"He internalized an important lesson that would stay with him forever: **The market was inherently unpredictable and often vicious—only the rational and disciplined mind could hope to profit from it**. Speculation led to disaster, he realized, and he needed to always ignore the “mad crowd” and its inclinations. [[John D. Rockefeller|Rockefeller]] immediately put those insights to use. **At twenty-five, a group of investors offered to invest approximately $500,000 at his direction if he could find the right oil wells in which to deploy the money.** Grateful for the opportunity, [[John D. Rockefeller|Rockefeller]] set out to tour the nearby oil fields. A few days later, he shocked his backers by returning to Cleveland empty-handed, not having spent or invested a dollar of the funds. T**he opportunity didn’t feel right to him at the time, no matter how excited the rest of the market was—so he refunded the money** and stayed away from drilling." ([Location 278](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX49OS4&location=278)) --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[investments]], [[fooled-by-randomness]], [[joy-of-missing-out]], [[action-bias]], **Source** -- [[202409180132 - B - The Obstacle is the Way]]