Compounding Snowballs

Social responsibility means that as an individual or a corporation, you have a civic duty to use your actions to benefit the population. If corporate social responsibility (CSR) is about making a "greener" impact on the environment, creating a diverse and accepting workforce, and/or benefiting society over the long-term, why is it so hard for companies to do? The short answer is the long-term.  People and companies too often focus on the short term: how much money their company will make this quarter. If their drive is making money in the short term, then as Jeremy Grantham says, " G randchildren have no value … We deforest the land, we degrade our soils, we pollute and overuse our water, and we treat our air like an open sewer. All of this is off the balance sheet and off the income statement ".  As a value investor, I look at the potential growth, competitive advantage, fair price, and good management within the company. As a socially responsible investor, th...

Ensemble Capital gave me a wonderful chance to speak to a lot of young people about my book and my story. Here is a write up of some of the questions I was asked by Todd Wenning : Todd Wenning: The title of your book is Early Bird: The Power of Investing Young . Why is there such power in investing when you’re young? Maya Peterson: I am sixteen years old. As a young person, I do not pay rent and I cannot drive myself places yet, but I can invest. Investing is one of the first adult choices a young person can make. It is very powerful to make the choice to invest your money rather than spend it right away. Investing is a decision that will impact your future. Also because you’re young, you have a lot of time ahead of you which maximizes the concept of compounding. Compounding is the idea that if you have a small ball of snow at the top of the hill as it rolls down, it will continue to get bigger. In reality, time is the hill and snow is your investments, so an ideal situation i...