Ken Griffin Explains What Sets Legendary Investors Apart From The Rest—And Looks To The Future

Billionaire Ken Griffin's investing acumen has turned Citadel LLC into the world's most profitable hedge fund, but he's not taking time off to smell the roses. Griffin believes the best is yet to come, and says he's more excited about the future than the past. 

"I like to think I haven't accomplished yet what I will be remembered for. That this is not a view from the top, but a journey to a destination yet to be determined," he said on the "View From the Top" podcast in May. 

With that said, Griffin has reached a point in life where he is willing to reflect on his accomplishments. He expanded on his success during the podcast recorded at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

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Griffin said his willingness to look at things from a different perspective has been key to his success. Looking back at the beginning of his time with Citadel, Griffin noted the importance of spending as much time looking at what's going right as you do worrying about what's going wrong. 

There is valuable information to be gleaned from both. "If you focus all your time on the ‘nos,' you're not focusing on what it takes to win," said Griffin. Griffin also told host Michael Liu that he analyzes Citadel's P&L sheets every day. 

You might think the CEO of the most profitable hedge fund in history would leave that work to a lower-ranking employee, but that's not how Griffin turned Citadel into a powerhouse.  He takes the responsibility of building wealth for his investors extremely seriously, and the results show it.

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"The people that give us their capital, they want us to earn a return on it. They want us to outthink, to out-hustle, and to outwork the competition, and when we have a winning idea, they want us to bet on that idea. We're here to win," said Griffin. He sees his willingness to identify and aggressively pursue potentially lucrative investment opportunities as a key element of being a great investor.

"I think legendary investors really know when they have an advantage and they press it," he told Liu. "They're confident in their conviction, and when they're wrong, they move on." That may sound like a common-sense mindset, but facing the fear of making a bad investment and investing anyway is easier said than done. Griffin's ability to focus on the upside and make bold moves has set him apart from his contemporaries.

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Griffin founded Citadel in 1990 after making trades in his dorm room at Harvard University in the late 1980s. Originally, Citadel was Wellington Financial Group, and Griffin started it with just $4.6 million worth of investor capital. Wellington Financial Group became Citadel in 1994. The fund had $2 billion worth of assets under management by 1998. Today, Citadel has $65 billion under management, and Griffin clearly believes the best is yet to come.

Griffin's willingness to focus on the upside of investing and ability to stay motivated are both key aspects of his success. Every day investors can learn something from that, even if they don't build a billionaire portfolio along the way. 

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