Invested: Changing Forever the Way Americans Invest

Probably one of the best business autobiographies one has read. Packed with insights!

super lehrreiches, interessantes Buch, nur zu empfehlen!

Hallo ! Buch war leider nicht sehr hilfreich !

A Life In Full Invested, the memoir of the entrepreneur Charles Schwab, is a classic saga of American capitalism. It is also an inspiring read, with life lessons that go far beyond the world of business. For those not familiar with his work, Mr. Schwab’s company revolutionized the way Americans were able to invest. The beneficial effects of what he accomplished ripple through the economy to this day. The book is written in a conversational manner, as if dictated (a reasonable assumption given the author’s dyslexia), and in clear, concise prose that makes engaging reading. It avoids the plodding detail of the overly meticulous biographer. Instead, the effect is more of a freewheeling discussion, perhaps an evening having a drink with a man who has led a remarkable life and is now ready to pour out his heart. Born in the aftermath of the Great Depression, Mr. Schwab was raised in a family that was respectably middle-class, but by no means wealthy. Throughout his childhood, money was often tight, and frugality was a necessity as well as a virtue. One day his father explained to him the stock tables in the local newspaper, and Mr. Schwab was struck by the idea of building wealth through investing in the stock market. That proved a pivotal moment in his young life. As he grew up, Mr. Schwab became fascinated with the power of wealth to provide freedom and peace of mind to the individual. How did some people manage to achieve wealth, while others struggled to just get by? Through college and business school in the 1960s, he was drawn to the stock market. Why did investing in the market seem like some sort of exclusive Wall Street club? Why could one only invest through high-priced brokers, who catered to people who already had money? Above all, why couldn’t investing in the market be available to the average person, to Main Street as well as Wall Street? In those pre-internet, pre-cable television days of the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Schwab was determined to break through the opacity of the market. He researched companies and devoured stock charts. He started a stock market newsletter, with a small but growing following, and later added brokerage services. And, in 1973, he founded Charles Schwab and Company. Its mission was both simple and grand: to open the world of stock investing to the great American middle class, by offering stock trading at a fraction of the prices charged by the big Wall Street firms. The beginning was less than auspicious. At the time Mr. Schwab was already in his mid-thirties. He was not only broke, but deep in debt, living in a one-bedroom apartment in Sausalito with a wife and new baby. Moreover, his contrarian position of offering discounted brokerage fees made him a disruptor, a pariah, to the Wall Street establishment. Fate intervened in his favor, however, in 1975, when the Securities and Exchange Commission deregulated the securities industry, freeing brokerage companies to charge any fees they wanted. His time had come. Charles Schwab and Company was off and running. For those who have lived through the roller-coaster of the market during those ensuing decades, it is exhilarating to relive them again as the chapters chronicle the spectacular growth of Schwab and Company. Mr. Schwab pioneered many innovations we take for granted today, including 24/7 access to services and the one-stop trading marketplace. When the 1990s brought the internet, Schwab and Company jumped on the bucking bronco and became the first firm to sell stocks and mutual funds online. And, of course, we ride through the dizzying downswings of the market’s roller coaster. The book powers through the crash of 1987, the dot-com crash of 1999-2000, the post 9/11 doldrums, and the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Each time, Schwab and Company emerges humbled but wiser, and eventually stronger. There is a cautionary tale that resonates in today’s world. In 1981 Mr. Schwab received an offer to sell his company to the Bank of America. He would stay on as CEO, and in exchange would become, at age 44, a wealthy man, as he would be handsomely paid in shares of Bank of America stock. He accepted the offer and sold his company. To his chagrin, however, he discovered that he had also sold his company’s soul. All of his life Mr. Schwab had been an entrepreneur, able to make his own decisions and change his company’s course, on the spot. Now, with the company a wholly owned subsidiary of a big bank, every decision had to be approved by layers of faceless bureaucrats. Worse, the value of his Bank of America stock crashed, as large loans to foreign countries began to go bad. Fortunately, Mr. Schwab was able to purchase his company back from Bank of America, and regain his independence. He paid a high price for his exit, however, and vowed to never again make such a mistake.It might seem a stretch to compare an individual to a nation—but is this not the story of Brexit? England initially welcomed the wealth and apparent security of the European Union, only to find it was losing its independence as a sovereign nation. Now England is paying a high price to regain its freedom. There is a lesson here for enterprises large and small, to avoid entanglements that erode liberty. From a tiny startup some forty years ago, Charles Schwab and Company has grown to become America’s largest publicly traded investment services firm, with over ten million client accounts and over three trillion—yup, trillion—dollars in assets. As Amazon has done for the retail consumer, Schwab and Company has been the source of countless innovations that have increased the wealth and knowledge of the individual investor. Now age 82, Mr. Schwab ends his book with a deeply personal reflection on the values that have guided him throughout his life. A man of faith and family, he is also devoted to the principles of personal and economic freedom found in the U.S. Constitution. And thus, he correctly sees the world of business as “the human spirit of curiosity and creativity brought to life, and why I am ever optimistic about the future.” A life in full, indeed.

This book is the Charles R. Schwab memoir. Although it appears to be a “Ra-Ra” work there is a great story to tell regarding- an American life in a free-enterprising society. Charles Schwab (CS) should be proud of his life, this book, and the business he built then saved in the greatest nation. Here the real founder, The Henry Ford of unbiased, low price, high value and outstanding customer service brokerage shares his life-time journey.This is a very easy to read book in conversational style which can be read in a very short time. It provides the reader with CS’s philosophy on being the creator of “The Main Street Investor Revolution” by way of “through the clients eyes” concept. This remarkable American idea took his company from a fledgling San Francisco startup to a company of 43 billion market cap and over 10 billion in revenue banking and investments. This work takes the reader through the entrepreneurial journey of over 40 years.Midway through the book CS reveals how he bought back his company from BofA and it is worth the read. In that same summer his company then went through a daunting task of an IPO and then the market crash of October 19, 1987. All this followed the Teddy Wang incident which reveals on how much this business is exposed to extraordinary risk to the likes of $126 million loss. Remarkably, SC at end of 1987 had a $28 million gain.I have been a shareholder and customer in this company for over 26 years. Everything in this book I was not aware of and I normally read all the shareholder material. Through all this time I have always received the best service as I compare them to the likes of Merrill Lynch, Fidelity, Vanguard, E Trade and Ameritrade. This is probably due to “Chuck’s Secret Sauce”- Total empathy for our clients.If you are an entrepreneur and searching for inspiration in a great American life-this is for you!