Jim Simons and his approach

Well, I like smart people, that use their brain wisely and also do good doing it. One of these persons is Jim Simons.

Jim Simons is one of the businessman out there, that used mathematics to make a fortune. He is one of the smartest people on the planet, having a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and also a PhD in mathematics from University of California, Berkeley.

He then used to teach mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, and during this he went in 1964 to the National Security Agency to break codes. Not a lot of people can tell about such a prolific career, and mathematics is not gender studies.

He founded Monemetrics in 1978, which became Renaissance Technologies in 1982. He employed mathematicians, statisticians, theoretical and experimental physicists, astronomers, and computer scientists, people which are having a non-financial background. By doing this, they had their own way of analysing the market, putting out mathematical based trades, which most have been automated. By this, they had the biggest gain for a hedge fund, with an average of 66%.

Imagine, just bringing great minds together, to check mathematical patterns, trends to win the market. People with financial background tend to follow trends, this guys set the trend. Imagine in the 80s to run trades supported by mathematics. I would say, pure genius.

Beside the hedge fund, he donated a lot of money to philanthropy. One being the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, which he founded, to research, diagnose and treat autism. Another philanthropy would be the Math for America, which is a non-profit organisation which aims to retain mathematics teacher in the state of New York. Well, they are real life issues.

I like that he had a good approach to life, be the best at what you have chosen, hire people better than you in positions that you want to delegate and after making a fortune, change the world to a better place, where you can have an impact.

Which businessman do you admire? Why?
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This is part of the initiative #februaryinleo, where you can still participate, even if you missed the post from the start, like I did. All the details are in here and in here.

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