Arnold Vandenberg is CEO and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Century Management. He was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and lived on the same street as Anne Frank (author of “Annie’s Diary”). When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands and began hunting down Jews, Arnold’s parents were taken to concentration camps separately, while he grew up in an orphanage. After barely finishing high school, Arnold taught himself investing without any college education or formal training, and overcame adversity to achieve excellence in investing. Instead of focusing on Arnold’s investment philosophy, this podcast dives into how he changed his life by taking control of his own thoughts, achieving a life that transcends material possessions, and what we can learn from him.
A brief summary of the podcasts that have benefited me a lot:
1. Arnold was able to escape being sent to a concentration camp thanks to the help of a 17-year-old girl. Following the instructions of her pastor dad, the girl risked her life being discovered by the Nazis to get Arnold on the escape train. In the days to come, Arnold was always puzzled by the actions of the father and daughter. What kind of power could allow others to lend a helping hand to strangers, or even sacrifice their own lives? 25 years later, Arnold found out after consulting a psychiatrist. The doctor said, “If your principles are more important than your life, you will sacrifice your life. If your life is more important than your principles, you will sacrifice your principles” . It was the devout faith of the father and daughter that made them believe in helping others no matter what the circumstances.
2. After Arnold learned about the power of faith, he was deeply involved in religious studies. He talked with rabbis, talked with priests, studied the prophecies of the Bible, studied Buddhism, etc. But he found that various religions and beliefs are full of contradictions. Who is right and who is wrong? One day, something suddenly flashed in Arnold’s mind, and he suddenly realized that entangled in right and wrong is actually on the wrong track. Everything in the world is extremely complicated, and there is no simple black and white judgment standard. If you focus on the pursuit of truth, you can better understand reality. The pursuit of truth also became Arnold’s later life code and investment philosophy, helping him achieve a series of successes.
3. Arnold’s parents were survivors of concentration camps. His mother may have been mentally stimulated, always instilling to the four brothers, “It’s okay to get married, but never have children.” None of the four boys had biological children of their own. But Arnold was not satisfied with the status quo and always wanted to have a biological child, so he spent five or six years trying to get pregnant and tried all methods, but there was no result. In desperation, Arnold tried hypnotherapy, and it was at that time that he realized that his mother’s words had been deeply imprinted in his subconscious, causing his body to cooperate with the idea of ”don’t have children”. After psychotherapy, Arnold finally got rid of this shackle and had his own daughter. We are often unaware of how the education and the words of others we receive at a young age can shape our thinking and even become a stumbling block to our goals. You’ve probably heard a lot of cases where people who couldn’t have children, once adopted, soon became pregnant with their own children, obviously it was psychological fear and a sense of deprivation that prevented them from having what they wanted. Everything, see how strong the mind is, it can even prevent you from having a child.
4. Arnold and his wife once met a flower and herb shop on the way to visit their parents. He wanted to buy something for his parents, so he began to smell this and pick out the plants he liked. Just as he smelled a plant, tears suddenly poured out of his eyes, Arnold had no idea what was going on, and his back started to hurt. Arnold struggled to get into the car and went to his parents’ house. He knew that there must be something psychologically wrong to have this tearful and physically aching condition. He borrowed his parents’ bedroom and started to think about it, when he realized that the smell of the plant was what he used to eat in the orphanage as a child. At that time, the orphanage was not able to provide food for the children under the war, so people often went to the wild to pick plants to eat, and this plant was what Arnold often ate. Realizing this, Arnold did a relaxing meditation session and after 10 minutes he stopped crying and the pain in his back was relieved. Many encounters in our childhood will leave a deep imprint on our subconscious, and most of them will reveal to us some facts that are actively or passively covered up through physical symptoms. At this time, we need the ability to face happiness or sorrow. the fact that liberates the ego from memory.
5. After Arnold’s father was taken to the concentration camp, because he was strong enough to work, he was not sentenced to death immediately, but was dragged to do hard labor. His father’s working environment was extremely harsh. He often marched with heavy loads in sub-zero weather for 24 hours without food. At that time, the snow fell below the knees. Many people died of severe cold and malnutrition. on the marching road. Arnold’s dad told Arnold that he never thought about how hungry or cold he was, but focused on his legs because he knew that as long as he kept walking, there would be hope for life. When one is so focused, a tremendous amount of energy is generated instead. If he thought at that time that he was going to walk for 24 hours in this situation, there was no possibility of his life at all, and his rational mind would definitely deny this crazy move. But once you focus your attention on your legs, just think about the things that are moving around in front of you, and have nothing else to do, you will naturally persevere.
6. Arnold was forced to be separated from his parents when he was young. When he was young, he always felt that his parents had abandoned him on his own initiative, which caused him to have extremely low self-esteem and feel that he was worthless. At the same time, due to malnutrition during his growth, his body and brain development were also affected. Not only was he much shorter than his peers, but his academic performance in school was also unsatisfactory. So he chose the rope climbing project to keep fit. There were five people in the team. The first four people climbed the 25-foot rope in about 6 seconds, while Arnold was 8.6 seconds. His teammates were ashamed to be with him. But Arnold did not give up. He learned from the coach that someone in other schools could control the time within 4.6 seconds because of different techniques, so Arnold went to observe and imitated the practice in front of the mirror every night in the middle of the night. In half a year, Arnold won the championship with this new technique. Arnold’s counter-attack secret may have something to do with hard practice, but more importantly, he first mentally visualized the scene where he won the championship. Arnold later recalled that when he first saw the man crawling out of a 4.6-second time with a new technique, he was full of excitement for no reason and was captivated, and at the same time his mind was filled with excitement. A scene of his own victory emerges. Although no one believed at the time that Arnold could win the championship, he did. The single most important thing in our life is your beliefs. Your beliefs govern your feelings, your feelings create your attitudes, and your attitudes shape your reality. Arnold’s psychiatrist later told him that his belief-building method was widely used in sports psychology, and that great athletes first imagine themselves winning a championship or breaking a record, then focus on the action to achieve the goal, and don’t look back. Believing in this vision is the secret of their success.
7. Arnold’s investing knowledge was entirely self-taught, he learned from Benjamin Graham and his mom about buying bargains and buying in bulk. He realized that the key to picking stocks was disciplined buying of bargains, especially the bottom-hunting behavior that made Arnold rich in 1979 when the U.S. stock market crashed. And now, he is optimistic about oil and mineral energy stocks that everyone looks down on, rather than touching hot technology stocks.
8. Arnold admits he spent far more time building Century Management Financial Advisors than anyone else. No matter what difficulties he encountered, Arnold always had the belief that the company would succeed, and his subconscious had been guiding him to find the right people and enter the right environment. Sir Arthur Eddington, an astrophysicist equal to Einstein, once said, “I believe that the mind has the power to influence groups of atoms, even to be regulated by the probabilities of atomic behavior. The course of the world is also Not determined by the laws of physics, but may be altered by the will of man.” This means that your thoughts can affect the people and environment around you, and the entire world and universe. It’s no secret that many quantum physicists are now proving what our subconscious mind can do. Once you understand this, you can act under the guidance of your subconscious mind and you will be directed to the right circumstances to create success. Everyone is the architect of their own destiny, and every experience or situation in our lives, poor or rich, success or failure, health or disease, is the result of goal setting in our minds and actions we take. . We need to use our innate creative powers to make mental cues or plan a blueprint, to subconsciously engrave the dream we want to achieve, and to create the conditions in our mind to achieve our goal.
9. When Arnold was reading Barron’s, he was drawn to a picture of an investor wearing a three-piece suit standing confidently at his desk. Arnold immediately drew a picture in his mind. An identical image, and the protagonist is himself. Unexpectedly, a magazine invited Arnold to write an article. After reading the article written by Arnold, they thought his personal story was also very interesting, so they made a request for an exclusive interview with Arnold, and also invited a professional photographer. The teacher took pictures of Arnold, and in this way, Arnold became the cover character, and his cover photo was exactly the same as what he imagined at the time, even the shadow on his face was not bad at all.
10. Anyone who has studied the subconscious mind knows that the language of the subconscious mind is completely different from the language of the conscious mind. We need to communicate with the subconscious mind through images, smells and sensations. Many advertisements implant information into our subconscious through repeated visual stimuli. Although we think such advertisements are stupid and uninteresting, the subconscious remembers them and subtly affects our purchasing behavior. Many people who are losing weight, eat a little unhealthy food and fall into deep self-blame. They feel that their failure to lose weight is because they have not insisted on controlling their diet. In fact, it is our self-blame that affects this process. The subconscious signal is that we should get punished. What we need to do is change negative thoughts and enjoy food with joy. Why do some people look at eating and drinking every day, but still maintain a beautiful body, because they signal to the subconscious that these foods can bring me happiness and bring me a beautiful body, not worry, oh my Getting fat again. We can reprogram our subconscious mind, especially redefining the negative discourses we received in childhood.
11. Whenever there is a negative thought, Arnold never lets it take root. He begins by replacing it with a positive thought, telling himself, “I am happy, healthy, rich, and wise.” Whenever you do something, first set a goal, and then imagine the picture in your mind after the goal is achieved. This goal must be very specific, so that you can focus on it. Imagine you have a magnifying glass, and pointing it at the sun will burn the paper, and the same goes for the human mind. Set a goal, visualize it, focus on it, put it into action, and believe it is possible.
12. When you are hungry and thirsty, your instinct will tell you that you need to eat and drink. The same is true of the subconscious mind. Once your subconscious mind knows your goal, it will act instinctively. You don’t have to force yourself to work. Instead, you will be excited to make relevant actions, because you will realize that this is not Useless work, but the only way to achieve goals. A great dance teacher once said, “I don’t accept people who want to dance, I only accept people who have to dance.” When you realize you have no choice but to dance, you go all out with amazing energy and drive.
13. The outside world doesn’t matter because it’s all a reflection of your state of consciousness. What matters is what is inside you, because everything is reflected outward accordingly.
14. Andrew Carnegie once said, “I don’t feel sorry for the poor boys of this world, but I feel sorry for the rich boys because they are deprived of a drive to achieve a career”. Pain creates insight. Arnold wants to tell all the suffering listeners to think about what is causing your pain, and then think about what you can do to draw a picture in your mind that can alleviate the pain and start working towards it. When you work toward your goals, you create inner happiness. Abraham Lincoln had a saying, “When I do good things, I feel good; when I do bad things, I feel bad. That’s what I believe in”. Trust your feelings, live your life the right way, and you’ll feel better. And when you feel better, you experience pleasure instead of pain.
Recommended reading
- The Genie Within by Harry Carpenter
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- The Path to Prosperity by James Allen
This article is reprinted from: https://www.camelliayang.com/blog/william-green-arnold-van-den-berg
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