Over a ten-year period commencing on January 1, 2008, and ending on December 31, 2017, the S&P 500 will outperform a portfolio of funds of hedge funds, when performance is measured on a basis net of fees, costs and expenses.

Over the years, I’ve often been asked for investment advice, and in the process of answering I’ve learned a good deal about human behavior. My regular recommendation has been a low-cost S&P 500 index fund. To their credit, my friends who possess only modest means have usually followed my suggestion.

I believe, however, that none of the mega-rich individuals, institutions or pension funds has followed that same advice when I’ve given it to them. Instead, these investors politely thank me for my thoughts and depart to listen to the siren song of a high-fee manager or, in the case of many institutions, to seek out another breed of hyper-helper called a consultant.

Having the flexibility to invest both long and short, hedge funds do not set out to beat the market. Rather, they seek to generate positive returns over time regardless of the market environment. They think very differently than do traditional “relative-return” investors, whose primary goal is to beat the market, even when that only means losing less than the market when it falls. For hedge funds, success can mean outperforming the market in lean times, while underperforming in the best of times. Through a cycle, nevertheless, top hedge fund managers have surpassed market returns net of all fees, while assuming less risk as well. We believe such results will continue.

We Think Girls Are The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

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I think people need to know more about the stories of these young girls and people in those countries we talk about. I talk about Nigeria, I have met the girl who escaped from the Boko Haram kidnapping, and some were released recently so I met those girls as well, and I saw the girls—now called the Chibok girls—and I could see smiles on their faces. Now they have come back, they are going to live their normal lives, and it just reminds us women how important it is for us to have safety, to have protection, to have education. These girls have gone through so many difficulties. They value education. They know that this is the way you go forward. So seeing their commitment, seeing their interest in education, really inspires me. I go with the ambition that I can inspire them, but in return, they inspire me. Their stories are so powerful and moving. So, I would really tell people to try and hear these girls’ stories and maybe meet them and know more about them. We just hear about refugees in terms of numbers but we never hear their stories and what their lives are like. We never see it in reality, so I try to see it in reality.

Going and visiting the school and opening it was a really beautiful moment for me. To see all the young girls there and think that now, these girls are going to be going to school. They were living in these tents with no electricity—it was really hard there—and no clean water, but now they are going to have school and they are going to have teachers; they are going to be empowered. Also, we are opening a girls’ school in my home village in Shangla, and it is going to be an amazing opportunity for girls in that village—where they don’t have any higher secondary education facilities—to complete their education and to follow their dreams. It is going to bring great change in that whole village.

Animated funny movies. I think it depends on who you watch the movie with, like if I go with my friends. I’m a fan of Minions, Madagascar, and that kind of stuff. [Laughs]

“If all you need is more information, I can come visit the energy committee and do a PowerPoint for you,”

“It’s morally right to stand up and fix this so that your kids and I don’t have to suffer when we’re older,”