Over the past few decades, early sunbathers at the glorious beach at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas might have seen a wiry, determined figure of an aged man power-walking along the shore. Only few would have recognized him as Sir John Templeton, an investor and mutual fund pioneer. Born in Winchester, Tennessee, in 1912, Templeton has amassed a fortune in global stocks and gave away millions to his philanthropic organizations.
However, on July 8, 2008, Templeton missed his early morning walk. Soon, news broke out that the brilliant financial entrepreneur passed away due to pneumonia. He was 95.
Templeton has managed to squeeze a lot of life into his 95 years, and more than half of which was dedicated to finance. He first saw an opportunity in the stock market in 1939, when threats of war coerced the world to sell. Always swimming against the tide, Templeton decided to borrow $10,000 and bought 100 shares each in 104 companies who sold at $1 a share or less. Years later, he made large profits on 100 out of 104. He once again shocked the world in the early 2000s when he sold all his dotcom and Nasdaq tech stocks – but they soon understood why when the market crashed.
Investing lessons from Templeton featured his gutsy investing style and his lack of regard for conventional wisdom. His worldly outlook allowed him to be open-minded; he was not known to follow the Wall Street herd mentality, which made him one of the most successful financial entrepreneurs and analysts of the century. He was able to forecast the future of the market so precisely that he predicted financial chaos to last many years; it was his last testament written in 2005.
Templeton was truly a visionary in so many ways. Even in his passing, his legacy continues to live on in the financial world.
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