Well this is not really about contrarian investing. It is about different type of investing….

• do not worry about benchmarks – they mean NOTHING. For a fund like TIGF and I Pru Discovery for example which are contrarian – or value investors – there CANNOT be a benchmark.
• chasing a date makes NO SENSE. Why companies or funds chase returns on 30th June or 31 March makes no sense
• In search of excellence, only excellence should matter NOT what it did on which date
• asset allocation should just be an indicator and not a RIGID boundary
• the biggest wealth destroyer that I have seen is EGO
• you will be stunned by the number of failures Vee Cees make while investing
• more Vee Cees have destroyed wealth because of ego than CEOs have destroyed wealth
• the no. of bad businesses funded by Vee Cees is HUGE
• incentives drive people to action – see how your advisor is rewarded and who is doing it
• fees is just one portion of a professional’s income – and that is a chilling fact
• constantly chasing alpha makes an investor chase rainbows
• earning 14% on 80% of your portfolio for 40 years makes far greater money than earning 24% on 20% of your portfolio for 10 yrs
• you have NO choice but to do mega sips
• Goal based Investing – is the ONLY way to go
• Brilliant idiots who cannot suffer others rarely build good teams
• Nice, successful companies and products are because of teams not one IDIOT who can talk well or make good ppt
• Most software companies end up wanting to be like Infosys – and look awesome in their PPT
• Looking good on PPT means NOTHING if you cannot translate that into action
• good companies fail fast, fail a lot, but keep learning
• if your team cannot learn from failures, dismantle your company
• can your team LEARN faster than your competition?
• does your company REWARD managers who recommend abandoning products?
• do you create products for your ego or do you talk to the clients too?
• if a product cannot be described in 20 words, make the product and show the prototype
• do not make free samples – triers hardly commit
• if it is good enough just to be given free, chances are people will not buy
• involve your staff and their families – helps to be together in bad times
• have very stong deadlines, grit, and ruthless abandoning skills

all these are imp whether you are investing as an individual, Vee Cee, or as a banker. Remember the Vee cee and banker are losing other’s money.