The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks
The book The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks is a book about investing. However, the essence of the moral of the story is this: You cannot be above average by being the consensus. Being the consensus or taking the consensus view you will only become or earn average. In order to be above average you must take the non-consensus view or do non-consensus things... But this is not enough, you must also be RIGHT about your non-consensus view or actions. Taking a non-consensus view or action and being wrong will take you below average. For example: you want to drive to get Downtown. If you want to get there at an average time, then take the average route — the route that everyone else takes. However, the only way you can get there faster than everyone else is if you take the non-consensus route — a hopeful shortcut. However, if you do take the non-consensus route, you also have to be right about it being faster (it better be a shortcut and not a long cut). If you're wrong about the s