RWH059: ASK ME ANYTHING

W/ WILLIAM GREEN

19 July 2025

In this unusually personal and candid episode, William Green answers a wide range of probing questions posed by listeners to his podcast and readers of his book, “Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets & Life.” Here, William discusses the key qualities, principles, and practices he’s observed in the best investors; how they handle adversity; what he’s learned from his own setbacks, failures, and mistakes; and how he’d invest if he were starting over.

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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

  • What were the three best decisions William Green ever made?
  • Why he views indomitable perseverance as the key to success.
  • What Charlie Munger and Bill Miller can teach us about handling adversity.
  • What drives investing stars like Bill Ackman, Will Danoff, and Mario Gabelli.
  • Why the best investors focus on reducing complexity.
  • How to succeed while constructing a calmer, more spacious life.
  • How William approaches the art of interviewing.
  • What he learned when his career (and profession) went up in smoke.
  • What his worst investment mistakes taught him about building wealth.
  • How he’d invest if he were starting over again.
  • How investors can prosper mightily by getting the big things right.

TRANSCRIPT

Disclaimer: The transcript that follows has been generated using artificial intelligence. We strive to be as accurate as possible, but minor errors and slightly off timestamps may be present due to platform differences.

 

[00:00:00] William Green: All right, folks, I’m thrilled to be back with you on the Richer, Wiser, happier podcast. I’m joining you on a beautiful summer day here in New York, and my plan today is to bring you something a little different. For the first time ever, I’m recording a special Ask Me Anything episode. So instead of interviewing a guest, I’m going to answer an array of questions that have been submitted to me by listeners from around the world.

[00:00:24] William Green: Over the last couple of weeks. I received dozens of questions over LinkedIn and X and through email. I also got a slew of terrific questions that were sent by subscribers to the Intrinsic Value Newsletter, which is part of the The Investor’s Podcast Network empire. So thanks a lot to Shawn and Daniel who host The Intrinsic Value Podcast for very kindly gathering those questions from their followers.

[00:00:48] William Green: In any case, I’m going to do my best to answer a good number of questions, but I got so many that I, I’m almost certainly going to save some of them for a future episode of the podcast and of, of course, in my dream version of this episode, I was going to prepare a lot and figure out what I would say first, but of course, I’ve been in a maelstrom of activity the last few weeks, and so I’m going to really just answer questions and see what comes out, and hopefully there’s something in there will be useful for you, or at least it’ll be honest in any case.

[00:01:19] William Green: The first question is from someone called Thomas St. Claire from Fairbanks, Alaska, and Thomas wrote to me. Hi William. You write a lot about others and what has helped them in their journey. What are the three best decisions or investments that you have made in your own life? Well, the first one without any doubt actually, is that I got married really young, really surprisingly young.

[00:01:45] William Green: I met my wife Lauren when I was 22 and I had just come to New York and I was a, a young aspiring journalist. And we went out, both of us on the only ever blind date. We went on and we met at the Museum of Monet. And I think the first date lasted about nine hours and the second date lasted a couple of days.

[00:02:06] William Green: And really within a couple of weeks we moved in together. And when I think, I think we were probably 24, we got engaged. We went to this beautiful restaurant in New York, one if by land, two if by sea. And after I posed the question to my wife as to whether she would marry me. And she realized she’d been letting wax from the candle fall on her hand and burn her hand.

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