Analyst & Portfolio Manager Oliver Campbell reflects on a recent trip to Nashville, highlighting relatable investment insight from Dolly Parton.

How the life and words of a country music icon offer enduring investment wisdom

A recent trip to Nashville brought to mind one of Tennessee’s most iconic figures – and an unexpected source of investment insight – Dolly Parton.

Born into poverty in the 1940s as the fourth of twelve children in a one-room cabin by the Little Pigeon River, Dolly’s journey is a remarkable story of resilience and reinvention. Over the course of six decades, she has released 49 studio albums including 25 Billboard number-one hits. Her 2023 album Rockstar debuted at number three, becoming her highest-charting studio release to date.

Dolly’s life and career offer more than just musical inspiration, they reflect the very qualities that define successful long-term investing: resilience, endurance, focus, and the ability to evolve.

Enduring volatility

“If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”

This quote captures the essence of long-term equity investing. Equities are long-duration assets, and their true value is realised over years – sometimes decades – not days or weeks.

While short-term volatility can be unsettling, it is a necessary part of the journey. The power of compounding, the most potent force in wealth creation, requires time and patience. Market downturns are inevitable, but they are also the price of admission for long-term gains. To reach the rainbow, we must weather the rain.

Strength through adversity

“Storms make trees take deeper roots.”

Rather than avoiding downturns, investors should seek companies that emerge stronger from them.

These are businesses with focused leadership, resilient business models, and essential products or services that remain in demand regardless of the economic climate. Such companies often act counter-cyclically – expanding while others contract, acquiring suppliers, competitors, or customers during periods of stress. These are the deep-rooted trees in the investment forest: not only capable of weathering storms, but of growing stronger because of them.

Focus on what you can control

“We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”

As investors in the secondary market, our influence over macroeconomic forces, geopolitical events, or even company-level disruptions is limited. However, we are not powerless.

We can engage with companies on material issues, adjust our portfolio construction and make thoughtful decisions around position sizing and stock selection. The key is to focus on what we can control, rather than being distracted by what we cannot.

Integrity matters

“When someone shows you their true colours, believe them.”

Dolly’s reminder about character is especially relevant in investing. If a board, management team, or fund manager demonstrates a lack of integrity, it’s wise to take that at a face value.

Trust is foundational in capital allocation. As the fable goes, the scorpion will always sting the frog – maybe not immediately, but eventually. A single red flag often signals deeper cultural issues. In the long run, backing trustworthy leadership is essential to protecting and growing capital.

Embracing change

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”

In investing, as in life, there are moments when the current path no longer serves your goals. Markets evolve, industries transform, and sometimes the strategies that once worked begin to falter.

Dolly’s advice is a powerful reminder that we must not be bound to the status quo. If a company or portfolio is no longer aligned with your long-term objectives, it’s not only acceptable – but essential – to adapt. That might mean shifting toward more sustainable business models or embracing innovation, or rethinking exposures. The best corporate managers and the best investors are not those who cling to the familiar, they’re the ones who recognize when it’s time to build a better road.

Courage

“You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.”

Every great investment begins with a decision to act, always in the face of uncertainty. Dolly’s words are a powerful reminder that progress requires courage.

Whether it’s backing an emerging industry, entering a new market, or holding firm during a downturn, long-term investing demands conviction. Playing it safe feels comfortable, but it rarely leads to outsized returns. The most successful companies and investors are those who are willing to take calculated risks, grounded in conviction and experience and guided by principle. Bravery in investing isn’t about recklessness – it’s about having the confidence to try when others hesitate.

Perspective and balance

“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”

In the pursuit of investment performance, it’s easy to become consumed by numbers, screens, and the relentless pace of markets.

But Dolly’s words remind us that investing is ultimately a means to an end and not the end itself. Wealth generation is most meaningful when it supports a life well-lived: one filled with purpose, relationships, and time for reflection. As long-term investors, we must remember that patience and perspective are not just investment virtues, they’re life virtues. A balanced approach, both in portfolios and in priorities, leads to more sustainable success. In practical terms this means we always back the management team building a society for a better future for all than one chasing a 3-year options package for themselves.

Conclusion

These quotes are but a glimpse into the wisdom of Dolly Parton, the Sage of Tennessee. Her ability to draw strength from adversity and remain relentlessly optimistic is not only inspiring but also instructive. For long-term investors, her life offers a powerful reminder; success is built not just on talent or timing, but on resilience, discipline, and the courage to stay the course. In a world of constant change, these timeless principles remain as relevant as ever.

June 2025

Explore this further in the Altiorem library

Dolly makes the case in six lines. The research makes it at length. These are the Altiorem library records that take up each of the virtues above and put evidence behind them.

• Measuring the economic impact of short-termism
  McKinsey Global Institute, 2017
  Builds an index of corporate short-termism and finds the long-term firms grew revenue and earnings faster over the 2001 to 2015 period. The numbers behind “put up with the rain”.
• The board playbook: Winning strategies for long-term value creation
  FCLTGlobal, 2025
  What boards that actually govern for the long term do differently, drawn from company practice across Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America.
• Introducing a standardised framework for escalating engagement with companies
  ShareAction, 2023
  Turns “adjust the sails” into a method: what an investor does when engagement stalls, step by step, before divestment.
• Excessive executive compensation: Investor guidance
  Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, 2026
  How investors can assess whether a pay package rewards building a business or simply cashing a three-year option.
• The return on purpose: Before and during a crisis
  Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose and Fortuna Advisors, 2020
  Tests whether companies with genuine purpose outperformed through a downturn, and finds the ones that did had it embedded rather than declared.
• ShareAction’s voting matters seriesBenchmark
  ShareAction, most recent edition 2025
  Scores the world’s largest asset managers on how they actually voted. The place to check whether a manager’s true colours match their marketing.

Browse the full Altiorem library →