Founders
Episode 57 #57 John Bogle: Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution
Founders

Episode 57: #57 John Bogle: Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution

Founders

Episode 57

#57 John Bogle: Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution

David Senra is the host of Founders, where he studies history's greatest entrepreneurs. This is what he learned from reading Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution.

What I learned from reading Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution.

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This is a story of a revolution [0:01]

what Vanguard does and why? [7:00]

the seed of the idea that eventually becomes Vanguard [10:00]

switching from conservative investing to speculation / when humans are scared they copy the behavior of those around them [17:00]

John gets fired. He decides to fight back. [31:00]

if you know why you are doing what you are doing you are less likely to quit [41:00]

staying the course gives you a massive advantage because most humans quit [53:00] 

We must never underrate the power of compounding investment returns, and always avoid the tyranny of compounding investment costs.– John Bogle [59:00]

eliminating the 50-year tradition of sales commission [1:01:00]

a failure caused by focusing on competition and not learning from the past [1:06:00]

the Founders Mentality [1:07:30]

personal reflections and a memoir of sorts [1:11:00]

I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

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#57 John Bogle: Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution

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.

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