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David Gardner of the Motley Fool believes that stocks and investing should be not only accessible and understandable to everyone, but even fun! It has been this approach that has catapulted his business from a small investing newsletter to a successful international company that provides investment advice, analysis, and education.
David and his brother Tom’s humor and fun-loving approach are apparent immediately when one visits their website and is greeted with the tagline “At The Motley Fool, we take our purpose seriously, but that doesn’t mean we take ourselves too seriously.”
As You Like It (2.7. 906-912)
‘Good morrow, fool,’ quoth I; ‘No, sir,’ quoth he,
‘Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune.’
The use of the fool as the symbol is not just about fun though. As stated on the website, “Our name is in homage to the one character in Shakespearean literature — the court jester — who could speak the truth to the king and queen without having his or her head lopped off. The Fools of yore entertained the court with humor that instructed as it amused.
More importantly, the Fool was never afraid to question conventional wisdom.” This is an apt summary of the corporate culture, because a bit of amusement is an effective tool to encourage learning and decrease the intimidation that so many feel when approaching the stock market.
A key aspect of the philosophy at The Motley Fool is to educate potential investors in plain English. The approach is to avoid the dry and sterile style of many investment firms that come off as taking themselves too seriously. Says Gardner, “We’re more Main Street, not Wall Street.” The combined tactics of humor and down-to-earth approachableness has earned the company 400,000 plus subscribers, and thousands more followers on various social media platforms and podcasts.
One of the primary pieces of advice that Gardner offers to interested investors is to choose companies that they believe in and projects that they are passionate about. Gardner elaborates, “People have to understand… wealth is created through efforts, through purpose, through these types of productive activities. It’s value creation.”
He adds that investors should love what a company does and see something of themselves in it. A great stock pick is really not about a stock at all, but about the entrepreneur behind it.
Looking to the broader context, Gardner concludes, “(America is) still such a great system because at the heart of it, you have people doing what they love and do best… We should be doing something we’re good at that we love, and then we should be buying that thing from other people. Then, we should start corporations together and be invested together and then watch our stocks triple or go up 300 times in value…”
The stock market and financial world can be quite intimidating for the novice, but The Motley Fool offers a smile and solid guidance in an accessible manner. To learn more, visit their website or check out David’s highly-rated investment guides at our Expert Bookstore!