Morris was standing in front of me in the building cafeteria line. He was old and slow. He wore a shiny dark track suit and white sneakers and a funny beret. It took him a long time to decide on his order. He counted out the exact change to the cashier, slowly of course.

I was young, in a hurry, climbing the career ladder. I had places to go, people to meet, things to do. I admit thinking impatient thoughts as I waited behind Morris. But my parents had taught me to be respectful of my elders, and when Morris dropped some change, I helped him gather it and put it back in his change purse. He thanked me profusely and struck up a conversation. Do you work in the building, what do you do, etc, etc. I replied politely but did not encourage further conversation. As we went our separate ways, I was muttering to myself about ways to avoid Morris in the future.

A week later, the front door of our business swung open. Our secretary was on break, and no one was in the lobby. “Hey! Hey! Anybody work here?” an old voice cried. Uh-oh, I thought, I know that voice. Yes, it was Morris. “I heard you guys are in the same business I am. Thought we could get to know each other.” The boss greeted Morris, and the two had a long conversation in his office. Next thing I knew, they were both walking into my office. “I want you to meet Morris” my boss said. “The two of you will be working together.” My heart sank.

My first meeting with Morris was interesting, to say the least. I went to his office and met his “girl” (65 if she was a day), who recorded all his transactions in big green ledgers. They were lined up on a shelf, dating back 5 decades. She did not use a computer. Morris had an ancient computer terminal sitting behind his desk, gathering dust. It was not on and likely did not work. Great, I thought, I’ve stepped back in time and I’m working with prehistoric business people.

We were discussing investment projects, and our approaches couldn’t have been more different. Mine was data-driven, technical, detail oriented. His seemed to be based only on his gut feel and people relationships. “I have three criteria. Do I know them, do I trust them, did they make me money on a previous investment.” But Morris, how can you ignore these charts, this data, these trends? “They don’t matter, that’s just noise, in the big picture”, he replied. I came away from that first meeting frustrated, thinking I was wasting my time.

But over time and multiple discussions, I first came to like Morris, then to respect him. In spite of his advanced age, he was a smart and focused businessman. As I learned more about his past, I realized that he had been extremely well known and respected in his business. He was definitely not some doddering old fool. He did not hesitate to make decisions, jumping into new investments and cutting short ones that were not working. I began to look forward to our meetings, and took every chance to ask his opinion on various investment matters. It was during one of these discussions that he said something that I will never forget.

“Son, you need to realize something. In your investing life, you will be faced with a multitude of decisions at various times. Things may seem confusing and chaotic and you may not know what to do. But just think of this: There are times when you can make money hand over fist in spite of yourself. And there are times when you can’t make a dime, or lose money, no matter how hard you work. If you can distinguish between the two, you will be successful.”

Morris has passed now. But I think of him every time I struggle with an investment decision. How would Morris approach this? What “time” am I in? And it helps. Thank you, Morris.