Life Lessons in Japan
They said a mega earthquake might hit Japan last month, but I decided to go anyway and I’m so glad I did. For over a month, I’ve been traveling across this beautiful country, and it has been a remarkable experience. Along the way, I’ve learned many lessons that can be applied to both investing and life.
One highlight was visiting a sumo school in Osaka to watch how the wrestlers train. What struck me most was how incredibly dedicated the wrestlers are. Their whole lives revolve around the sport. They live where they train and follow very strict routines. Sumo wrestling is a national sport so even outside the ring, there are rules to follow. Wrestlers have to wear traditional robes in public, and they’re expected to be soft-spoken and humble. This is all on top of the fact that they tend to have shorter lifespans because of their extreme weight gain and other obesity-related health problems.
If someone approached their investment portfolio with the same level of focus and discipline as those sumo wrestlers have for their training, I’m sure they’d make the returns they deserve.
People often ask me if there’s a formula for success. I always say luck plays a role, but dedication matters just as much. Especially in investing. It’s not like walking into a casino and taking blind guesses, there are simply no shortcuts. To be a good investor, you have to do your homework. You need to study the companies, dig into the details, and fully understand the businesses you’re investing in.
To outsiders like myself, sumo wrestling can sometimes look like two big guys just ramming into each other. But if you have a better understanding of the sport, you’d know the wrestlers actually spend hours preparing, observing and studying their opponents. It’s a highly technical sport that requires patiently waiting for the perfect moment to make their move.
It reminded me a lot about investing. In active management, you can’t simply follow the crowd or react to every news headline. It takes a lot of preparation and research in order to make good judgement about an investment so when the right opportunity comes, you act decisively. That’s what I believe gives active investors an edge.
This year, more investors seem to be realizing this. In the first half of 2025, a record $127 billion flowed into actively managed funds, up 57% from last year, according to Reuters. While ETFs continue to attract inflows, many are discovering that active strategies can uncover opportunities that passive funds might miss. Nevertheless, ETFs are useful instruments in some cases.
Our Mobius Emerging Opportunities Fund is still young, but over the past few months we’ve managed to outperform the US market by focusing on companies with strong earnings, healthy balance sheets, capable management and industry leadership. These are often businesses overlooked by index-based strategies, which is where active managers can truly add value.
Right now, I’m finding particularly interesting opportunities in India, Taiwan and Vietnam, alongside select US companies that are benefiting from advances in technology. But as we all know, we are surrounded by a lot of uncertainties globally. That’s why flexibility is so important, it gives us the ability to follow the best opportunties wherever they might be, instead of being tied to an index.
As I wrap up my trip in Japan, I keep thinking about our visit to Sapporo earlier, where we saw the memorial of William Smith Clark, the American professor who came here in the 1870s to help set up what is now Hokkaido University. He spent only nine months in Japan, but his parting words “Boys, be ambitious!” became a national motto.
Life moves quickly, and I’ve come to realize how important it is to keep learning, stay curious, and keep reaching for something more, no matter our age. To me, ambition is about staying engaged, doing what you love and giving it your best. I feel grateful to still be doing what I enjoy, and I hope you’ve found something that keeps you inspired too.