Li Lu talk at Columbia

Josh shared some notes from a Li Lu (Himalaya Capital) talk at Columbia. He asked that the notes not be distributed, so this is, for the record, the top take aways from his notes:
1. "Some of my biggest early winners were from value line" (in addition to the usual list of business readings). So that makes him, Joel Greenblatt and Pabrai. (Greenblatt uses Valueline in an example in his You Can Be A Stockmarket Genius book - along with the Beardstown Ladies!) Just checked the web and pricing is $500-1000 per year.
2. Deathcare as an industry with promising returns
3. "I worked as an associate in banking at DLJ for one year then started Himalaya. The best way to learn is to make the mistakes yourself. I started with my own money and a few others."
4. "A good way to tell if an industry is good is to look at the most brilliant successes and most miserable failures. If the most miserable failures are still okay, that’s probably a pretty good industry."

#4 might be a good exercise with any industry, such as railroad car manufacturing...