'mindset' is an interesting concept that's worth exploring further.
Various motivation books would have you believe that positive thinking and imagining your goals are the main parts of it.
Reading about Buffet (Lowenstein: The Making of an American Capitalist) has convinced me there's much more involved than the rah rah stuff.
Rather, a mindset conducive to consistent and sustained capital accumulation appears to be based on at least the following three traits:
1. The cultivation of a certain disposition and temperament. This is closely related to character and is automatic or instinctive. It can include a respect for capital and thriftfulness, and if consistently carried out could even be considered eccentric or obsessive by 'ordinary' people.
2. Courage. In this I don't mean the 'mortgage your house and borrow $1m variety'. Rather it has two components - to resist peer pressure when the hype is screaming 'buy buy buy!' (at insane prices) and to buy at times when everyone else is fearful.
3. Training to assess value in an asset. Especially value that others miss or turn their nose up at. Value does not always mean cheap - something others perceive as expensive could actually be worth more. And conversely cheap can sometimes work out good. 'You get what you pay for' might not always hold since the saying assumes a perfect market which doesn't really exist, and it is market imperfection that creates opportunity.
Peter
