The Fairfax Way: Inside Prem Watsa's Secret to Lasting Success

by David Thomas

The inside story on Canada’s most successful, below-the-radar company in history

Even those who have heard of Prem Watsa and Fairfax Financial probably don’t understand them. The company sprawls across more than 100 countries and is known for its complex finances—so complex, they once attracted a who’s-who of Wall Street short sellers who misread the company as the next Enron and decided it could be profitably pushed into an open grave. The hedge funds even had Bob Dylan lined up to sing at the company’s funeral party. Fairfax stared down regulators and fought back. Dylan never got the chance to sing.

Watsa, now 75, stole a page from Warren Buffett in building a $45 billion global empire built on value investing and insurance assets. Its bold and creative trades are legendary, often moving against the herd and making billions while others lose their shirts. These days, the company is back winning billion-dollar bets, but away from the headlines. The Fairfax Way explores the lessons learned and why skies are now blue above a transformed company.

In its 39-year history, Fairfax’s annual compound return of 19.2% trounces the S&P 500’s 11.3%. Lately, it is outperforming even Silicon Valley tech stocks and winning back an investor following. It’s time to get to know Fairfax better. The company’s holdings include strategic investments like Bauer hockey sticks, William Ashley wedding gifts, Sleep Country mattresses, Golf Town stores, and Seaspan container ships. If you took home Swiss Chalet chicken last week or went for steak at the Keg, you ate at Fairfax restaurants.

It’s time to get to know Prem Watsa better, too. People long misjudged him as a recluse. Truth is, he simply always wanted to build a business, not talk to the media. After 40 years, he and his executives have finally decided it’s a good time to open up.

For all the colourful dealmaking, billion-dollar bets, high-stakes hedge fund wars, Thomas reveals an inspiring story for our current troubled times. What emerges is that many people just had trouble believing Fairfax had the audacity to build a company culture based on the golden rule—treat others as you would have them treat you. The Fairfax Way captures the inside story of how a culture of treating people right can be a secret competitive moat to long-term outperformance.

376 pages, Hardcover

Published November 18, 2025

About the author

Librarian Note: This profile contains more than one author. Those listed below have multiple books listed on GoodReads.

David Thomas (2^): GR author, historical books about Camborne, Cornwall, England
David Thomas (3^): anthologies, mostly horror
David Thomas (4^): British professor specializing in Christian-Muslim relations
David Thomas (5^): GR author who collaborates on autobiographies
David Thomas (6^): art
David Thomas (7^): math and other educational books
David Thomas (8^): Director of Family Counseling at Daystar Counseling
David Thomas (9^): GR author, memoirs that are vastly different
David Thomas (10^): Theatre & Performance Studies
David Thomas (11^): French poetry
David Thomas (12^): Australian history professor
David Thomas (13^): Former name of Tom Cain, now Diana Thomas
David Thomas (14^): Poet who is a mental health worker from Ohio
David Thomas (15^): British archivist
David Thomas (16^): American, The Ethics of Human Development
David Thomas (17^): musician,lead singer of Pere Ubu
David Thomas (18^): Poet from Michigan, goes by “King David”
David Thomas (19^): cookbooks
David Thomas (20^): children’s books about animals from 1940s-1960s
David Thomas (21^): Welsh, non-fiction
David Thomas (22^): GR author of Worst Wizard
David Thomas (23^): GR author, “micro-fiction”
David Thomas (24^): GR author of the Michael Manners Dream Sequence series
David Thomas (25^): books about the tango
David Thomas (26^): GR author of Luna
David Thomas (27^): books about narcissism
David Thomas (28^): “The Art of Personal Spiritual Warfare” series of books
David Thomas (29^): Dutch children’s books
David Thomas (30^): bee keeping
David Thomas (31^): riddle books
David Thomas (32^): The Night Hunters series
David Thomas (33^): books from 1910s-1940s about typesetting
David Thomas (34^): Print on Demand books
David Thomas (35^): English to ... dictionaries
David Thomas (36^): American retired videogame critic
David Thomas (37^): adult

Reviews

[Harshan Ramadass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat disjointed. But readable. Felt like collection of pieces from the globe. Not much new stuff about value investing , and use of floats to fuel investing is also well known. Good cover to cover read during a transcontinental flight

[Zachary Workman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the first half of the book, walking through the history of Fairfax. The second half didn't provide as much value and could have been more concise, in my opinion.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

As another reviewer said, it could've been more concise. Loved the biography bits, but then it went into minutiae about everything that Fairfax did.

[Patricia Buchanan]

Fascinating from the perspective of a company living its values.