I’ve written four books so far. For each, there has been stuff left on the cutting room floor, as they say in film. What happens is, you pass your manuscript around to people you can convince to read it and you collect feedback.
Problematic passages emerge, and then you try to go back and explain things better or just cut it entirely. Even whole chapters sometimes wind up being cut because one or two people flag it with a comment like “I don’t know what this has to do with…” And you suddenly see exactly what they mean. So you cut it, deciding that, while you really wanted to talk about X, it doesn’t have much to do with the main thesis of the book.
Sometimes, I wind up cutting stuff myself -- even before it gets passed around -- just because I think to myself “this doesn’t work.”
For 100 Baggers, I originally had the idea that I would pepper the text with little vignettes on people whose stories shed some light on how to nab a 100 bagger. I love these kinds of stories, especially if not particularly well known. So I had nine of them written and more planned.
Then it occurred to me that, while I thought they were interesting, these stories were distractions to the main ideas of the book. They sometimes didn’t address the core ideas or were just redundant. And they seemed to interrupt the flow. So, I cut them.
Later, while working at Bonner & Partners, I cobbled these vignettes together in a 12-page report and called it -- to make it sound sexy -- “100-Baggers: The Lost Chapter.”
The "Lost Chapter" contained the following stories:
Felix Dennis: How to Get Rich (It’s not how you expect)
J.R. Simplot: Be Willing to Try Anything
Georges Doriot: How to Make 70,000%
Trammell Crow: Own Real Estate
Arthur Dewing: Forget the Fancy Math – Stick with Common Sense
John Laporte: Buy Right and Sit Tight
T. Rowe Price: Look for Out-of-favor Growth
Philip Carret: Be Patient
Benoît Mandelbrot: Forget About Average – Markets are Wild
I don’t agree with everything I wrote here anymore. (I wrote these in 2014). And I could’ve fleshed out some of the stories better. Even so, these are interesting people with some quotable bits and good ideas. But have a look and decide for yourself.
Here is a link to the PDF: The Lost Chapter.
I hope you find it an enjoyable read, if nothing else. Maybe a little inspiration ahead of the holidays.
Thanksgiving is coming up and I have a lot to be thankful for. I want to thank you for reading and for your encouragement to continue writing. I’ve enjoyed sharing ideas and notes with you. And I appreciate you sending me your thoughts and ideas as well.
One more thing: This is the time of the year where I try to take time off for the holidays. I also have to start thinking about my annual letter to my partners. All of which means I write less for the blog. But I’m going to try to get one more blog post out sometime in December to say goodbye to 2020 - and peek ahead to 2021.
Thanks again for reading and Happy Thanksgiving!
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Published November 24, 2020
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