"Outside Zebras and Rogue Dolphins!"......are very similar creatures! LOL!
And in dollar terms, Wanger did even better...
Thanks to the miracle of compounded interest, he made over seven times more money than the average fund manager on Wall Street for more than a quarter of a century. And he eloquently describes in his book, A Zebra in Lion Country, he did it by mimicking the behavior of the "Outside Zebra" in the wild.
Zebras that reside on the outside of the herd are calculated risk takers. They know there is always a chance a lion could pounce out of the bush, wrap his gigantic paws around their neck and fatally sink his fangs into their jugular.
But the allure of lush green grass, fresh water and the cool breeze is worth the risk of an attack. You see...
Zebras that stay in the middle of the herd, the inside zebras (read: 99% of all fund managers in the world), are scared creatures. They don't want be eaten by a lion. So they cower around hundreds of their closest friends. It's a good strategy to stay alive. Problem is...
The inside zebras tend to be thin - gaunt even. The grass they graze on has been trampled on by hundreds of other zebras. What little there is to eat is up for grabs by the entire pack.
For the zebra, every move it makes is a calculated risk. And the same is true for investors. The question you have to ask yourself is, can you handle the risk of being an outside zebra investor? Or are you satisfied with the gaunt returns of an inside investor?
Wanger decided early on in his career he was an outside investor through and through.
Rogue
