Q: What's more depressing than a lecture on how the Wizard of Wherever banked 17.6% annually over the past 25 years?

A: Being told why YOU can't expect that kind of performance going forward!

Could we lighten up a bit, gloomy?
Sounds like you could use a chat with Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner. You see, unlike his brother, Tom -- who's a blast for other reasons, mostly involving beer -- David seems unfazed by the latest value-investing craze.

No, David swings for the fences. He doesn't harp on valuation when praising Rule Breaking stocks like Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM), whose technology makes content websites (like the one you're reading now) viable. Or how efficiently Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) delivers all that content to folks like you on a scale previously unimaginable.

So don't expect to hear about discounted cash flows from David, much less DCF. More often, he's excited about a razor-thin business model or the hot trademarks locked up by an "intellectual property" company like Marvel Entertainment (NYSE:MVL) -- which, incidentally, is up more than 470% since he brought it to my attention in July 2002.

So, do you break the rules?
That's why I was stoked to see David dust off the name Rule Breakers for his growth-stock newsletter. I love nothing more than a great stock story. The last thing I needed to hear was that the tiger who got thousands of Fools mixed up in AOL way back in 1994 had changed his stripes.

But I knew this, too. Fools like me who followed David's advice learned a valuable lesson. It wasn't that the stocks of maverick, highflying companies can be volatile. We already knew that. It was that if you have the guts to hold on, these stocks can change your life.

We learned something else, too, which I'll get to in a moment. But first, here's something that may surprise you: Even after the Time Warner debacle, David's AOL pick is still up more than 3,500%.

Now, for the million-dollar lesson
You don't have to beat the market by 2.7% with every stock you own to make money. Not if you can dig up just one of these world-changing companies -- just one -- and have the guts to buy it and hold on. A few big winners hide a multitude of sins.

And they're out there. Well all know, for example, that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) packed on billions in market cap during the '90s. But dozens of other companies with revolutionary ideas did, too. Think of Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), whose CDMA technology revolutionized the way we talk with one another.

Or how about hot gamers Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Activision (NASDAQ:ATVI)? Those of us over 30 can attest that video games were once a curiosity. Yet it won't be long before worldwide market for video games exceeds the market for motion pictures.

The new math is striking
Consider that if you can manage to dig up one elusive 10-bagger for every 20 or so investments you make -- you can lose half your money on every other stock you own and still come out ahead. Sounds nutty, but it's true. Backed by a community of technophiles and first-adopters on the Rule Breakers team, I like those odds.

After all, David's original real-money Rule Breaker portfolio more than doubled the return on the S&P on an annualized basis. And that was over a decade that spanned the tech meltdown and the entire bear market. It sounds unscientific, but this guy just has a knack.

Don't believe me? Now you can try David's entire Rule Breakers service for 30 days free. I have a hunch a life-changing company will turn up on his scorecard -- if it's not already there. To learn more about this special deal, click here now.

This article was originally published on March 17, 2006. It has been updated.

Fool writer Paul Elliott doesn't own any of the stocks mentioned. You can view the entire Rule Breakers scorecard right now with yourfree trial.Akamaiis a Rule Breakers recommendation. Marvel, Electronic Arts, Time Warner, and Activision are Stock Advisor recommendations. Microsoft is an Inside Value recommendation. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.