Chai with Pabrai

Mohnish Pabrai's Talk with Shaan Puri at the My First Million podcast on March 27, 2025.


(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:00:28) - Why the small investor has an advantage

(00:02:51) - Investing $10K to make $1 Million

(00:08:16) - Frontline

(00:17:13) - Berkshire's 12 great decisions in 58 years

(00:18:34) - Buffett's selection process: Moody's Manual

(00:23:38) - Value Investor's Club

(00:27:33) - The Japan Company Handbook

(00:28:46) - Berkshire's investment in Japan

(00:36:13) - Thou shall not use Excel

(00:40:26) - Leverage: Rick Guerin

(00:49:00) - Do not cut the flowers to water the weeds

(00:51:21) - Costco

(00:56:38) - My interactions with Charlie Munger & Warren Buffett

(00:58:23) - Risk vs. Uncertainty

(01:00:16) - Coca-Cola Icecek

(01:01:42) - Warren's "Too Hard Pile"

(01:03:01) - Circle of Competence: John Arrillaga

(01:07:03) - Sam Walton: Walmart and Sol Price

(01:12:18) - A power nap is good for productivity

(01:15:39) - My owner's manual

(01:21:52) - The Dakshana Foundation: A mathematical game

(01:23:53) - Super 30: Model cloned by Dakshana

(01:28:53) - Large inheritances cause more harm than good

(01:31:35) - Mohnish's Blackjack System

(01:37:46) - Michael Burry

(01:41:21) - Rakesh Jhunjhunwala: Titan Industries

(01:44:26) - Starting early to lengthen your runway

(01:47:02) - Macroeconomic factors

(01:47:37) - AI in investing

The contents of this website are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and do not purport to be, and are not intended to be, financial, legal, accounting, tax or investment advice. Investments or strategies that are discussed may not be suitable for you, do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and are not intended to provide investment advice or recommendations appropriate for you. Before making any investment or trade, consider whether it is suitable for you and consider seeking advice from your own financial or investment adviser.

Mohnish Pabrai lecture to Trinity Student Managed Fund at Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, in Dublin, Ireland, on February 21, 2019.
(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:02:59) - BULL! A history of the boom and bust, 1982-2004 by Maggie Mahar

(00:03:54) - THE DOW (1896 – 2019)

(00:07:52) - Market conditions when Pabrai Funds started

(00:09:36) - Price matters

(00:12:14) - S&P 500 (1928 – 2019)

(00:12:43) - Nasdaq (1971 – 2019)

(00:13:19) - Sensex (1979 – 2019); Dax (1988 – 2019)

(00:13:58) - Property bubble to NIKKEI (1970 – 2019)

(00:16:28) - KOSPI (1980 – 2019)

(00:24:50) - Lessons from Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett

(00:30:11) - Advice on Starting a Career

(00:32:22) - Definition of Success

(00:35:06) - Hedge Fund Fee Structure

(00:43:14) - When should one start a Fund

(00:50:11) - Succession plan at Pabrai Funds

(00:51:10) - Mental Models with Philanthropy; Dakshana Foundation

(00:59:07) - Low Risk and High Uncertainty Bets

(01:05:25) - Finding your own rope during drawdowns

(01:09:35) - Thoughts on current market levels

The contents of this video are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and do not purport to be, and are not intended to be, financial, legal, accounting, tax or investment advice. Investments or strategies that are discussed may not be suitable for you, do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and are not intended to provide investment advice or recommendations appropriate for you. Before making any investment or trade, consider whether it is suitable for you and consider seeking advice from your own financial or investment adviser.

In this talk, Mohnish discusses the three basic attributes an investor should possess to effectively beat the odds. 1. Patience 2. Decisiveness and 3.Being different from the crowd.
Mohnish reviews the multiple mental models behind Berkshire's investment in Coca-Cola. Buffett's lessons from his See's Candies investment played a major role in his decision to invest in Coca-Cola.
(00:00:00) - Introduction
(00:03:36) - Traits of successful people
(00:06:52) - How do you make investment?
(00:09:52) - Buffett's See's Candies Investment
(00:15:12) - Difference between See's candies and Coke
(00:18:51) - Long runway of Coke
(00:26:36) - Coca-Cola Model
(00:34:22) - Mental Model on Branding
(00:40:21) - Coke's Management
(00:48:09) - Mental Model on How Human brains are screwed up
(00:49:54) - What not to do
(00:55:53) - Holy grail of investment
(00:57:05) - What's a great business?
(00:59:08) - What Mohnish does as value investor
(01:04:07) - Biggest mistake as an investment
(01:06:53) - Indexing investing
(01:08:22) - Key to becoming wealthy
(01:11:49) - Insurance company business
(01:13:15) - Cloning
(01:15:02) - Pabrai Fund Model
(01:16:48) - TransTech
(01:21:14) - Challenge as an investor
(01:24:34) - Dakshana Foundation
(01:27:35) - Portfolio Diversification
(01:29:06) - Cash vs. Opportunities
(01:34:17) - Businesses that Mohnish admire
(01:39:35) - Doing what you love

Distinguished Speaker Series
Professor Arvind Navaratnam
October 14, 2021
(00:00:00) - Introduction
(00:02:04) - Competition is For Losers, Peter Thiel
(00:08:25) - Rain Industries
(00:12:39) - Monopolistic business models, Amazon and Google
(00:17:14) - Redoing the Spaghetti code, AWS in business
(00:19:09) - A Whale only gets harpooned only when it surfaces, Warren Buffett
(00:20:00) - AWS, cloning by Microsoft and Google
(00:24:15) - Monopolistic characteristics of giant Chinese tech companies
(00:28:19) - Tencent (under)reporting style
(00:30:24) - Naspers business model, Koos Bekker
(00:40:58) - Better capital allocation by Amazon and Tencent
(00:43:37) - Tencent business model
(00:50:24) - The bazooka Model of Pony Ma
(00:57:33) - How I became a value investor
(01:02:22) - Chinese tech giants and political risk
(01:03:16) - Dakshana Foundation's Education Model
(01:09:01) - Evolution of my investing style
(01:12:58) - Mohnish's investing framework on start-ups
(01:17:31) - Ali Baba
(01:23:18) - Competence and edge
(01:24:54) - Change in Investment strategy due to Covid
(01:37:50) - Application of NLP (Natural Language Processing) in investing
(01:45:10) - Up and comers in the investment sector
(01:47:40) - Quality of Management
(01:50:29) - Book recommendations

Mohnish Pabrai's Interview with Shaan Puri at My First Million on May 5, 2026.


(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:00:30) - Value investing in the US; Importance of patience in investing

(00:02:15) - Mental models: The mistress is always hotter than the wife

(00:04:58) - Introduce randomness in your life; Peter Lynch's One Up on Wall Street

(00:08:12) - Elon Musk

(00:09:42) - From admiring to executing; Sam Walton & Cloning

(00:13:24) - Tesla; Blue Origin vs. SpaceX

(00:14:10) - Randomness & Cloning; Farm Con & Kevin Van Trump to Milk road

(00:16:40) - McDonald's vs. Burger King

(00:17:05) - The Bedrock model: Take a simple idea and take it seriously; Turkey vs. Indian markets

(00:20:39) - Mental model conflicts; Circle of competence

(00:23:13) - The salad oil crisis; Buffett's stake in AmEx and Disney

(00:26:12) - Traits of great investors: Keep investing simple; Warren's Too Hard Pile

(00:30:27) - Aksarben racetrack and Buffett's tickets adventure; Moody's Manual

(00:33:02) - Japanese Company Handbook; Look for needles in haystacks 

(00:34:40) - Stock market: Church with a Casino

(00:38:42) - Lunch with Warren Buffett; Leverage lesson from Rick Guerin

(00:41:39) - Inner scorecard vs. Outer scorecard

(00:43:25) - Cash and capital allocation at Berkshire Hathaway

(00:45:14) - My best investments; Investing in Turkey - Reysas & TAV Airports

(00:54:57) - Active vs. Passive investing

(00:57:22) - Business Moats; McDonald's & FICO

(00:59:25) - Investing with AI

(01:02:58) - Constellation Software Services; Mark Leonard

(01:09:45) - GLP-1

(01:10:48) - Bitcoin vs. Gold

(01:11:32) - Do not die at 25 and get buried at 75; Get your music out

(01:15:37) - Studying great investors: Ed Thorp

(01:20:45) - Ken Griffin: Citadel

(01:23:01) - Advice to listeners: Lead an aligned life - My owner's manual by Jack Skeen

(01:28:08) - Guy Spier's letter to me

The contents of this website are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and do not purport to be, and are not intended to be, financial, legal, accounting, tax or investment advice. Investments or strategies that are discussed may not be suitable for you, do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and are not intended to provide investment advice or recommendations appropriate for you. Before making any investment or trade, consider whether it is suitable for you and consider seeking advice from your own financial or investment adviser. Views expressed on Chai with Pabrai are exclusively those of Mohnish Pabrai and not of any affiliated firm or organization.