In a Bull market almost everything you do looks clever and in a Bear market almost everything you do looks stupid.

But a Bear market is almost always where the great bargains are.

The conclusion is, learn to look stupid.

Value and Growth are connected at the hip.

There is no value without growth and no growth without value.

Warren Buffett

The job of the investor, unfortunately, is much harder, he or she has to find a stock that has it's economics and growth intact at a price that is reasonable.

Background:
There is an ongoing discussion about those who look for stocks with high growth and those who look for stocks that are deeply discounted. A growth stock without sound economics will eventually burn out and as luck would have it just after you buy it. Similarly, a deeply discounted stock is usually discounted for a reason.

The Casino

For every game there are two sides: the player and the owner. Both sides are attempting to make money from the same game. For the player, it is entertainment but for the owner it is a business. What separates the two are the odds or the margin of safety. For the player it is against him. For the owner it is with him. If the player forgets this fact, he courts disaster. If the owner forgets this fact he may behave foolishly and, therefore, not do as well as he could.

The analogy describes the difference between the speculator(player) and the investor(owner).

If you do all the right things, will you get outstanding results?

Not necessarily.

Although competence and hard work are necessary, luck is essential

You will probably, however, not get a bad result.

Whether you achieve outstanding results will depend on the effort and intellect you apply to your investments, as well as on the amplitudes of stock market folly that prevail during your investing career

Warren Buffet, preface to the fourth edition of the Intelligent Investor

I might add to Buffet's quote the fact that you have to be able to take advantage of a market folly.

If you develop all the right attributes, will decision making become easy?

Not necessarily. There is one other ingredient, Courage.

Have the courage of your knowledge and experience. If you have formed a conclusion from the facts and if you know your judgment is sound, act on it even though others may hesitate or differ. You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right, Similarly, in the world of securities, courage becomes the supreme virtue after adequate knowledge and a tested judgment are at hand.

Benjamin Graham from the Intelligent Investor