I was so excited to pen my first quarterly letter for my hedge fund back in the fall of 1998. I worked on it for two weeks. It was five pages of market genius.  

I hit send and was ready for the accolades. 

Only one of my limited partners (I call him Diamond Dave) responded to my masterpiece. 

He said just give me the damn ‘return’ numbers in the future. 

He was dead right.

The returns are all that matter. 

To be honest …most people just want you to return THE capital. 

If you don’t gamble or steal you really can have a great career  managing other people’s money. 

It’s that easy and simple. 

As for ‘Diamond Dave’ … we spoke today and after 18 years as a limited partner in my fund he thanked me for just reminding him he was still a partner.