Summary
On this day in 1997 Chris Hill started working at The Motley Fool. He shares a few investing lessons he’s learned over the years, how he’s trying to think more like a Zen master, and the time he bought a stock while he was high.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Thursday, June 17th. Welcome to Marketfoolery. I'm Chris Hill, and today is my 24th anniversary |
| 0:10.3 | of working at the Motley Fool. Where were you on June 17th, 1997? Were you even born? |
| 0:20.2 | Were you in grade school? High school, college? Did you have a job? Were you working somewhere? |
| 0:26.7 | June 17th, 1997. I walked in the door at 123 North Pit Street, took the elevator up to the office, |
| 0:34.1 | and started doing the things that you do on your first day at a new job. Filled not a bunch of |
| 0:40.5 | forms, got assigned a desk and a computer. I was given an official Motley Fool mug with the |
| 0:47.4 | original logo, which I think I have this right. I think it was drawn by Julia Ridehome. |
| 0:53.7 | It was the sister of company co-founder Eric Ridehome. Still have the mug, by the way. |
| 0:59.3 | Don't worry, I'm not going to walk you through every professional memory that I have of the |
| 1:03.8 | past 24 years, but I am going to share a little bit because there's no way for me to think about |
| 1:08.9 | my time at the Motley Fool without stock investing being at the front and center of my brain. |
| 1:17.0 | I had worked in the U.S. Capitol Building for six years, so I'd been investing through the |
| 1:21.6 | Thrift Saving Program, but when I got to the fool, I started learning about stocks and thinking |
| 1:26.9 | about businesses in ways that I really never had before. The idea that the numbers of a business |
| 1:34.7 | are important, but it's not just about the numbers. The story of the business is important. The |
| 1:39.5 | people leading it, that's important. The more I've done this, the more experienced I've gotten as |
| 1:45.4 | an investor, the more comfortable I've gotten with a few things that I did not realize 24 years |
| 1:51.3 | ago. The role that luck plays in investing, the importance of being selfish, staying as |
| 1:59.5 | even killed as possible for as long as possible. I've made investing mistakes over the past 24 |
| 2:06.5 | years, and I will continue to make mistakes. I bought stocks where I didn't understand the |
| 2:11.3 | business and couldn't explain what the company does. One time I bought a stock when I was high. |
| 2:17.4 | It was 1999. I'd had all four of my wisdom teeth out, and I was spending a few days at home recuperating, |
... |
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