Lessons From The Motley Fool's David Gardner

Podcast listeners help us celebrate the wisdom of Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner.

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This video was recorded on May 17, 2023.

David Gardner: Once a year, well, it happens to you, too. You have a birthday and that time of the year, every year for me is mid-May. We've had a tradition with this podcast, which is that you give me a gift, which you did. Once again this month, thank you so much. You give me a gift in the form of notes, emails, tweets, sharing what you've learned from this podcast, and then I organize these thoughts and give a gift back. A concise and entertaining summary of the cardinal points made, the most frequently recurring points you make, which really in a way summarize Rule Breaker Investing, especially for new listeners. This series is entitled "What You Have Learned From David Gardner." Here in 2023, well, it's volume 4 what you've learned from me. Thanks for the birthday present. Only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing.

In many ways, this episode each year and very obviously this year brings out the stars, the murderer's row of my greatest fellow Fools and correspondence over time, my most engaged listeners, some big-time, longtime Fools. Some of my favorites. Murderer's row may sound like a scary term, by the way, if you're not American and are not a baseball fan, but for those of us who are, we know what I mean, murderer's row was the phrase used to describe the 1920s New York Yankees, most particularly by the way, the 1927 World Champion Yankees, but really the Babe Ruth-era Yankees, which I can admire, even though I mostly root against the Yankees. What you have learned from David Gardner, is definitely already up for a 2023 bestie based on the material I know ahead of time that I'm going to be sharing with you this week has brought out a murderer's row of Foolishness here in the middle of May 2023. Thank you each. Settle in then, dear listener and fellow fool for what you have learned from me. This year, we're going to do it in eight points this week. Four for investing, two for business, and two for life. Really before I get started, there might be a ninth unspoken lesson in here that is worth heeding. As I share with you points from investing and for business and from life, perhaps it is in their interconnectedness that one of my more important lessons resides. I know feel like some people tend to disconnect these things one from another investing, business, and life, for example, if you disconnect investing from life, you're like, ''Yeah, whatever, I'll just buy that stock. I don't really care what the company does. I'm just here to make money.'' That's disconnecting investing from life or maybe disconnecting investing from business.

A lot of people do that, ''They're like, hey, listen, I'm a professional, I'm in business, I don't have time for investing. I just give my money over to my money guy and hope it all works out." Or conversely, if you disconnect investing from business, well maybe you start day trading. You're the guy who buys that TradeStation 3000, and you're all about the zigs and zags, the wigs and waggles. You're probably very short-term-oriented. You're disconnecting investing from the real work of business. Then one other example of the disconnection, what about business from life? Well, for some of us, we can think of people who are so much about their career, they're forgetting in part about the things outside their career, for example sometimes sadly, their families. I think just as conscious capitalism seeks out that win-win-win for customers, for employees, and for shareholders. All three, I think it's in that holistic view of solving for everyone, winning for your investing, winning, for your business and professional career winning, and for winning for your life. I think we owe it to ourselves, our families, and the world at large to win, win, win, ABW, always be winning, always be winning even though as we'll hear in a bit, you have to lose to win. Anyway, don't disconnect, connect, investing, business and life. That's the shadow ninth point, the shadow lesson that won't otherwise be spoken to this week. As I do with many, a mailbag I will do with in some ways, a mailbag episode this week. What you've learned from me with some Twitter hot takes, I've got two fun lists made by two of my favorite Fools. First-up Jason Newman, @jaynew4 on Twitter. Jason, thank you for this. You wrote, I've prudently decided to put everything I've learned from David in the too-hard pile and just stuck to six things I learned from David and 2023 as my birthday gift to you. Well, thank you, Jason. I really appreciate that. Here are the six lessons that you've taken away specifically from me in this podcast, just in this year of 2023, you ordered them this way.

No. 1, the best type of hero displays humanity and humility. You're thinking here you reference Heather O'Reilly, the talented women's professional soccer player. I told the story about her a few weeks ago on this podcast. Her humanity and her humility, making her the best type of hero. No. 2 like it or not Dave, Jason says you're an influencer effectively [laughs] convincing me to gamify my water intake with the hydrate Spark. Jason added, "Cool for a few days, but ultimately not for me." Well, sorry to hear that, and I hope the influence was well, if not really, totally good, at least neutral. No. 3, don't save the best for last. Nice. No. 4, The Wizard of Oz was just a dude. You are quoting me. That was a spontaneous, non-planned phrasing. I'm glad it was somewhat felicitous. Looking back on it, I'm glad that I democratized The Wizard of Oz, both the movie and the character himself. It's just a dude. No. 5, budding friendships born of your life have been a highlight of my year -- looking at you, Jason says, calling out two of his friends that we've sort of made by being friends together, Kimball Crossley and Frank Iryami. I'm really delighted to know Jay that through this podcast, you've been building a community of your own. Finally, No. 6, you wrote, "When a Senior Maverick and a Chief Rule Breaker get together, magic happens." There you're referring to the conversation with Kevin Kelly, which certainly has been a 2023 highlight. Not just for me, but for many of you who wrote in. Happy birthday, my dear friend, many more from Jason Newman. Thank you, Jason. Speaking of Jasons, Jason Moore, thank you for this second Twitter hard take I wanted to feature this week. Jason picked out five of his favorite podcast episodes for Rule Breaker Investing since last May.

Over the last year, what jumped out to you, Jason, the first one you listed was "5 Times I Changed My Mind." That's a really important podcast that I look back on, important for me just to share that because a lot of times people get accused of being wishy-washy or flip-flopping, they change their mind. But really I think for many of us and what I was trying to do on that podcast in the last year, I think that was last summer, is really think back on our lives and mark those times where we did change our mind as some of the most important times in our lives. Thank you for leading off with that one. The second one you referenced is game design with Jesse Schell that was an authors in August, last August. So much fun to talk with such a talented game designer and author of the brilliant book, The Art of Game Design. Because games are such an important thing for me in life. Certainly, a secondary thread that runs through so much of this podcast now in its eighth year, games and talking game design with somebody so smart, a lot of fun for me. The third one, you referenced this "Company Culture Tips Volume 10," which was our greatest hits edition with both Kara Chambers and Lee Burbage, we sorted back through 10 of the greatest culture tips that we could give derived from our own practice and from those of other companies that we've seen that we could share back out to the world. Many of us, whether we're working in-person, hybrid, or remote, we're part of a culture. A culture as rich as you would have found in the college that you went to, the unique cultural mores of that college, whichever it was, wherever it was.

College is often a way for us to think about culture, the unique family culture each of us grew up in. For a lot of us were shaped by a church culture or religious culture of some kind. But all of those things are also true in our professional lives, the workplace where we report for duty, however, and wherever that is, has a culture shaping that and improving that is something that we've been working hard at for so many years at The Motley Fool. It's always a delight to have Lee and Kara joining. Thank you for referencing that, Jason, the last two you mentioned our gratitude 2022. You said enough said about that one. Once a year, just like I do this birthday podcast once a year, toward the end of the year in the holiday times, I do a gratitude podcast and think together about what we can be grateful for in good markets and in bad markets sometimes. It was a bad market last fall as we talked through our gratitude for 2022. I'm glad that was meaningful for you, and of course, the fifth and final one, your underline is the excellent advice for living podcast earlier this month on Rule Breaker Investing with Kevin Kelly. Jason thank you for that. I'm also going to be reading a note you wrote a little bit later. You are a wonderful Fool and I'm just so honored and pleased to think that these people that I'm sharing with you, that I've already shared with you.

And the stories I will be sharing with you this week are the exact culture I want to be creating myself, surrounding myself with remarkable people who can learn from me. But really I learn so much from back. I learn far more from you back than I ever share out through this podcast. But that is the theme of what you've learned from David Gardner each year. What I can share back up that you've learned from me, that I can share back out and help remind especially new investors about. Without further ado then we've got eight to talk through. Let's get started. Four lessons from investing. The first one is from Walter Sharon, really enjoyed this note. Walter, I think this is the first time you've written in and this is fun to read. "Happy birthday David," you write. "What have I learned from you? I learned that I can pick companies, how to pick companies, and it's not that hard. Thank you for helping me build what is now my favorite hobby." Walter goes on, "In 1999, I read the Motley Fool Investment Guide and started a powerful journey. I moved little savings I had in mutual funds, $16,000 to a discount broker and started picking stocks which I love doing," Walter adds, "and dollar-cost averaging with every paycheck. I'm now a millionaire, soon to be multimillionaire. But it is the knowledge with a capital K, the understanding and the hobby that I'm the most thankful to you for." Walter closes, "I grew up with parents who neither saved nor invested and had very poor financial literacy skills. They lived paycheck-to-paycheck, and the paychecks were small. I have struggled to gain understanding and you've been my most trusted resource. Warren Buffett is a close second, as he has some great thoughts, too. You have my lifelong gratitude and admiration. Thank you. Walter Sharon."

Well, we can almost end this week's podcast right there because this is why we do what we do. I'm not going to say I do what I do because I'm part of a company with 500-plus employees who work every day to try to generate these results. When you talk about things every day, or if you follow the market as I do, or your favorite sports team every day as I do, you can sometimes get mired down in the day-to-day. But really, Walter thinking about your story of picking up our book 24 years ago, and you actually listened to it. You saved every two weeks, you dollar-cost averaged, you picked stocks through a discount broker. You found companies that probably accorded with your values and you've won. You have so much still to look forward to. I'm so excited for where you are and this is exactly why we do what we do. I want to close by saying, many of us are in a situation living paycheck-to-paycheck or grew up with parents who did the same. That phrase means a lot to us at The Motley Fool Foundation, because The Motley Fool Foundation is focused on that part of the population who are living paycheck-to-paycheck, trying to get them to learn how to save their first dollar, and foolfoundation.org is our website for The Motley Fool Foundation.

And I hope for those of you who are hearing about it for the first time, you will check out our website and join a motley band of Fools. Anyway, Walter, I don't know if I should have led with a mic drop letter, but I did mic drop point No. 1. I'm just going to underline Walter's phrase, "I can pick companies and it's not that hard." That's how he led off with that note. That's the lesson I'm calling out as No. 1 here. We can all pick companies. What I loved that Walter did there is he didn't say stocks. When you start talking about stocks and stock picking, it starts sounding complicated, a game that a lot of us don't know how to play. But if you think about picking companies, for example, Chipotle, that's a company a lot of us and our kids and our grandkids would recognize, Chipotle has had an amazing journey on the public markets. For the most part, it's been a winner, though it's gone through periods of extreme loss. Chipotle in the last few weeks hit an all-time high. A lot of people may have thought they missed it. A long time ago. Chipotle in the last few weeks hit an all-time high. You can pick companies, and really, when you take it down to the Chipotle level, as Walter Sharon says, it's not that hard. Onto investing, lesson No. 2, this one from my biggest fan.

Well Jim, you've been calling yourself that since you first wrote in the years ago. I really appreciate this note from you. There's a longer note that I'm not going to have time to read, but I do want to read the start of it because it hits on investing lesson No. 2, so Jim, you started, "David, Rick, and the Rule Breaker Investing team, I'm enjoying the great content you bring to every episode of the Rule Breaker Investing podcast. I'm not sure if you're going to do it this year, but almost every May," Jim, you wrote, "we celebrate your birthday, David, with what have you learned from David Gardner, and that will be my note for you this month." Even before I put out the call, by the way, Jim, you had already written this note, you anticipated what we might do here in mid-May. I really appreciate that. Thank you. You go on to say, "This is not an easy note to write. I'll admit it's because there are so many valuable lessons, it's difficult to succinctly put them all in an email this year to celebrate your birthday. Here's one of many things I've learned by following your wisdom," and Jim writes, "Appreciate and learn from the past." You go on, "I've enjoyed looking to the past with your episodes entitled, 'Essays From Yesterday,' 'Blast From The Past,' 'Great Quotes' series, 'Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue.'" "Even," Jim, you write, "the 'Reviewapaloozas.'

These are just some of many great episodes that investigate the past and help us draw so many valuable lessons." I'm just going to call it right there. Investing lesson No. 2 is appreciate and learn from the past. Sometimes I don't want to spend too much time in the past because after all, we're really investing for is right now going forward. But of course, everything from our mindset to our investing will be so improved by reflection, by thinking about what happened and what can we learn from that? I think it's especially true if you are playing the only game that counts, the long game. It's especially true to look back into the past. Otherwise, you're only learning a series of short-term lessons of recent vintage. I think part of the power of Foolish investing is that we do it over the only term that counts, the long term, your whole life long and so yes. Dipping back into "Essays From Yesterday" and "Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue" and yes, the "Reviewapaloozas" Jim and everybody, they're a very important part of your investing learning. So sure, appreciate and learn from the past, investing lesson No. 2. Investing lesson No. 3. Investing lesson No. 3, though, is fun, of course, to come back to back with No. 2 because both of these are important points, it sounds like they conflict, but of course, being able to hold opposing thoughts in our minds at once is a really important part of good investing.

So investing lesson No. 2, appreciate and learn from the past. Here's investing lesson No. 3, I've already paraphrased this, but the past is not what matters. We care about the present and the future. Thank you for this note John Flood. "Hi David. I've been a Motley Fool member for 20-plus years. It's been and continues to be time very well spent. I last wrote to you in October 2020. You actually read out my letter and poem, which gave me a great buzz." John writes, "I've learned and continue to learn from you weekly. I love the variety of your podcast delivered with your endless enthusiasm and optimism. I am an optimist, too," John Flood writes, "And I often find myself nodding in agreement with you. I want to illustrate one of your great lessons with an incredible example. You often speak of investors fearing that they've missed the boat. Once a stock has already risen 20% or 100%, or 200% etc, you always emphasize that the past is not what matters. We care about the present and future." This explains why you could recommend Amazon at 80 cents, $8.80, and $80.80 split-adjusted prices. Of course, and we still," John writes, "Didn't miss that boat.

The same fact applies to many of your recommendations. All concepts are best illustrated by considering extremes. I think you and your listeners will love the one I'm about to cite. I was recently reading the brilliant Morgan Housel's book, The Psychology of Money. On page 160, I came across this lovely eye-popping sentence, 'Monster Beverage returned 319,000% between 1995-2018.' Has that particular boat sailed?" John Flood asks. "Let me answer my own question by telling you that in 2020, I joined the Motley Fool's Blast Off 2020 service. Sitting there in the initial round of buys was good old Monster Beverage. Surely that boat was way out of sight by now. Wrong. I bought in 2020, 319,000% too late, and now three years later it's up 54% and is 22 percentage points ahead of the market, need I say more. Boats are only missed if the boat is Titanic-like. If a company was good back and is still good today and looks promising for tomorrow too, then hop on board, there's still so much to enjoy. Thanks for all your great work, John Flood." I don't think I need to speak to this point further. I think John both spoke to it and beautifully illustrated investing lesson No. 3 this year, quote, and I'm quoting you John, ''The past is not what matters. We care about the present and the future.'' My final investing lesson this week No. 4, this one came in as several of these have from different people with different voices but signaling the same thing the way you put it, Mike McMahon, @ProShopGuyMF1 on Twitter. Mike, you wrote, "Being open and transparent with your 'Reviewapalooza' episodes is investing with the highest degree with integrity. Many in the financial industry never take the time to go back and review their performance." Vince Granieri, @PreReVince on Twitter, Vince, you put it very succinctly in a single word with an exclamation point, you just said, "Scoreboard!" I really appreciate investing lesson No. 4. I hope you do, too. I've tried to model that, exemplify it, teach to it, speak to it. We try to do it every week. In reviewing the past, importantly, we're reviewing our performance. I think it's really helpful to think about how you've done over the last year as an investor are you able, if you're an investor of vintage, are you able to look back each year, let's say of the last five or 10 years, if you've been doing this for a while and say, yeah, I was up 69% in 2019, I was down 31% in 2022.

Are you able to quote your own performance, give yourself a gold star if you do know how you've been doing and not all of us are able to give ourselves a gold star or need to have done so in the past, because after all the past is not what matters, we care about the present and the future, but I think starting to score yourself if you haven't been doing that before, by the way, not just in investing, but in business. I like to gamify things a lot so I'm going to say life, too, it's awfully helpful to score yourself that way you know how you're doing. With stocks, it's really quite easy. You can note your cost basis if you like, you can see where the S&P 500 was on that day and even if you forget to do it, the day that you buy a new stock and try to tag it against the market's average, you can these days use the internet to go back and see where the stock was on that day in the market. You can score yourself and from Day 1, when we launched The Motley Fool on America Online on Aug. 4 of 1994, we said, let's try to beat the indices. After all, if you can't beat them, you can just join them by buying an index funds. Our stock market investing should be premised on the idea scoreboard that we're going to try to beat the market averages. Otherwise, spend your time in some better way in life and just buy the index fund and to this day at fool.com, our website, you'll hear us talk about the beauty of the index fund, the importance of it, and that for many people, it's their best answer. I'm not here to sell you or anybody. Our company is not on the idea that you have to own individual stocks or you should.

I am here though having seen what it's done in my own life, and in the lives of those who listen every week, who write in, who read our book 24 years ago, or who've signed up for our services for the last 20 years and say, if you approach it with the right mindset, capital-F Foolishly, you're going to be very happy that you spent the time taking the time to understand companies, picking companies. It's particularly important here with point No. 4 to remember to score them, to know how you're doing. If you don't like the score, you start changing how you're playing the game to get better. That's been so helpful to me over time. I started that process at the age of 18, this week I turn 57. I'm in my 39th year or so, just about my 40th year of scoring what I'm doing and getting better because I'm doing so and yes, you're right, Mike McMahon, a lot of the financial world doesn't put up a score. I often ask myself, that person talking about stocks on TV, what's his record exactly? Or that person tweeting out this or that stock that you should buy or not, what is his or her record? Exactly. I think it's so helpful to know our own records. Certainly The Motley Fool, we've made a real effort to always show our scorecards, to show the transparency, and yeah, even in free podcasts, we do a "Reviewapalooza," so thank you, Vince. I'll just call investing lesson No. 4, scoreboard. Well, if this were a higher-budget podcast at this point we'd march on the halftime follies. We've hit four out of eight points. These were my four investing points. But because I don't have Janet Jackson as my halftime act and I want to mention sometimes I've mentioned this in the past. Janet and I are exactly the same age as each other. Happy birthday this week to Janet Jackson. Janet, you and I were both born on the same day in 1966. Again, she's not appearing otherwise on this podcast. I have no halftime entertainment.

How about if I just review the first four lessons as our halftime entertainment. No. 1, I can pick companies and it's not that hard. Thank you, Walter Sharon. No. 2, appreciate and learn from the past. Thank you, Jim. No. 3, John Flood wrote the past is not what matters. We care about the present and the future, and No. 4, Vince, with help from Mike here, scoreboard. Well from investing, one of the three legs of the stool, let's move over to business with lessons 5 and 6. Really, having thought about these, scrutinize them, looked over them about to share them with you, these are as much about leadership as they are about business. I'm shoehorning them into the business category. But the truth is this really do work in business. Leadership is so important in business. One of the most misunderstood things is that not all CEOs are created equal. There's no line on the balance sheet for the value of the leadership of the company that you are researching. But truly some leadership teams add immense value and it's not recorded anywhere. Computer algorithms aren't picking up and nobody's putting it into their multiples and so we're misvaluing stocks because we're forgetting that that company has an amazing founder, or conversely, a horrifically mediocre or bad person or team running the company, in which case, that stock is a lot more expensive than it probably looks. It's so important. Leadership is really the secret story of what wins or not in business. Lesson No. 5, what you've learned from David Gardner. I love this note. It's short.

Thank you, Sam Becker. "David, Happy Birthday. I'm impressed by your leadership ability. I took a management leadership course and the instructor taught us that it's important to share your vision anytime you speak so people hear it enough that they understand it. You consistently speak about your investing principles so that they come through and are retained by your audience. Great leadership and instruction. Sam Becker." In fact, Sam, you go on and add another note which I'm going to park to this month's May mailbag because it's a good reflection on an earlier podcast this month, but doesn't really speak to the lesson for this birthday, but you already nailed it with your first one. I'm just going to call that share your vision anytime you speak. Business lesson No. 5, listen to all leaders. I certainly don't intend always to be leading or be an influencer in the world of Jay Newman earlier when I come to you each week on this podcast, but I certainly enjoy and that's why I've done it every single week. A new podcast, never a repeat since July of 2015, most of them with my producer Rick Engdahl here, editing out all the bad bits and keeping all the best parts of me. Thank you. Shout out as always, to Rick, which I probably don't do enough. But it is true I think that this podcast exists so that I can share out my vision.

Anytime leaders speak, it's so helpful for them. I think along with Sam's advice for all of us to make sure we're sharing how and why we arrived at what we're dictating or saying it's a lot easier to follow somebody else's orders when they have laid out their thinking for us. It's a lot more difficult it feels a lot more being spoken down to or told what to do if we just hear the things without the reasons so I think this podcast, many podcasts, many great authors, so much of human wisdom is wise in part because it is sharing its vision when it speaks and so thank you, Sam, for that reflection and I'm mirroring that back out to every leader and reminding you that in the context of leading your family, leading your church, leading your business, leading your organization, share your vision. People will understand, there will be a lot more receptive. Onto what have you learned from David Gardner No. 6, my second and final business lesson, Rich Smith, thanks a lot for this note. "David, for your birthday this year, I would say that I've learned and appreciated the notion of being able to change my mind. Your July 20th, 2022, podcast, '5 Times I've Changed My Mind Volume 1' was especially helpful as my family is currently searching for a new home. My job is taking us to Virginia, which is exciting, but it brings about bittersweet moments as we reflect on our time in Texas. The dark clouds of house hunting have caused us to reevaluate some of our home criteria but it reminded me of all the times you were also confronted with new information. As I've grown older, I've learned to be more grateful for the stressful times in life because they reveal our true character. It doesn't mean I enjoy them any more than I did before, but at least I can smile, knowing that I was able to make it through those trying times.

Changing my mind in light of new information is becoming easier and it's always encouraging to hear someone else's experience. Thank you for sharing your time and your experiences with us each week. Foolishly, Rich." Well, thank you again, Rich, it's my pleasure to do so and in a little ways I think we change our minds every day we're actively listening, learning, taking in new information, and as has been pointed out by futurists like Ray Kurzweil over time, the degree of change brought on by new technologies, the acceleration of those new technologies, there's far more innovation and development this year than there was 100 years ago or 1,000 years ago so it's so important, it's almost table stakes to be a successful human in the present, moving forward, to be ready and open for change especially when we're confronted with new information. I love doing that podcast. You're not the only one who called it out this week, Rich, thank you very much and I hope it was helpful for you and I think my favorite line from your note was, "Changing my mind in light of new information is becoming easier."

That really brings us smile to my face, Rich, and I dare say by saying that out loud, you've helped a lot of others hearing me right now reflect on the benefits to their own past, present, and future of being open-minded and ready to incorporate new information and changing our mind when it makes a lot of sense to do so and will add value to us and ours going forward. That's really the No. 1 reason to change your mind, I think because you're going to thrive, you're going to do better that you did change your mind than if you didn't going forward. Thank you, Rich Smith. Well, this has been a really fun week, we've done six of the eight, the last two, I've parked into the category, the bucket life. Now, these are some of my favorite notes and I'm going to read a couple because they're just spectacular notes. I do try to finish best for last often and I do think life matters more than business and life matters more than investing but if you've heard me clearly, you realize they're all interconnected. But my favorite topic is probably life, which is why I'm going to end with it. With lessons Nos. 7 and 8. What have you learned from David Gardner No. 7? Well, Yasser El-Shimy, who is an employee at The Motley Fool, Yasser, thank you for joining me on this podcast a few times over the past year, and thank you for tweeting us out just a couple of days ago, reacting on what you've learned, you wrote, "I've learned numerous lessons from at DavidGFool, but if I were to highlight one," says Yasser, and Yasser is @TMFProf, on Twitter.

Yasser wrote, "Accept that losing is part of investing and part of life. Don't be paralyzed by aversion to loss, but rather, except that you'll win some, and lose some, the wins matter much more over the long term." I think that is so concisely expressed. I'm not sure I've ever done it that concisely myself, Yasser, and I really love that you've learned that from me and I'm so grateful that I'm able to share that back out to others who can hear that and be reminded of something that I think is so important. One of my favorite podcasts, not done in the last year, this was done a few years ago, was entitled "Losing to Win." Anybody who wants to go back and learn a profoundly important lesson that will make you such a better investor. I can't repeat it every week because I'd get boring, but "Losing to Win," just Google that phrase and listen back to that Rule Breaker Investing podcast of yore, it makes a critically important point that you have succinctly summarized Yasser, as you say, except that you'll win some and lose some the wins matter much more. And speaking of more, Jason Moore, you wrote in to the same effect I mentioned to you earlier as you listed your five favorite podcasts from me over the last year. But you also wrote this great note and it's about life and it speaks to the point that Yasser just made. What you've learned lesson No. 7, accept that losing is part of investing and part of life and in that same Jason you wrote, "Hi David, it seems like a year has flown by since I last wrote to you with the title, 'What Have I Learned From David Gardner?' Yet, here we are. I know this is an investing podcast, but I can't help but appreciate your relentless, realistic optimism that bursts through my speakers.

Each week you've helped steady my mindset when it comes to investing. Your unwavering focus on the quote 'only term that counts' has helped me keep my cool and ride out the terrible tech market of 2021, and 2022. I've also had the opportunity," Jason writes, "to add to some great businesses in my portfolio that had been seeing some surges up recently. I would also say that your most quotable quote, 'Make your portfolio reflect your best vision for our future,' is a mantra that I repeat before making any purchase. It's a great reminder that there are lots of ways to make money and invest so we should go with the ones that most align with our own vision and values. As you know, I tend to turn up the speakers to 11," Jason writes, "when your weekly show focuses on your thoughts on life. This year has provided its own challenges, but I think one of the best lessons you've helped me focus on is finding the deep value in curiosity and kindness. The combination of these two attributes has helped carry me this year through a layoff, family tragedies, and many other challenges. They've led me to some amazing people, friendships, conversations, books, and most recently," Jason writes, "to a shift in my career this week, I have accepted a part-time teaching position at a local university. I appreciate how much you bring to the Fool community at large, and I'm constantly surprised by your thoughtful connections with your members and guests. Thank you kindly for all you do. Happy birthday and Fool on." Jason writes at the end, fun P.S. Jason, you're right. I used ChatGPT as my personal editor for this [laughs] message, which reminds me of the fun of post scripts which are often included in letters as people write into the mailbag for this podcast, [email protected], of course, our email address. If anything jumped out to you this week's episode, I'd love to share it back at the end of this month as I do every month, with your May 2023 mailbag and some of our best notes have fun postscript at the end. You just gave me one right there.

ChatGPT, your personal editor. There's another great postscript that I got this week. It was from Jum's note, I didn't share this at the time, but I want to call it out, Jum's, "P.S. Did you notice I didn't say last but not least?" Now that's an inside joke for regular listeners because you know that's one of my pet peeves. I try never to say last but not least because at least for me and maybe increasing numbers of us being influenced by this podcast, when you say last but not least, you're partly occasioning the question in the minds of all your listeners. Well, who or what really was least then? As we approach lesson No. 8, I'll just remind you, again, the title lesson No. 9, accept that losing is part of investing and part of life. In fact, as we get near the end of this week's podcast, I'm going to summarize the non-investing lessons that you've already heard as I introduced the final one. Nos. 5, 6, and 7 for this week, share your vision anytime you speak. Thank you, Sam Becker. Be able to change your mind. Thank you, Rich Smith. Then No. 7, coming from Yasser El-Shimy and Jason Moore, accept that losing is part of investing and part of life. Well, lesson No. 8, a phrase I've used many times before on this podcast and I suspect many times in future. It's really at the heart of how I think about the world and what we're doing. I think it works in investing, it works in business, and it works in life, but I've parked this point just to be a life point because what you've learned from David Gardner No. 8 is lead a more interesting life.

I got two great notes about this and I'm largely just going to read them back-to-back here as I invite you to think more about what it means for your investing, for your business, and for your life going forward, starting with this week's podcast, what it might mean for you in the month ahead, or this summer, or the fall, or this entire next year until we rejoin this episodic series with next year's "What Have You Learned From David Gardner?" I will invite you to ask yourself, what might it mean to lead a more interesting life? Jason Trice, you wrote, "Happy birthday, David. In my note last year, one of the things I mentioned learning from you was to lead a more interesting life. I recently relistened to that episode and was struck by the line, grow your circle, referring to our circle of competence. I want to thank you for that podcast. In my quest to lead a more interesting life, I have grown my circle and tried things I would have never tried before. Here are a few of my efforts. I took an art class, which gave me the courage to share my work. I signed up for master class and I'm learning gardening and stand-up comedy. After these, I'm going to tackle the art of negotiation. I've made valuable connections by reaching out to people I admire on Twitter. I talk to employees, customers, and suppliers of businesses I frequent, asking them questions to learn as much as possible. I ran an investing challenge that connected me to investors across the world. We bonded over 10-Ks and proxy statements, and I learned," Jason writes, "a ton.

I could go on, but you have a lot of notes to read, so I'll wrap it up. Initially, my efforts to grow my circle were to become a better investor, but they have enriched my life in countless other ways. It's been the nudge I needed to dive headfirst into the second half of my life. Thank you for continuing to make the world smarter, happier, and richer. Your podcast is a gift to me, and I'm eternally grateful. Happy birthday," signed, "Jason Trice." Thank you for that, Jason. You clearly are leading a more interesting life. I'm going to say you're leading a more interesting life than I am. Congratulations on some really wonderful new avenues, taking some risks, trying stuff. Like most things, it's a muscle, taking a risk trying something new. The more you do it, I suspect, the more able you are to do more of it going forward. The less we do it, the less able we are. I want to lead a more interesting life and the act of asking, well, what is interesting? What would be a good risk I could take and acting on that will indeed grant you the more interesting life you desire and make it even more likely that your life will be even more interesting than that. My concluding note for this week's podcast, I love this note. Thank you, Matt Hard for writing, and, "Happy birthday, David, I decided to try and make a short list of the important lessons I've learned since I first got to hear from you around April of 2020.

The first lesson was hope. Things were pretty crazy during this time around the world, but your message was calm and hopeful. Panic was peaking not just in the markets," Matt writes, "but you never gave up hope. The next lesson that really stuck with me was to lead a more interesting life. I never looked at my life as boring, but I wasn't necessarily seeking out adventures, either. Now I make it a point to try new activities, travel to more places, and read more books. I'm still learning all the time, Matt writes, and can sometimes fall into my old routines, but there is no doubt my life is way more interesting now. The final lesson isn't really about anything you said, but more about who you are. For whatever reason, the world of investing is full of ego. When people have been successful, they will tell you about how smart they are or why they knew they were right about some prediction. They rarely ever talk about mistakes or failures. You've taught me the value of sharing openly, keeping score, and staying humble. You are the human example of a winner winning. You've created a road map for others to follow and surrounded yourself with an incredible team who believe in your mission. I hope your birthday is full of all the best things life has to offer. Thank you for helping to make me smarter, happier, and absolutely living a richer life. Matt Hard." Well, Matt, that was a delight to read.

Of course, I read it somewhat sheepishly. When someone writes you a really high sentiment, it's often, just for you to read it back out loud to the public, is at its worst a little prideful, but in my case it feels more like, well, beautiful. Thank you very much for what you said, and I really can see such a good soul in you. I can see clearly somebody who is leading, not just a more interesting life, but I bet a pretty doggone, great life. Matt, keep up the great work. At the end of this week's podcast and this year's what you've learned from me with eight lessons that I've tried to underline and illustrate, of course, mostly with the stories and anecdotes of others. I've tried to tag each of the lines with your name. John Floods, Sam Becker, Rich Smith. The list goes on because it is indeed I who selfishly and secretly get to learn from all of you every day, week, month, quarter year. It's been an incredible journey here as I embark upon my 58th year, having turned 57 this week. With The Motley Fool 30 years itself this year, I couldn't be more excited about the next 30 years, not just for our company or for me personally, but really for each of you and what we can do together. I hope you have a wonderful week. If it's a birthday you're celebrating today maybe, Janet Jackson or this week, happy birthday to you too. Fool on.