Can I Just Invest, Without Getting my Hands Dirty?

It is tempting to imagine investing as a kind of luxury—making money from behind a computer screen, day after day. The picture is appealing: remote work, staring at price charts, trading stocks like pieces of inventory moving through a brokerage account. With this view, there is little need to interact with anyone or think too deeply about the underlying businesses.

But here lies a common mistake. Real investing is not about trading tickers; it’s about owning businesses. When you buy shares, you are purchasing a piece of a company, and with that comes responsibility as well as opportunity. Long-term shareholders are not only entitled to dividends and capital appreciation—they also hold voting rights that influence how the company is run.

The real money, many seasoned investors argue, comes when you appreciate this deeper reality. Successful investors form opinions on the company’s business, its management, and its prospects before, during, and sometimes even after their period of ownership. As shareholders, we are expected to exercise a measure of control—or at the very least, to understand how our interests are being safeguarded.

Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, put it best: “Do not let anyone else run your business, unless (1) you can supervise his performance with adequate care and comprehension or (2) you have unusually strong reasons for placing implicit confidence in his integrity and ability.”

Investing, in short, requires engagement. You don’t need to micromanage every detail, but you do need to treat ownership seriously.

For those who want to explore this perspective further, I recommend Benjamin Graham’s classic The Intelligent Investor—a timeless introduction to treating stocks not as lottery tickets, but as businesses. Click here to read reviews or purchase the book.