Don't Let Your Clauses Mingle and Conspire

If a well-understood business is offered to you at half or less than its underlying intrinsic value two to three years from now, with minimal downside risk, take it.
--from The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai

Readers, what's wrong with this sentence? Let's break down the clauses one by one:

If a well-understood business is offered to you...
at half or less than its underlying intrinsic value...
two to three years from now...

Hmmm. Would you buy a business that won't be offered for another two to three years? I wouldn't.

Sure, we can tell what the author means: He's talking about buying a business now at a discount to what its intrinsic value will be--two to three years from now. But the reader is left stumbling over a multiple-clause sentence that's too complex for its own good.

Be careful cramming too many clauses together in single a sentence. A couple of clauses can get along well enough, but combine more than three or four and your clauses start mingling, planning things... Before you know it, they'll start a full-on conspiracy to confuse your readers.

The solution? Eliminate. Strip out clauses until your meaning is unmistakably clear. I'd start by eliminating the clause two to three years from now:

If a well-understood business is offered to you at half or less than its underlying intrinsic value, with minimal downside risk, take it.

There. Nothing unclear about that.