impact we can have on the odds. By combining game selection with this concept, I have gained more clarity on the fact that I should play games where I can influence my skills rather than solely relying on their base rates and also asking the most important question whether do I possess more skills to outcompete other players in the game? If not then I should think twice before playing that game.
2) Spiritual Awareness:
As I stated above that game selection plays a pivotal role in individual’s successful career however one needs to have a clear clarity on the things that one can do and one cannot do and by assessing so only one can gets to decide which game they can play at. Rene Girard's Mimetic theory is a real blessing in disguise (thanks to god). Humans have always been imitative over the years and we tend to form a bubble worldview within our own community for relying on external validation and attention so it’s tough to understand oneself deeply. Thus, spiritual awareness allows one to discover what they want, what they are good at, and what not, which helps them decide which games they should play.
Book Suggestion: “Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life” by Luke Burgis
3) Aligning the Incentive Structure:
Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.
~ Charlie Munger
In a couple of circumstances Alix smartly illustrates how he has applied the incentives and trying to capitalize on the benefits out of it.
Content Strategy - $10,000
10 Bagger Challenges - $25,000
As someone who is running a startup I have also used incentive structures carefully and capitalized on the opportunities well. Whenever possible, we should recruit people who are intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically motivated. However, sometimes people prefer extrinsic rewards, so it is wise to have an incentive system in place.
Book Suggestions: “Mixed Signals: How Incentives Really Work” by Uri Gneezy & Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us.
4) A Key Productivity takeaway:
Learning from Mistakes: As someone who gets emotionally involved after any bad experience I often tend to reflect on the mistakes immediately constantly pushing myself to learn from them. However, I ended up hurting myself more, so instead it would be better to learn from the mistakes after some time and carefully assess them so that one approaches them analytically.
5) Possessing a Truth Seeking Culture:
If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.
~ Marcus Aurelius
"The true value of man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth. It is not possession of Truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectability is to be found. Possession makes one passive, indolent and proud. If God were to hold all Truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for Truth, albeit with the proviso that I would always and forever err in the process, and to offer me the choice, I would with all humility take the left hand. "
~ Gotthold Lessing
Alix beautifully emphasized the point that confrontation leads to Truth. The japan 5 why's always occupy my mind, and I think that having an identity hinders us from seeking truth, as truth seeking touches our egos.
For eg: If I conclude myself as a smart person then I may go to any lengths to support my beliefs/views so clearly identity is something we need to avoid at all cost.
For more clarification, one can consider reading Paul Graham’s blog:
http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
6) Answers for my questions regarding Barriers to scale in business, Networks & Updating one’s views regularly:
When explaining barriers to scale, I became interested in content strategy because I find it has a greater impact than anything else. This made me start writing my thought processes online as I read a variety of disciplinary books over the years and observed a consistent pattern among them.
Alix has demystified my perspective where I went on to give importance to updating views post work instead of pre-work research. Therefore, the 5 scenario analysis will be very useful for my analysis: the base case, the bear case, the bad bear case, the bull case and the bonanza branch case.
Networking:
From the biography of Andrew Carnegie:
"The battle of life is already half won by the young man who has brought personally in contact with high officials. And the great aim of every boy should be to do something beyond the sphere of his duties”.
As someone who emphasizes a lot about Networking getting to know about Arnold personal life was amazing I didn’t know that he used networks as his leverage to achieve multiple breakthroughs in his life. I am excited to watch his Netflix series soon.
Conclusion:
“Never underestimate a person with a fast learning loop”
In the future, we hope to have many more sessions with him and I am striving to be the knowledge and truth seeking person where he can think about introducing me to my idol Charlie Munger.
Mouli RAJ
Deputy CIO, VIP Southeast Asia Chapter
Attending the Meet the Investor session with Alix Pasquet was an illuminating experience that provided me with valuable insights into the concept of Barriers to Scale. Alix adeptly conveyed the significance of these barriers not only for businesses but also for investors. I was surprised to learn that both can face more barriers to scale problems rather than barriers to entry, leading to bottlenecks that hinder progress. What resonated with me was Alix's articulation of the tipping point where various resource limitations start impeding breakthroughs.
Alix's personal anecdotes also added a layer of authenticity to the discussion. His use of tools like Trello to monitor his own growth, along with his emphasis on networking to facilitate synergistic encounters, highlighted the practicality of his approach. His inclination towards creating meaningful content to foster deeper connections among individuals struck me as a testament to his holistic understanding of growth and what it means to contribute and be a real member of the investing community.
Another aspect of his sharing that stood out was Alix's unique perspective derived from his passion for Backgammon. Drawing parallels between the strategic thinking required in the game and the identification of investment opportunities showcased his adeptness at translating skills from one realm to another. His ability to discern behavioral patterns in opponents and leverage them for advantageous positions, especially when it comes to short investments, demonstrated a remarkable synthesis of diverse knowledge domains.
Overall, Alix's discussion not only shed light on the crucial concept of Barriers to Scale but also underscored the importance of adaptable strategies, personal growth tracking, meaningful networking, and cross-disciplinary insights. His candid sharing of experiences and lessons provided a refreshing take on navigating challenges and making informed decisions, leaving a lasting impression on my perspective and inspiring me to think about life, beyond investing, in a more strategic and critical manner. Alix is a joy to listen and engage with and I am so glad he agreed to come speak with us!
我有幸参加了Z Club与Alix Pasquet的交谈会，为我提供了很多有关规模障碍这一概念的宝贵见解。Alix巧妙地传达了这些障碍的重要性，不仅对于企业，还对于投资者们。原来，两者都可能面临更多规模障碍问题，而不仅仅面临进入或者开始的壁垒。规模上不达到一些条件或者具有一些资源导致了阻碍进展的瓶颈。
Alix的个人轶事也为讨论增添了一层真实性。他使用Trello等工具来监控自己的成长，以及他强调网络建设以促进协同遭遇，突显了他方法的实用性。他倾向于创造有意义的内容来促进个人之间更深层次的联系，对我来说，这是他对成长的整体理解的证明，也是对于为投资社区做出贡献和成为真正成员意义的证明。
他分享的另一个引人注目的方面是，他基于对双陆棋的热情所获得的独特观点。他在游戏中所需的战略思维与识别投资机会之间的相似之处，展示了他将技能从一个领域转化到另一个领域的能力。他能够辨别对手的行为模式，并利用它们获得有利的位置，尤其是在短期投资方面，展示了对多样知识领域的卓越综合。
总体而言，Alix的讨论不仅启发了我们关于规模障碍这一重要概念的认识，还强调了适应性战略、个人成长跟踪、有意义的网络建设以及跨学科洞察的重要性。他坦率分享经验和教训，为大家如何应对挑战和做出明智决策提供了一种清新的视角，给我留下了深刻印象，并激发我更加战略和批判性地思考人生决策，超越了投资范畴。Alix是一个令人愉悦的演讲者和对话者，我很高兴他同意来与我们交流！
Rebecca YANG
CIO, VIP Southeast Asia Chapter