Transcript
Introduction
This book tells the story of how my career began, how it was abruptly cut short, and what followed once I resumed that career. It is a story of creativity and innovation, of victory and defeat, of laughter and tears, of pure coincidence and sheer luck, of commitment to high values, of determination, of stubbornness, and of cussedness, all in the name of serving investors, small as well as large, simply by giving thrifty human beings their fair share of whatever returns the financial markets bestow to our investments. It is also the story of revolution.
No, there are no Molotov cocktail-throwing radicals involved, just one man with a truly financial world-changing idea called the index mutual fund. That idea has spread like a meme, maybe even a religious sect. It is the index revolution and Vanguard has been its clear leader. For as long as I can remember, I've used the phrase, "stay the course," to urge investors to invest for the long term and not be diverted by the daily sound and fury of the stock market. In this book, as you'll see, stay the course also has been my motto in building Vanguard, holding fast to a long-term business strategy and overcoming both adversaries and adversities, none of which were able to halt or rise.