Lessons from Bruce Flatt

Bruce Flatt is the CEO of Brookfield Asset Management.

Infographic for "Lessons from Bruce Flatt".

On Investment Philosophy

On Having No Single Right Strategy: Flatt: "there's never a right strategy. It's whatever strategy fits yourself and what you want to do." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Secret Sauce: Flatt: "we didn't have any secret sauce. And we had no strategy." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Following the Crowd: Flatt: "one should always look for opportunity away from where the crowd is going and not go with the crowd." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Where Other Capital Is Not: Flatt: "go away from where the people are going and invest where other capital is not." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Contrarian Investing: Flatt: "being contrarian and not being where the crowd is going is hard to do, but the most lucrative if accomplished." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Fashion: Flatt: "Most investors follow fashion. If you cannot follow fashion and follow value, the returns will be much greater over the longer term." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Profitability Over Growth: Flatt: "we seek profitability rather than growth, because growth doesn't necessarily in what we do add value." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Great Assets: Flatt: "if you can buy great assets, especially during distressed times, buy great things." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Price: Flatt on buying quality: "don't do it at any price, because price is always important." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Where the Sheep Are Not Going: Flatt: "opportunity clearly lies in our view where the sheep are not going. So try to be where others are not. And it doesn't feel good often, sometimes for long periods of time. But in the end, it's often extremely lucrative." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).

On Long-Term Perspective and Patience

On Owning Forever: Flatt: "we try to buy everything that we'll own it forever." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Long-Term Fundamentals: Flatt: "if you're buying it and going to own it forever, you look at it with the long-term fundamentals involved." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Sacrificing Short-Term Returns: Flatt: "we'll sacrifice short-term returns to achieve long-term success." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On the Liquidity Premium: Flatt: "invest long term and try to capitalize on the fact that most people don't invest long term and often want liquidity within their assets that they invest in. And there should be a premium for that if you can capture it." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Sticking With It: Flatt: "the miracle of compounding is just sticking with it." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Compounding of Returns: Flatt: "the most amazing thing that the investment world has is the compounding of return." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).

On Risk Management

On Limiting the Effect of Mistakes: Flatt: "It's not possible in investing not to make mistakes", and "we try to limit the effect of what the mistakes we make are." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Cheap Bad Businesses: Among Brookfield's mistakes, Flatt lists that "sometimes we have got seduced by a bad business cheaply." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Covenants in Up Markets: Flatt: "Sometimes we weren't as strict on the financial covenants in an up market, because what happens in an up market and the things that we do is everyone wants to lend you money." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Misfinancing: Flatt: "the greatest mistakes in real asset investing, in particular in real estate and infrastructure have been made by those misfinanced their assets." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Not Being a Forced Seller: Flatt: "make sure that whatever financing you put in place can be serviced so that you're never forced to be able to sell that property at the time when you don't want to sell it." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Big Mistakes and Compounding: Flatt: "you can't compound at 17% for 30 years or 20% annualized for 20 years and make any big mistakes it's impossible". — Interview with David Rubenstein (2024, video transcript).

On Operations and Competitive Advantage

On Acting Like Owners: Flatt: "we try to make everyone within the business think and act like owners." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Treating Money Like Your Own: Flatt: "the ethos within the company is to treat everyone's money like it's your own." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Size: Flatt: "size does not necessarily generate profitability." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Operating Assets Better: Flatt: "we think the lion's share of the return we get isn't from a financial return, it's from an asset intensive return by operating assets better." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Running Businesses: Flatt: "it's not always about Finance it's about running businesses". — Interview with David Rubenstein (2024, video transcript).
On People: Flatt: "The most difficult thing about all businesses is people." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).

On Market Dynamics

On Scarce Capital: Flatt: "when capital is scarce it generally indicates it's the right time to buy." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Not Too Positive or Too Negative: Flatt: "We try with all of this never to be too positive or too negative." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Replacement Cost: Flatt: "the number one thing that drives value within an investment is up front if you can invest in something in a great spot and if you can buy it at less than replacement cost." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Overpaying: On a coal facility, Flatt says the earlier buyer paid 1.5 times replacement cost: "the only thing that changed is that they were too positive at the time they bought it about what was going on." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Private Markets and Volatility: Flatt: "the single most important reason to be in private markets is that you do not get distracted by a public market volatility for the value that you own." — Onstage interview at the Europe Forum with Jonathan Brasse (2025, video transcript).
On Liquidity Needs: Flatt: "If you need liquidity, be in the public markets." — Onstage interview at the Europe Forum with Jonathan Brasse (2025, video transcript).

On Leadership and Culture

On Incentives: Flatt: "we have to make sure that people aren't incented to do dumb things, because they were compensated that way." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Compensation: Flatt: "If you don't have a great company to work at and people aren't passionate about what they do and where the company is going, compensation generally doesn't matter." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Passion: Flatt: "if you can find something that you do which you're passionate about, you will be successful." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Small Mistakes: Flatt: "the culture of our place is try to make as many small mistakes as you possibly can which means that you're testing the windows every day but don't make any really large mistakes". — Interview with David Rubenstein (2024, video transcript).
On Credit: Flatt: "I didn't build this my partners and I built it and the other 2,000 people built it". — Interview with David Rubenstein (2024, video transcript).
On Technology: Flatt on his biggest regret: "I think 25, 30 years ago, we probably should have paid more attention to what was going on in technology." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).

On Global Trends

On Infrastructure: Flatt on infrastructure: "this is the backbone of the global economy". — Interview with David Rubenstein (2024, video transcript).
On Governments and Debt: Flatt: "governments can't afford because they have so much debt they can't afford to provide that infrastructure anymore so that's moving into private hands". — Interview with David Rubenstein (2024, video transcript).
On Urbanization: Flatt: "there's a massive 50-year urbanization going on in the planet." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On the Backbone of the Economy: Flatt: "We invest in the backbone of the global economy" and the businesses "give you your electricity in the afternoon". — Squawk Box Asia interview (2025, video transcript).
On Change: Flatt: "change brings opportunity." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).

On Wealth Creation

On Compounding Wealth: Flatt: "if you can compound at 10% plus over a very long period of time, great long-term wealth can be created." — Squawk Box Asia interview (2025, video transcript).
On Buying and Holding: Flatt: "continue to buy great investments and hold them and compound. Don't pay taxes by selling them. And don't look for fashion when you make them." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Selling at the Wrong Time: Flatt: "The problem is most people invest this month. And then they decide, well, it went down, I should sell." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).
On Retirement Accounts: Flatt: "what you should want in your retirement account is something that's going to compound away at 10% for the next 25 years." — Squawk Box Asia interview (2025, video transcript).
On Wealth From Compounding: Flatt: "the wealth that can be generated through compounding of returns is significant." — Durable Principles for Real Asset Investing: Bruce Flatt's 2018 talk (video transcript).

Learn more:

On Investment Philosophy

On Long-Term Perspective and Patience

On Risk Management

On Operations and Competitive Advantage

On Market Dynamics

On Leadership and Culture

On Global Trends

On Wealth Creation

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