Anecdote◆Audio · 23:42 — 26:09
The most important truths are often hiding in plain sight — not because they are obscure, but because they are quiet, familiar, and easy to pass by — and finding them requires the same consecrated attention that led a treasure hunter to recover a pirate ship that had sat undiscovered for 250 years.
Begg connects his childhood fascination with a recovered pirate ship to his investment philosophy: the ship sat hidden in plain sight for centuries, and finding it required deep, patient research — exactly the process he applies to find mispriced, exceptional businesses. ✦ AI generated
Christopher Begg · We Study Billionaires · 2026-07-26 · original ↗
plays this moment only · 23:42 — 26:09
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“The letter gets at this really important overarching theme. It's all about things that are hiding in plain sight. Can you talk about that theme and about how you relate it to this pirate ship, a treasure ship from your childhood?”
I reflected back to my senior year in high school, and I had probably my favorite teacher of all time, Mick Carlin. My father's best friend, Barry Clifford, had discovered the only recovered pirate ship about in 1984. And it'd be kind of part of the family, right? Like listening to the stories of this pirate ship. And of course, as a young boy, there's nothing of a better story than a found pirate ship. And he found it right off of Wellfleet. It was literally not far from where we kind of grew up surfing. And to think that this treasure was under the water hiding in plain sight. So the letter was kind of a reflection on that history. My love really started my love of research and to realize that if you worked with something long enough with the research, you can actually arrive at an insight or a treasure in the case of what Barry found. And I find that that's kind of what we do every day. If we're really kind of looking across this wide field of investment opportunities to try to understand what is being, what's hiding there? What is that exceptional business that for some reason is being ignored and therefore the valuation gives us an opportunity to earn above market returns over a long period of time.
verbatim transcript · starts at 23:42
- ·Barry Clifford discovered the only recovered pirate ship in 1984
- ·The wreck sat right off Wellfleet, near where Begg grew up surfing
- ·For 250 years, the treasure was hiding in plain sight
- ·Deep, sustained research can yield insights others miss
- ·Exceptional businesses are often ignored and therefore mispriced
- ·The goal: above-market returns over long periods
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In practice · 2
Sir John Templeton pioneered international investing by seeing in Japan what he saw in America — the same industrious nature, work ethic, and high savings rate — and he did the hard research nobody else would do.Lauren Templeton · We Study Billionaires · conf 80%The world is full of hidden business opportunities hiding in plain sight—bizarre niche enterprises like conveyor belt tread manufacturing, blue dye production, and soybean oil verification that most people never consider.Speaker 1 · My First Million · conf 70%