Came across something interesting. Bill Gates turns out to be the biggest victim in history who believed in stock market influencers.

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Microsoft's former CEO, Steve Ballmer, just an employee of Microsoft, actually has a net worth of $160 billion, ranking sixth among the richest people in the U.S. Behind him are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and others.

I was quite surprised. How could an employee's wealth surpass the company's founder? And even outshine the godfather of value investing?

This is really rare. Amazing. So I looked it up.

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This guy started as an ordinary early employee at Microsoft, with no shares when he joined, just a $50K salary + sales commission. He did well in sales (looking back, it was more because the company's products sold themselves, not because he was that great), so when Microsoft went public, the two partners gave him 8% of the shares (Bill Gates held 49% at the time).

Later, this guy became Microsoft's CEO, serving for 14 years with a terrible reputation—pretty much a failure who almost drove Microsoft into the ground. When he retired in 2014, Microsoft's stock surged in celebration.

After retirement, he did nothing. He just held onto his Microsoft shares until now, never selling them. After dilution, he now holds 4%. His assets are 90% Microsoft shares, making him the largest individual shareholder of Microsoft today.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates hired a famous investment expert, equivalent to today's stock market influencers. The influencer kept selling Bill's Microsoft shares, reducing them to just 1%, diversifying his investments into many well-known companies. Bill's current net worth is $150 billion. If he hadn't sold, his net worth would be $1.5 trillion.

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What lessons can we learn?

1. To get rich, you need concentrated, ultra-long-term investments in companies that continuously create insane value. (The hard part: how to find such companies?)

2. Don't trust stock market influencers.

#Thoughts from a Lifetime of Clarity#