Sir John Templeton pioneered global value investing by buying quality companies during periods of maximum pessimism. His disciplined, contrarian approach continues to influence the investment philosophy at Everglades Parkland Advisors, an investment management firm focused on challenging conventional thinking through disciplined research, long-term strategy, and risk management.
In my book, Beyond Wall Street, I attempted to profile an investor in each chapter—people I admired, and especially people who I felt represented my own investing philosophy in some way. Some people I had learned from, others I watched during my own career, but each of them shaped the way my colleagues and I approach the market.
Starting this month, I want to continue that theme by profiling great investors who embody the core philosophy of Everglades Parkland Advisors or have achieved enormous success we can all learn from.
The first of these profiles is of Sir John Templeton. So, who was he, and why is he deserving of being on this list of great investors?
In Beyond Wall Street, I wrote:
One of the golden rules of the investing world is “buy low, sell high.”… It’s easier said than done. Buying low and selling high means that you make an investment when it isn’t worth much and then sell it off when it’s at its zenith to make maximum profit. It can be extremely difficult to pinpoint when the highs are at their highest, and the lows are at their lowest, and falling into a herd mentality is all too easy.
Templeton was a master of buying low and selling high. When he died in 2008 at the age of 95, he was a multi-billionaire. How did he do it? Read on to find out.
A CHILDHOOD OF CURIOSITY
His mastery of investing and the laws of probability had foundations in his upbringing. Born in 1912 in Winchester, Tennessee, he was encouraged by his parents to experiment, explore, and expand his horizons. His mother, Bella, an educated, worldly woman, “gave the boys the means to do with the world what they wanted to do,” Harvey Templeton, John’s nephew, reported.2 With their father, an enterprising entrepreneur, Templeton’s parents allowed their children to “buy dynamite to dispose of backyard tree stumps, and gunpowder to manufacture [their] own fireworks.”1 Templeton’s first business venture of note was selling his fireworks to his friends for a price three times the cost of production.2
Such intellectual curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit followed him into adulthood, when he attended Yale University. Inquisitive and bright, he graduated at the top of his class in 1934. But Templeton was also scrappy—he attended Yale during the height of the Great Depression. After his father informed him that he could no longer afford the tuition, Templeton funded his own schooling himself, taking several small jobs and playing poker. His niece, Lauren Templeton, noted: “Uncle John often remarked to me that that was one of the best things that had ever happened to him in his entire life.”3 The requirement to fend for himself reinforced the idea that he needed to take measured, calculated risks to achieve.
After graduating from Oxford University (where he was a Rhodes Scholar) with a law degree in 1936, Templeton spent a year traveling. Historians have since noted this year as one that made an incredible impact on his life. “He had come from this small town in Tennessee and really hadn’t seen the world,” a colleague noted. “His eyes were opened.”2 The next year, 1937, marked the beginning of his work on Wall Street and his entry into the world of investing.
ENTERING WALL STREET
Templeton was hired by Fenner & Beane, which subsequently merged with Merrill Lynch. Templeton left soon after the merger and went on to found his own investment advisory firm. Although his tenure at Fenner & Beane was short, he had a front-row seat to investor behavior in the depths of the Great Depression. That experience, coupled with his intellectual curiosity and worldly understanding, shaped his investing philosophy.
A hallmark of that philosophy was to go against the crowd. Known as contrarian investing, it involves identifying “points of maximum pessimism.” In Templeton’s own words, he described these moments of maximum pessimism as “the best time to buy, and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell.”1
In a now-famous move, Templeton demonstrated his contrarian approach with incredible results. In 1939, with World War II looming, Templeton borrowed money and selected 104 companies selling their shares for less than a dollar each. He spent $100 on each company, averaging about 100 shares per company. By the end of the war, only four companies had failed to return a profit. He held the shares for an average of 4 years, resulting in a 400% increase in his portfolio. He summarized his approach this way: “When people are desperately trying to sell, I buy. When people are desperately trying to buy, I sell. It has worked out very well over the years.”6
Templeton was not an oracle. His success was not based on predicting every market move correctly. He did not know that his investment would be as successful as it was. Instead, his success came from having a disciplined investment framework and the patience to follow it. Like Templeton, Everglades Parkland Advisors believes successful investing requires clear thinking, careful risk management, and the discipline to identify opportunities others may overlook.
FAMOUS FOR FRUGALITY
A large part of Templeton’s success can also be attributed to his frugality. Templeton was known for scrimping and saving. He was a bargain hunter, buying undervalued, high-quality stocks. In his own words, he described his thriftiness in picking stocks as never having “bought a stock because I liked it. I bought it because it was a cheaper bargain than any similar stock I would buy anywhere in the rest of the world.” He learned this method from the famed economist and investor Benjamin Graham, who called it “value investing.” Graham theorized the core principles of value investing and is known as the father of value investing. Other famed practitioners of value investing include Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Walter Schloss, among many others.
After his death, the Washington Post profiled him as someone who “scoured the world for bargains.”7 Even the Economist noted his frugality: “Sir John revered thrift and had a horror of debt. His parents had taught him that in small-town Tennessee, instilling it so well that in his white-columned house in the Bahamas, overlooking the golf course, he still cut up computer paper to make notebooks.”8
He continued to have incredible success, starting a mutual fund in 1954. By 1992, when he sold the fund to Franklin Templeton, an original investment of $10,000 would reportedly be worth $2 million. The fund was unusual for its time because it scoured the world for high-quality investment opportunities. Templeton was not the first to champion value investing, but he was one of the first to invest globally, a major effect of his world travels. Money Magazine called him “arguably the greatest global stock picker of the century” in 1999, and there was a lot of truth to that statement.7
STAYING THE COURSE
Always fearing the impact of herd mentality and groupthink, Templeton relocated to the Bahamas in 1968. He wanted to stay as far away from Wall Street as possible. Templeton acknowledged that buying during moments of fear required tremendous discipline. Going against the crowd is emotionally difficult—but that discipline is exactly why contrarian investing can create opportunities. “It is extremely difficult to go against the crowd—to buy when everyone else is selling or has sold, to buy when things look darkest, to buy when so many experts are telling you that stocks in general…are risky right now,” he admitted.6 Staying away from the chatter helped him stay the course and remain successful.
Similarly, throughout my career, I have seen many good investors, with good heads on their shoulders, get caught up in the hype. The truth of the matter is, the hardest investing decisions are rarely mathematical—they are emotional. At Everglades, we make a conscious effort to think critically about every move we make. We pride ourselves on building investment decisions around clear-eyed, logical thinking and careful risk management, rather than reacting to short-term noise.
PHILANTHROPIC EFFORTS
Templeton was a philanthropist. He established the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1972, and it remains one of the largest cash prizes in the world, valued at over $1.4 million. He also established the John Templeton Foundation, which funds research that increases “the pace of religious inquiry so that it might match the progress in science.”1
Through the foundation, Templeton encouraged the curiosity, adventure, and intellectual advancement that defined his childhood. The foundation funded “ventures ranging from an essay contest for youngsters to explore the spiritual principles of life, to an ‘honor roll’ for character-building at universities, to a new college at Oxford University.”1 In 2005, Templeton told Business Week, “What I’m financing is humility. I want people to realize that you shouldn’t think you know it all.”9 Today, the foundation gives away roughly $150 million per year in grants.5
WHAT WE LEARN FROM TEMPLETON
Templeton wasn’t simply lucky. He had a strategy that dictated how he approached the market, and his rules for investing, published in 1993, still hold today. I still think about Templeton regularly as I go about my day, using his mottos as a guide. Here are a few of my favorite nuggets of wisdom from Templeton:
ON INVESTING FOR THE LONG-TERM: “The stock market is not a casino, but if you move in and out of stocks every time they move a point or two, or if you continually sell short…or deal only in options…or trade in futures…the market will be your casino. And, like most gamblers, you may lose eventually—or frequently.” At Everglades, we’re big believers in letting an investment accrue value over time. The market fluctuates constantly, but those who hold onto their investments with a long-term goal are less likely to have their portfolios upset by standard market ups and downs. Long-term investing allows investors to look beyond short-term market fluctuations and focus on lasting value.
ON DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY: “You can’t outperform the market if you buy the market. And chances are, if you buy what everyone is buying, you will do so only after it is already overpriced.” I find myself repeating this refrain at least once a week. Following the crowd means performing like the crowd. Most people are just fine with doing that, and theoretically, if the market is strong, it can lead to some solid returns. Investors seeking outcomes that differ from the rest of the market need to be willing to think differently, too. This mindset, paired with effective risk management, is something we at Everglades pride ourselves on.
ON INVESTING FOR VALUE: “When buying stocks, search for bargains among quality stocks…”In many ways, this is similar to going thrifting. At a thrift store, there are racks and racks of clothes to sift through, but the things that every good bargain hunter wants to take home are high-quality treasures for low cost, like finding a Cartier watch at Goodwill. This is the basis of value investing, and a key consideration here at Everglades.
CONCLUSION
Sir John Templeton pioneered a groundbreaking global approach to value investing, bought and sold against the tide of the rest of Wall Street, and believed firmly that logical, sober, long-term investments are better than emotional, panicked, short-term investments. His contrarian, single-minded vision paid dividends, and many investors try to emulate his success (including here at Everglades). As a philanthropist, he gave a tremendous amount of money to charity and remains an inspiration for all of us to this day. At Everglades Parkland Advisors, our investment philosophy is built on many of the same ideas Templeton pioneered: clear-headedness, logical reasoning, long-term thinking, risk management, and the willingness to seek opportunities others may overlook.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Templeton’s value investing approach focused on identifying quality opportunities overlooked by the market.
- His contrarian philosophy emphasized patience, discipline, and the avoidance of emotional decision-making.
- Everglades Parkland Advisors draws inspiration from these principles by focusing on long-term investing, independent thinking, and risk management.
FOR FURTHER READING:
- Philanthropy Roundtable. (2023, January 12). John Templeton. https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/hall-of-fame/john-templeton/
- John Templeton Foundation. (2022, July 20). Contrarian | a film about the life of Sir John Templeton (FULL LENGTH) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbmMo7kqZE4
- The Financial Economics. (2025, May 25). The greatest stock picker of 20th century | Sir John Templeton | Lauren Templeton [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq3NGTd0ge4
- Miller, J. J. (2008, July 1). Sir John M. Templeton, RIP. Philanthropy Roundtable. https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazine/sir-john-m-templeton-rip/
- John Templeton Foundation. (2022, March 8). The purpose of the John Templeton Foundation – John Templeton Foundation. https://www.templeton.org/news/the-purpose-of-the-john-templeton-foundation
- Templeton, J. (1993). 16 Rules for Investment Success: And for your family, house, tuition, retirement. . . [Press release]. Retrieved July 6, 2026, from https://www.franklintempleton.com/forms-literature/download/TL-R16
- Holley, J. (2024, March 4). John Templeton, 95; billionaire invested in science, religion. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2008/07/09/john-templeton-95-billionaire-invested-in-science-religion/f41f513e-6f66-4fee-9b1e-bb37b53848cf/
- John Templeton Foundation. (2025, July 31). Sir John Templeton – John Templeton Foundation. https://www.templeton.org/about/sir-john-templeton
- John Templeton: global stock picker’s remarkable life story. (2025, August 18). LGT Private Banking. https://www.lgt.com/global-en/market-assessments/insights/financial-knowledge/how-john-templeton-reconciled-god-and-mammon-301542