AHA! Connections

I love it when I make connections between books. I feel like I’ve made a life-changing discovery whenever it happens. These AHA! moments are like project milestones (shout-out to the PMO Team at Poway); they mark achievement points of my learning and growth process.

My most recent AHA! moment came tonight, between two seemingly unrelated books: Jim Collins’ Built to Last (organizational behavior) and Philip Fisher’s Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits (investing).

If you recall, I made an entry on Built to Last a few weeks back.

In Built to Last, Jim Collins says that a characteristic of a visionary company is that they practice “Genius of the And” (as opposed to the “Tyranny of the Or”). These visionary companies don’t settle for “Or” – they want both, all the time, every time. Visit my previous entry for clarification.

In Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Philip Fisher makes a similar point in his first chapter. In Fisher’s book, he says that a general characteristic of great companies is that it:

“…does not let its preoccupation with long-range planning prevent it from exerting constant vigilance in performing the day-to-day tasks of ordinary business outstandingly well.”

In essence, Philip Fisher is saying that companies are also great investments when they practice the “Genius of the And.”

It goes without saying that I’m very excited to gobble up the rest of Philip Fisher’s book.