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#101 | 7 Disney Quotes That Make You a Better Investor · The Dutch Investors

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: A couple weeks ago, we went deep on the Walt Disney Company.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: What started as a Cartoon Mouse in the 1920s is now one of the largest media companies on the planet.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Five theme parks, over 50 hotels, eight cruise ships, an entire ecosystem built around characters and IP.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: But going through that deep dive, we noticed something else.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Completely by accident, have been handing out investing advice for decades.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're doing something different.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: 7 Disney quotes and what they actually teach us about being or becoming better investors.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy! Let's start with Remy.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, to my life, but the only thing predictable about life is its unpredictability.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's Remy from Ratatuye.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a line worth sitting on, because no investor can predict the future.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: People will try to convince you otherwise.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Every year, sometimes every day.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: But like every Disney film that's just fiction.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Take Michael Burry.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: He called the 2008 crash, and his fund returned over 138% in just a single year.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's tempting to look at that and think, this man can predict the future.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But he can't.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody can.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you get 10 million people predicting every World Cup match, someone ends up with a perfect scorecard.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make them a genius, it just makes them lucky.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's the law of large numbers at work and it's not foresight.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And what Remy is really telling us is to prepare for the unpredictable, not to try and forecast it.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So go in expecting the unexpected and keep your emotions in check.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Next up, Eeyore.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: The nicest thing about the rain is that it stops eventually.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's about as optimistic as Eeyore ever gets, and it's a good one.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Markets can go down for years at a time.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: It hasn't happened in a while, but it will, again, eventually, and the worst thing you can do in that situation is sell.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Panic sell.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Time in the market beats timing the market.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of those lines that sounds very cliche, and it sort of is cliche, but if you look at the data, it holds up.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the next Disney quote: Stitch.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Who are you?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: This is my family.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: I found it all on my own.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's little and broken.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: But still good.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Still good.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: What happens after the rain stops falling on the market?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Your positions get dragged down with everything else.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes down 90% or more.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: During the dot-com crash, Amazon's stock collapsed, even as its fundamentals kept moving in the right direction.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Jeff Bezos said it himself.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Separate the stock price from the business.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Stitch is making the same point, but in just fewer words.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Beaten down doesn't mean broken.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the best opportunities show up looking exactly like that.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: A little broken, but still good.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a catch to that lesson, which brings us to our next Disney quote, Mufasa.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: Simba, I'm very disappointed in you.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_05: I know.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: You could have been killed.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_03: You deliberately disobeyed me.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: And what's worse, you put Nala in danger.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_05: I was just trying to be brave like you.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: I'm only brave when I have to be.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: Simba.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_05: But you're not scared of anything.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm only brave when I have to be.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Simba Mufasa says this to Simba before the hyena territory scene in The Lion King, and it applies just as well to your portfolio.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not every cheap, beaten-down company is a stitch situation.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Picture a company with a good product, but a balance sheet loaded with debt, interest rate spikes, so the stock falls, the interest expense climbs, and now the pressure internally compounds.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's the moment to ask yourself, is buying here being brave and smart?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or is this a company that can actually go bankrupt?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the right move isn't to play the hero, it's just to walk away from the trouble entirely, which is what Mufasa actually meant.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the merchant of Aladdin next.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: Wait, don't go! I can see that you are only interested in the exceptionally rare.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think then you will be most rewarded to consider this.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: Do not be fooled by his commonplace appearance.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like so many things, it is not what is outside, but what is inside that counts.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like so many things, it is not what is outside but what is inside that counts.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Merchants exist to make things look more valuable than they are.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Most companies do as well.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Investor relations departments also do exactly the same thing.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Tattoo Chef is a good case study here.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: It went public via a spec in 2020, plant-based frozen foods, and the investor deck was beautiful.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: It said words like vertically integrated, strategic advantages, a good mode, all the right words, all the right shine, everything a good quality investor was looking for.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then the company filed for bankruptcy in just three years, in 2023.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Every dollar that went into the strength of that story, gone.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Morgan Household puts it well.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: The best story wins, not the best idea, not the most rational idea, or the most factual idea.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever tells the story that gets people nodding along wins.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And our advice hasn't changed on this one.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Study the financials first.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us would go further and say skip the investor presentation entirely.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Next up, finding Nemo.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or rather, Dory is next.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, Mr.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_05: Grumpy Gills.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_05: When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_04: I don't want to know what you gotta do.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_05: Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_05: What do we do?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_05: We swim, swim.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_04: Dory no singing.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_04: Do I love to swim in Dory when you want to swim you want to swing?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_04: See, I'm gonna get stuck now with that song.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_04: Now it's in my head.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: We swim, swim, swim.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds almost too simple, but Dory is describing compounding.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Time is the single most important variable in your equation.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way to capture it is to stay invested, to keep swimming, continuously, not on and off.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: iShares has the data on this.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Stay fully invested over a 20-year stretch, and you end up with 58% more than an investor who misses just the 5 best performing days in the same period.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: 5 days out of 20 years.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's the cost of trying to time it.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Next quote Rafiki from The Lion King again.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_04: Ow! Jesus, what was that for?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't matter! It's in the past! Yeah, but it still hurts.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yes, the past can hurt.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_04: But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_04: Ah, you see?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most valuable things you can do as an investor is look honestly at your own track record, at your own decision making.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Most people don't beat the market over the long run.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fact, not an insult.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you go back through your own results and see structural underperformance, you shouldn't look away from it.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: You should learn from it.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the fix is generally simple.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of low-cost ETFs might do more for your returns than another decade of stock picking.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a fun thing to admit, it's painful, but the payoff comes later.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: We have a useful tool for this on the TDI terminal where you can actually monitor and lock all your decisions and come back to it later to see how you did.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's close this episode off with a quote from Toy Story from Buzz Lightier.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: What's important now is we stay together.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to hold on to every piece of investing wisdom on your own all the time.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a flaw, it's just how it works.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Being around other, serious, like-minded investors compounds the learning the same way time compounds the returns.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole idea behind building the Dutch investors.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: A community that learns with and from each other.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Build around an honest, repeatable process rather than hot tips or timing calls.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: If any of these seven lessons landed for you, that's exactly the kind of thinking we're trying to build.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Episode by episode, deep dive by deep dive.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're interested, we would love to have you along for the ride.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Check out thedutchinvestors.com for more information, and we'll see you in the next episode.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And like always, stay curious, keep learning, and happy investing!