The surprising personality trait that could make you a better investor

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Peace is often framed as something soft, passive or even indulgent - more of a 'nice to have' than a cornerstone of success.

But what if peace isn't just about staying calm and stress free? What if a deeper internal peace is, in fact, a critical factor in becoming a better investor, professional or entrepreneur?

Rather than being the byproduct of wealth and success, could peace be the pathway to prosperity itself?

the surprising personality trait that could make you a better investor or entrepreneur

To explore this, let's flip the script. Instead of chasing success as the engine for fulfilment, imagine it as the outcome of peace.

Peace anchors you, gives you the resilience to weather uncertainty and allows meaning to emerge naturally. And in a world where noise, comparison and anxiety dominate, this shift might just make the difference between winning and burning out.

In investing, business or life, people often focus on outcomes such as wealth, market gains or career milestones, thinking these will generate peace and satisfaction.

But lasting success often follows a very different process:  
• Find peace first - with yourself, your relationships, and your environment.  
• Let meaning emerge - align your actions with what matters.  
• Let success follow - not as the goal, but as the natural byproduct of peace and meaning.

This way of thinking isn't about detaching from ambition, quite the opposite. It's about anchoring that ambition to something steady and sustainable. And for investors, it can be game-changing, and the reason is surprisingly simple.

Investing requires two things: emotional resilience and sound judgment. Yet markets thrive on chaos - sudden downturns, unexpected rallies, geopolitical shifts.

Amid this uncertainty investors who act from a place of fear often make emotional decisions, buying at the peak and selling at the bottom. Peace, however, introduces a kind of clarity and discipline that fear can't touch.

When you have peace, you no longer seek external validation through market performance. You don't need your portfolio to prove your worth.

Instead, you make decisions based on long-term goals, not short-term panic. You can zoom out from daily volatility and trust your strategy, whether that's dollar-cost averaging or riding out a bear market.

Core to the peaceful investor is the knowledge that 'they are enough and they have enough', irrespective of their financial position. This mindset eliminates the need to constantly chase the next best thing, whether it's an investment trend or a fleeting opportunity.

Power of collaboration

Just as peace with yourself fosters resilience, peace with others reduces unnecessary friction.

In the investing world, peaceful relationships develop trust with advisers, partners or clients. It's learning to navigate conversations without ego and without always needing to be right - a trait that can be hard to find in today's competitive environments.

This same principle applies in investment committees or boardrooms, where collaboration is more powerful than dominance, influence more important than opinion. Influence grows when you're able to listen with compassion and humility - qualities rooted in peace.

A peaceful mindset also opens awareness to the broader landscape.

More than simply technical analysis; it's a deeper sense of situational awareness. Peace with your environment. Present, attentive and aware of the signals around you without obsessing over them.

When peace becomes your foundation, meaning emerges naturally. An investment strategy anchored in meaning is more sustainable than one driven purely by profit. Meaning aligns your actions with your values, giving you the motivation to persevere even when the going gets tough.

And here's the kicker: investors who act in alignment with their values often outperform those who are motivated purely by financial gain.

No longer are you simply pursuing a monetary goal, you are driven to create a legacy that your great-grandchildren will benefit from. The latter is much more powerful than the former.

This is why impact investors, who put their money into companies and causes aligned with their values, often report higher levels of satisfaction. The returns aren't just measured in dollars but in the fulfilment of seeing their investments create positive change.

Conditions for success

When peace and meaning align, they create the perfect conditions for sustainable success to emerge. Athletes, entrepreneurs, artists and investors who operate from this place don't crumble under pressure. They are less swayed by trends and more consistent in their actions.

Those who operate from a place of peace and alignment enjoy their success without being defined by it. They recognise that their value isn't tied to a market cycle, an IPO or a quarterly report.

This not only makes them more resilient during downturns but also more joyful when success does arrive.

Is peace the pathway to prosperity? Absolutely. When you find peace with yourself, with others and with your environment, you unlock the mental clarity and emotional resilience needed to thrive, not just financially but in every area of life.

Success isn't about achieving peace after reaching a goal; it's about operating from peace so that success follows naturally. In a world driven by anxiety, urgency and competition, the most prosperous investors and leaders are those who prioritise peace.

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Phil Slade is a behavioural economist and psychologist and the author of Going Ape S#!t! and founder of Decida. He works across digital innovation, strategy and cognitive bias. Phil holds a Bachelor of Psychology from The University of Queensland and a Master of Organisational Psychology from Griffith University.
Comments
David Hogan
February 4, 2025 12.24pm

I love this piece Phil, pardon the pun!

I am really enjoying & relating to this lifestyle of peace at the moment, and I believe my journey of investing is blossoming with this in mind. I am lucky enough to have the freedoms to keep educating myself and to be honest it's quite fun exploring new things in the investing world, as opposed to being like a "normal" job.

Thanks again

Dave