Invested: Changing Forever the Way Americans Invest

Description

“To say Charles Schwab is an entrepreneur is actually an understatement. He really is a revolutionary.”—Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, author of Shoe Dog The founder of The Charles Schwab Corporation recounts his ups and downs as he made stock investing, once the expensive and clubby reserve of the few, accessible to ordinary Americans. In this deeply personal memoir, Schwab describes his passion to have Main Street participate in the growing economy as investors and owners, not only earners. Schwab opens up about his dyslexia and how he worked around and ultimately embraced it, and about the challenges he faced while starting his fledgling company in the 1970s. A year into his grand experiment in discounted stock trading, living in a small apartment in Sausalito with his wife, Helen, and new baby, he carried a six-figure debt and a pocketful of personal loans. As it turned out, customers flocked to Schwab, leaving his small team scrambling with scarce resources and no road map to manage the company’s growth. He recounts the company’s game-changing sale to Bank of America—and how, in the end, the merger almost doomed his organization. We learn about the clever and timely leveraged buyout he crafted to regain independence; the crushing stock market collapse of 1987, just weeks after the company had gone public; the dot-com meltdown of 2000 and its reverberating aftermath of economic stagnation, layoffs, and the company’s eventual reinvention; and how the company’s focus on managing risk protected it and its clients during the financial crisis in 2008, propelling its growth. A remarkable story of a company succeeding by challenging norms and conventions through decades of change, Invested also offers unique insights and lifelong principles for readers—the values that Schwab has lived and worked by that have made him one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time. Today, his eponymous company is one of the leading financial services firms in the world. Preface Part I: Getting Started Chapter 1: May Day Chapter 2: A Sense of Independence Chapter 3: I Had a Lot of Jobs Chapter 4: Always a Struggle Chapter 5: A Piece of the Action Chapter 6: Enter Uncle Bill Chapter 7: The Transaction Specialist Part II: Riding a Rocket Chapter 8: A Vaguely Disreputable Threat Chapter 9: No Salesperson Will Call Chapter 10: Uncle Bill Gets His Branch Chapter 11: BETA Chapter 12: Never Ending, Endlessly Frustrating Chapter 13: Capital and Credibility Chapter 14: The New Kid Chapter 15: A Raging Case of the Yips Chapter 16: Open Revolt Chapter 17: Free at Last Chapter 18: Don’t Push Your Luck Chapter 19: Tsunami Part III: Boom and Bust Chapter 20: Advancing the Revolution Chapter 21: Life Intercedes Chapter 22: The Network Chapter 23: Unlike Anything I Had Experienced Part IV: Second Act Chapter 24: A Very Difficult Decision Chapter 25: We’ve Got This Chapter 26: Implement It All Chapter 27: Talk to Chuck Chapter 28: A Jewel Part V: Time Tested Chapter 29: You Have to Be Optimistic Chapter 30: Ready Chapter 31: Coiled Spring Chapter 32: Chuck’s Secret Sauce Epilogue: Personal Reflections Photo Insert Dedication Acknowledgments About the Author