Here are some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made as an investor.

1/ Underestimating the competitive response to successful product introductions, leading me to extend current revenue and earnings growth into the future. Most innovation is easily replicable.

2/ Over-relying on management’s guidance or forecasts instead of doing my own 360 degree research - seeking input from customers, suppliers, competitors.

3/ Underestimating the power of brand leverage - extending powerful product franchises into new categories especially by competitors of a stock I own.

4/ Underestimating cannibalization - incorrectly assessing the negative impact of new product intros on a company’s existing base of products.

5/ Betting too much on a CEO’s abilities to turn around a franchise based on his/her past record of success.

6/ Overpaying for a mature business or franchise. I’ve rarely made money paying an outsized multiple relative to forward revenue or earnings growth (>4x PEG).

7/ Ignoring repeated negative earnings revisions. Sometimes a company misses numbers and earnings come down. But if it’s a pattern that keeps repeating, beware.

I try to incorporate these learnings into my current research disciplines so I don’t make the same mistakes over and over. As an investor you’re doing well if you get 60% of your bets right. With the 40% of bets I get wrong, I try to learn from them.