The CEO of a $13 billion investment firm says there’s one lesson everyone has to master to build wealth: patience

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Mellody Hobson, a co-CEO of Ariel Investments, told the New York Times that the key to successful investing is patience.
Patience leads to compound interest, which is the most important concept to understand about money, Hobson said.
She cited Warren Buffett as an example of a patient investor. The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway once said, "There is nothing wrong with getting rich slowly."
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"Good things come to those who wait" is more than an old English proverb. In the investing world, it’s regarded by many as the rulebook for success.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Mellody Hobson, a co-CEO of Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based investment firm with nearly $13 billion in assets under management, said patience is one of the key ingredients to building wealth. In fact, it’s an integral part of the investing approach at Ariel Investments, where Hobson has worked for nearly 28 years, the Times’ David Gelles reported.

"We talk about long-term patient investing, and that idea that slow and steady does win the race, that time can be your best friend when it comes to investing," Hobson told Gelles. "That’s why we have a turtle as a logo at Ariel."

Hobson, who also serves on the boards of JPMorgan Chase and Starbucks, said "it’s never too late" to get started investing, but regardless of where you are and who you are, the same lessons apply.

"I also think the most important thing you can learn about money, and Warren Buffett talks about this, is compound interest," Hobson said. "It’s the eighth wonder of the world. If you understand compound interest, you understand money working for or against you."

Compound interest is a form of exponential growth that helps turn your money into more money, and its engine is time. It’s the snowball effect: As you roll a snowball down a hill, it gathers more snow. Not only does the original snowball grow in size, but each additional pack also grows. The longer you let it go, the bigger it gets.

This is hardly the first time Hobson has talked about the importance of patient investing. In an interview with Bloomberg in 2016, she shared one of her life lessons: "Every game is won with patience."

Warren Buffett is perhaps the most well-known example of patience paying off. The billionaire CEO of Berkshire Hathaway considers patience — specifically, holding on to low-cost funds over a long period of time — a cornerstone of his winning investment strategy and repeatedly advises fellow investors to remain steady even when markets go haywire. As he put its, "There is nothing wrong with getting rich slowly."

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