A Glass Eye
Mike Burry saw the world differently. For one, he had a glass eye due to childhood cancer.
As a result, growing up, he hated face-to-face interaction.
He blamed his eye for having poor nonverbal cues.
He often had awkward interactions.
When he played sports, if he got hit in football, his eye often popped out.
He avoided team sports and preferred swimming, which required no interaction.
He became a loner and developed an interest in reading and investing.
He read everything about investing.
In 2004, he began reading 130-page prospectives on mortgage bonds.
He said, "There is no golf or other hobby to distract me. Seeing value is what I do.”
And seeing value is what he did.
He bought one billion dollars of credit default swaps on the crappiest mortgage bonds becoming one of the most famous big shorts of all time.
Burry earned investors a 490% return after fees from 2000 to 2008.
It’s a lesson that it pays to see things differently.
