Howard Marks

And what Bruce and I did for the most part is create a culture.

We didn't ever have a macro managing, micro managing mentality.

We were too busy.

It was not our day job to run the company.

We did that as a sideline and it wasn't management intensive.

So we weren't great on the profit margins, but they kind of took care of themselves and we were haphazard about compensation.

We kind of respond to the last person to walk in the door.

the right culture at the right time with I think some exceptional people was enough to make the company a success, even though it was largely an unguided missile in terms of management.

Well, the great advantage we had is that the people who started Oak Tree, there were five of us, three others in addition to Bruce and me, had worked together on average for nine years.

at the time we did it.

So we weren't dealing with strangers and trying to figure out an MO.

All we had to do was what we had been doing at TCW before Oak Tree.

And for the most part, that meant I was out raising the money and visiting with the clients and representing us to the greater community and clients and prospects.

And Bruce and the others were back managing money.

And David, you mentioned my book, The Most Important Thing.

That actually evolved from a memo of that title that I wrote around 02.

And that had a section on how to run a company, which I spared the readers of the book because it had nothing to do with investing.

But I said in there that the key among partners is to have shared values and complementary skills.

And we absolutely shared values.

We're all family men and conservative people and somewhat risk averse and so forth.