Most aren't trying to. The manager in an investment fund probably has all the money he needs to enjoy life. He doesn't care about the performance of his fund, so long as clients stay on board.

And the funny thing is, that makes his fund far more driven by the whims of the public than retail investors. So many stories about funds staying away from the dot-com bubble end with "the fund had to close, because of clients pulling out their money".

Half the reason Warren Buffett is hailed as genius is because his shareholders can't pull out their money easily.

As someone said, they don't need to outperform. They only need to perform enough to survive and pull management fees, which are risk free for the managers.