“You are right not because others agree with you, but because your facts and reasoning are sound.—Benjamin Graham
In The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success, author William N. Thorndike profiles eight unconventional CEOs whose firm average returns outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of twenty—in other words, an investment of $10,000 with each of these CEOs, on average, would have been worth over $1.5 million twenty-five years later. Thorndike referred to these unconventional, radically rational chief executives as “The Outsiders.”
As a group, these CEOs faced the inherent uncertainty of the business world with a patient, rational, pragmatic opportunism, not a detailed set of strategic plans.
