Investing Lessons from a Fool Tom Gardner’s Mission To Educate, Amuse and Enrich Investing Lessons In choosing a name for their new company, Tom Gardner and his brother, David, searched for a catchy brand that would signify what they stood for: telling people “the truth” about personal finance and investing. In Elizabethan theater, the Fool was the only one who could get away with telling the king or queen the truth without literally losing his head. By mixing investing information with curious wit and comic relief, the Gardners took their cue from Shakespeare and breathed life into the “The Motley Fool” in 1993. ♦ Today, the company’s mission remains the same— to educate, enrich and amuse individual investors worldwide. It’s grown from a 16-page newsletter into an international multimedia financial education powerhouse reaching more than 30 million people in 100 countries each month through the Internet, nationally syndicated newspaper columns, radio and television, and several best-selling books. Each month, more than three million people visit the company’s flagship web site, Fool.com. Like Shakespearian court jesters, The Motley Fools have built a business out of questioning the supposed conventional wisdom and poking fun at Wall Street professionals. As the featured speaker at the Graduate School of Management’s Business Partners Breakfast in May, Tom Gardner drew plenty of laughs as he donned his trademark fool cap and joked about being named one of People magazine’s most eligible bachelors. Gardner, co-founder and chairman of the board, personifies The Motley Fool style. For more 2• UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS continued on next page
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Investing Lessonsfrom a Fool
Tom Gardner’s Mission ToEducate, Amuse and Enrich
Investing Lessons
In choosing a name for their new company, Tom Gardner and his brother, David, searched for
a catchy brand that would signify what they stood for: telling people “the truth” about personal
finance and investing. In Elizabethan theater, the Fool was the only one who could get away
with telling the king or queen the truth without literally losing his head. By mixing investing
information with curious wit and comic relief, the Gardners took their cue from Shakespeare
and breathed life into the “The Motley Fool” in 1993.
�
Today, the company’s mission remains the same—
to educate, enrich and amuse individual investors
worldwide. It’s grown from a 16-page newsletter
into an international multimedia financial education
powerhouse reaching more than 30 million people
in 100 countries each month through the Internet,
nationally syndicated newspaper columns, radio
and television, and several best-selling books. Each
month, more than three million people visit the
company’s flagship web site, Fool.com.
Like Shakespearian court jesters, The Motley Fools
have built a business out of questioning the supposed
conventional wisdom and poking fun at Wall Street
professionals. As the featured speaker at the Graduate
School of Management’s Business Partners Breakfast
in May, Tom Gardner drew plenty of laughs as he
donned his trademark fool cap and joked about
being named one of People magazine’s most eligible
bachelors. Gardner, co-founder and chairman of the
board, personifies The Motley Fool style. For more
2 • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
continued on next page
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT • 3
than an hour, he sprinkled half-serious humor over a
healthy serving of personal finance and do-it-yourself
investing strategies.
Gardner charted a simple, three-step plan to successful
money management: eliminate credit card debt, get
a discount broker and buy a total market index fund
that earns the stock market’s average rate of return.
For those hot on trying to beat the market by owning