Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings by Philip A. Fisher

Part One 
COMMON STOCKS AND UNCOMMON
 PROFITS

Preface
 The publication of a new book in the field of investment may well
 require some explanatory statement from its author. The following
 remarks will therefore have to be somewhat personal in order to supply
 an adequate explanation for my venturing to offer another book on this
 subject to the investing public.
 After one year in Stanford University's then brand-new Graduate School
 of Business Administration, I entered the business world in May 1928. I
 went to work for, and twenty months later was made the head of, the
 statistical department of one of the main constituent units of the present
 Crocker-Anglo National Bank of San Francisco. Under today's
 nomenclature I would have been called a security analyst.
 Here I had a ringside seat at the incredible financial orgy that culminated
 in the autumn of 1929 as well as the period of adversity that followed.
 My observations led me to believe that there was a magnificent
 opportunity on the West Coast for a specialized investment counseling
 firm that would make itself the direct antithesis of that ancient but
 uncomplimentary description of certain stockbrokers—men who know
 the price of everything and the value of nothing.
 On March first 1931, I started Fisher & Co. which, at that time, was an
 investment counseling business serving the general public but with its
 interests centered largely around a few growth companies.This activ-ity
 prospered.Then came World War II. For three and a half years, while I
 was engaged in various desk jobs for the Army Air Force, I spent part of
 such spare time as I had in reviewing both the successful and, more
 particularly, the unsuccessful investment actions that I had taken and that
 I had seen others take during the preceding ten years. I began seeing
 certain investment principles emerge from this review which were
 different from some of those commonly accepted as gospel in the
 financial community.
 When I returned to civilian life I decided to put these principles into
 practice in a business atmosphere as little disturbed by side issues as
 possible. Instead of serving the general public, Fisher & Co. for over
 eleven years has never served more than a dozen clients at one time.
 Most of these clients have remained the same during this period. Instead
 of being mainly interested in major capital appreciation, all Fisher & Co.

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings by Philip A. Fisher