Joe Mansueto Quotes

103 Joe Mansueto Quotes (Joe D Mansueto, Morningstar)

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I’m not the most visionary person in the world, but I’m very persistent. I’ll keep going at something until I get it right.
Joe Mansueto

Find your passion.
Joe Mansueto

Once you’ve found what you’re passionate about, then lock down.
Joe Mansueto

A common quality of successful investors is the steadfast ability to think independently.
Joe Mansueto

Without values, you don’t have wealth, just money.
Joe Mansueto

I really think in business you get rewarded for boldness.
Joe Mansueto

[On reading the Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett) annual report soon after reading ‘The Money Masters’ by John Train shortly after graduating from business school.] It was an epiphany.
Joe Mansueto

Simplicity is a virtue in investing.
Joe Mansueto

Look for companies that have high returns on capital, strong balance sheets, sustainable competitive advantages and shareholder-oriented management.
Joe Mansueto

Businesses lacking moats have often failed to create value for shareholders over time.
Joe Mansueto



Many people invest by reacting…
Joe Mansueto

Being wealthy is about being productive, giving to others, serving society, and creating a legacy. Perhaps, most important, though, it’s about taking the risks and responsibilities necessary to manage one’s assets and teach one’s children to do the same.
Joe Mansueto

Wealth… is a tool to help people across generations live more productive and fulfilling lives, and to be good citizens. To me, that’s a more exciting and fulfilling proposition than merely worrying about being able to buy your next yacht.
Joe Mansueto

You have to view equity as a precious commodity.
Joe Mansueto

[On being an entrepreneur.] You need a vision. And you need coupled with that a real drive and determination.
Joe Mansueto

In school, you get a limited view of the world.
Joe Mansueto

I love to read.
Joe Mansueto

I’m a magazine junkie.
Joe Mansueto

I didn’t come from a business family. Both of my parents were in the medical field.
Joe Mansueto

I think entrepreneurs can be born or it can be learned.
Joe Mansueto



You need to have some vision of what you want to achieve, and to really have a lot of ambition, and perseverance and energy to make that vision a reality. And then to be really able to ride out the inevitable ups and downs that come along with any new venue.
Joe Mansueto

I really believe a business works better when you carve up a business into smaller discrete units that have a focus, that have someone overseeing that business unit and has the responsibility and all the resources they need to drive it forward.
Joe Mansueto

[At Morningstar.] We try not to have a lot of Mickey Mouse policies or bureaucratic procedures… [Eg.] We don’t have an official vacation or sick day policy… We try to treat people as adults.
Joe Mansueto

[In March 1989] If more than one person picks stocks or a [mutual] fund follows no particular rationale, there’s no basis on which to judge future performance.
Joe Mansueto

[In October 1994] It feels a little awkward for me to talk about myself. I feel more comfortable talking about the company.
Joe Mansueto

[In October 1994] I hung around with a lot of geeks, people who were very good in math and science. I kind of like those people.
Joe Mansueto

I think I spent a good deal of my time in my twenties just thinking about that very question: What are good businesses and what are bad businesses?
Joe Mansueto

[On having a sharp pain in his chest – later diagnosed as pericarditis on the same day that he made a marriage proposal.] Correlation is not necessarily causation. We make that point in our fund analyses all the time.
Joe Mansueto

[In October 1994] One of the pleasures of my work is reinventing my role continuously.
Joe Mansueto

[In October 1994] I really think in business you get rewarded for boldness… If you can do something bold, all of a sudden you’re on a different plane. It’s important to keep doing that. That’s the fun of doing this.
Joe Mansueto



[In 1997] I’m not one to enjoy sitting in meetings. What I’m good at, and what I like, is the entrepreneurial side, going from nothing to more than $30 million in annual sales.
Joe Mansueto

[In 1997] The 5-star rating is a double-edged sword. It’s a valid way of evaluating funds on a risk-adjusted methodology to find those that have achieved the best returns for a given level of risk. It ferrets out all-weather funds that have done consistently well. But it get abused when people think of it as the be-all and end-all. Consider it a nice entry point to a whole host of items to look at, but definitely not the end point.
Joe Mansueto

[On finding Warren Buffett as a new graduate.] I found an approach to investing that made enormous sense to me: rigorously analyzing a company's fundamentals, understanding exactly how it makes money, developing a view on the business's future prospects, and deciding if it's a good business. You might think, well, that's so logical. Doesn't everybody do that? But part of Buffett's genius is simplifying business.
Joe Mansueto

[In July 1999 on investing.] You wait for the perfect pitch- and then you hit it out of the park.
Joe Mansueto

[In July 1999] When you start a business that gives you customers' money up front, it sharply reduces your ongoing capital needs to grow the business.
Joe Mansueto

[In July 1999] I… learned it's best to hire people you admire and want to be around.
Joe Mansueto

[In 2000 on his management style.] My approach is that I want to work on a collegial basis with people… My management style is certainly not the ‘General Patton, barking out the orders, this is how it is going to be, you will follow these marching instructions’ style… It is tyring to get the best out of people by encouraging them and letting the ideas win out… I don’t want to abuse my position. I want to work as part of a turned-on team. I am a delegator. I like to give people a lot of autonomy.
Joe Mansueto

[In September 2001 on Morningstar] The mission is to help all investors all the time.
Joe Mansueto

[In September 2001] Stock people tend to be more rabid about the need for information. We’re going up against strong competition.
Joe Mansueto

[In September 2001] I’d rather see us have 250,000 at 100 bucks than 100,000 people [Value Line’s current number of subscribers] at 500 bucks.
Joe Mansueto



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