• At a financial conference, billionaire Bill Ackman shared the life advice that he says got him through a tumultuous time in his life. Applying the principle of compounding interest to his personal life, he said he tried not to look back, because that will depress you, but instead tried to improve a little bit every day.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is known for his activist approach to investments—and, lately, to politics.

His personal life has been just as dramatic. In the mid-2010s, Ackman went through an expensive divorce, saw his firm Pershing Square Capital Management lose billions of dollars, and nearly lost control of the company—all within the span of a few years.

Ackman shared the story on stage at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit in New York on Thursday.

“I was go

See Full Page