Intelligent Fanatics Project

Book excerpt: How does a great company sustain and grow profits for decades? Many people are familiar with Warren Buffett's analogy of a moat: various defenses to thwart competition. But moats are fleeting; they are here today and gone tomorrow. The more important question is, who builds and maintains moats? Intelligent fanatics do. These leaders build high-performance organizations that can dominate for decades. Intelligent Fanatics Project looks at the stories of eight intelligent fanatics who built dominant and enduring businesses. A $1,000 investment with each of these intelligent fanatics would, on average, have been worth $3.4 million thirty-seven years later--a 24.6% compounded annual return. They operated in a wide array of industries, in different time periods, on different continents, and against different economic backdrops, yet their leadership styles, strategies, corporate cultures, and values were similar. Intelligent fanatics are what every entrepreneur aspires to be and what every long-term investor dreams of finding and investing in early. Sean Iddings and Ian Cassel examine the common traits of these intelligent fanatics, to help both the investor and the entrepreneur generate extraordinary returns.