Essays From Yesterday, Vol. 8

Rule Breaker Investing

The Motley Fool

Business, Investing

4.4 • 959 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As we open 2026, David looks backward to get clearer about what really matters going forward. In the eighth installment of Essays From Yesterday, he revisits four Rule Breaker essays written between 2006 and 2014—spanning market sell-offs, forgotten drawdowns, early buyouts, language that shapes behavior, and the enduring power of mindset. Along the way, we’re reminded that sharp declines happen more often than we remember, that short-term scorecards mislead, and that a handful of great winners can overwhelm many mistakes. This lesson-filled episode makes the case for capital “H” History as an investor’s secret weapon—and for why perspective, patience, and precise thinking continue year after year to crush the stock market averages. • (5:02) Introduction to July 2006 Issue • (15:55) The Tim Beyers Issue • (27:42) Greatest Issue Ever • (37:26) Starter Stocks Companies mentioned: AKAM, APKT, CRM, GOOG, ISRG, MELI, NILE, PDLI, QLIK Host: David GardnerProducer: Bart Shannon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I got a secret for you.
0:03.7	Actually, it's a secret weapon for you as an investor today.
0:09.1	One word for you.
0:11.1	And no, it's not plastics.
0:13.2	It's history.
0:15.9	History.
0:17.3	It's secret because most people don't have much of it.
0:21.6	They follow financial media outlets, which through TV and social media display and promote such a short memory.
0:29.7	Quoting stocks minute to minute, throwing the bells and whistles of our attention at whatever's just happened.
0:37.3	As a fool, I love to look back.
0:41.4	The lessons we really learn, learn, and earn
0:45.7	are a consequence of observing and living through history,
0:50.6	measured in years, not hours or days.
0:58.5	Well, for years, I wrote short essays to kick off our monthly Motley Fool issues that were mailed back of the day snail mailed out to members. Today, the
1:05.5	Motley Fool is pretty much fully digital. We don't do paper copies anymore, and we don't do
1:10.8	opening essays. But I put a lot of
1:15.0	time into those essays, and they occurred over a long narrative arc of history, 2002 to 2017. 15 years
1:24.9	worth of investing lessons in Motley Fool Stock Advisor and Motley Fool Rule Breakers.
1:30.0	So in this world of now, now, now, I say you and I open up 2026 by getting smarter,
1:36.7	happier, and richer today for the lessons learned yesterday.
1:43.1	Only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing.
1:47.7	It's the Rule Breaker Investing podcast with Motley Full co-founder, David Gardner.
	...

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