Well he has always had a concentrated portfolio with one company per sector. ITC, Reliance, Infosys, Hdfc, Asian Paints, Maruti, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Larsen have been his mainstays. Though his speculative punt Suzlon is still hanging around 
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The main things I’ve learnt from him are never let your money sleep, compounding and patience is key, there is no such thing as an anchor price, make a company tangible, sometimes the obvious companies are the best. Il elaborate on all of them
- Hoarding cash/overspending on liabilities/savings accounts and even FDs have been sins in our family since for as long as I can remember. Everything we have ever had has been invested in equity/assets. I’d sum up his advice as live within your means till the age of 40 and make your money work for you so you can live free at 41.
- Last year I told him he was lucky he managed to buy companies like reliance, ITC, Infosys etc in the early 2000s(some companies in the 90s). He told me that in the year 2040 my future son would say I was lucky I could buy the likes of Reliance, ITC, Infosys etc in the year 2020 lol. Basically obvious quality companies remain obvious quality companies over decades and will always be the envy of the next generation
- The first time you buy a company is only the first installment of a lifetimes worth of installments. So anchor prices don’t matter. If you feel you won’t be buying more installments at higher prices then maybe the company isn’t worth owning. You should want to own as much of the company as you can and cash will only ever be available periodically and not in a lumpsum.
- Investing is supposed to be boring and systematic. Excitement should be left for what you do with the end result of investing ie the money from selling/dividends.
- Always make a company real. My dad bought a maruti car, opened an hdfc account, visited factories, bought products from companies he owned etc. Basically once you realise how big a company is and how small you are you learn to respect them and not treat them as easy money/a ticker tape.
- Most of the companies he bought were just obviously great. Valuations never really mattered to him. He and his friends discussed and bought companies together. The guys who speculated and chased short term profits are now envious of the guys who bought reliance etc and held on for 20 years instead. Not all companies work out(cough… Suzlon)but in the long run it doesn’t really matter if a few don’t. At the end of the day if you can’t reinvest or hold a company for 10 years and can’t see it being the envy of everyone over the next few decades then maybe it’s better not to invest in it.
- Appreciate a company like ITC which rewards you with dividends which makes it easy to let you allow compounding occur over decades without any pain due to its salary esque returns
- Read annual reports. Infact that’s all he would do. He never really bothered with quarter results and concalls etc. Just annual reports were enough. Also, he would keep one eye on the market every day but with the purpose of buying and never with the thought of selling.
- Oh and one more… there’s no such thing as a great investor and a bad investor. Infact my dad is blown away when I come up with a thesis for investment since he never thought about companies the way it’s discussed in these forums(and hence why he now buys the likes of alembic etc. I’m glad I’ve renewed his passion again). However, what I’ve realised from him is that a good investor is someone who stays invested. The people who stay in the market the longest and find a company they can reinvest in the longest wins. My uncle ie his brother sold a house back in the year 2001 or so and invested a huge lumpsum in Karur Vysya bank and MRF (his wife worked for Karur Vysya and he worked in MRF) in the year 2001 and basically lives off of it now… Karur Vysya bank… imagine that. Infact over a decade their salaries were miniscule comapred to what their networth and earnings were just from that investment. The stock market is a magical place if you give it time. There was a lot of luck involved in all of the above obviously too since as far as I know thereve been no corporate governance issues etc… and that looks like the main thing to look out for.
Basically, the stuff that I now obsess about ie valuations, management commentary, news etc are stuff that he never worries about… and maybe that’s the key to long term investing. Find good companies, owners and stories and trust them until the end and let them do the work for you. That being said… the landscape is forever changing. So the rules of the past few decades may not apply to the next few decades, and hence why my investment style isn’t the same as his, but the overall principles regards patience, being systematic and quality of companies look like they will stand the test of time.