

This week’s conversation was especially fun. I have a long history with my guest, Dave Chilton, but this was the first time we’d met in person. I’d heard stories about him from people I work with for twenty years, so getting to finally spend time with him was a real treat. I’ll let him reveal the connection.

This episode will also be fun for listeners in the US, as Dave is one of the best-known people in Canada because of his famous book the wealthy barber and his more recent stint as a dragon on Dragon’s Den, which is Canada’s version of Shark Tank.

I called this episode the human blitzkrieg because of Dave’s relentlessly positive style and curiosity. He has dabbled in many parts of the business and investing worlds. He is one of the most successful authors in history, has invested in dozens of interesting businesses, and is a Jedi master in the long-lost art of the phone conversation.

We discuss business, investing, and writing. If you enjoy this conversation and have any aspirations as a writer, I highly recommend you check out the series of videos Dave and his son recently released called the Chilton method, which I will link in the show notes. I have no financial interest in this recommendation, and neither does Dave! He put it together in large part to stop people from calling him for advice. We discuss a few of the hundred plus lessons from his course in this conversation.

As you’ll be able to tell early and often, it is hard not to have a good time with Dave.

Books Referenced

The Wealthy Barber: Everyone’s Commonsense Guide to Becoming Financially Independent

The Wealthy Barber Returns : Dramatically Older and Marginally Wiser, David Chilton Offers His Unique Perspectives on the World of Money

What Works on Wall Street, Fourth Edition: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time

The Looneyspoons Collection: Good Food, Good Health, Good Fun!

The Accounting Game: Basic Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand

Millennial Money: How Young Investors Can Build a Fortune

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy

Efficiently Inefficient: How Smart Money Invests and Market Prices Are Determined

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

Links Referenced

The Chilton Method

Dragon’s Den

Alex Moazed Podcast

Philosophical Economics

Michael Mauboussin Podcast

Show Notes

2:54 – (First question) – A quick introduction and why David is so well known throughout Canada

3:31 – The Wealthy Barber: Everyone’s Commonsense Guide to Becoming Financially Independent

3:41 – Dragon’s Den

4:07 – The Wealthy Barber Returns : Dramatically Older and Marginally Wiser, David Chilton Offers His Unique Perspectives on the World of Money

4:38 – David is asked to explain how he got involved with Jim O’Shaughnessy at the Royal Bank

5:35 – What Works on Wall Street, Fourth Edition: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time

6:40 – Genesis of the Wealthy Barber and how David got interested in finance and investing

11:26 – The Looneyspoons Collection: Good Food, Good Health, Good Fun!

12:04 – A look at his video course on how to write and market content

13:30 – How do you know when to stick with a product

15:18 – What was the decision to self-publish

18:20 – Why you need to pay more attention to the dedication page in a book and move it to the back

19:44 – Why forewords in a book are a waste

22:01 – The importance of listening to your readers to create a product they want

23:00 – How the combination of human instinct with data can help to create more successful products

23:59 – Why did he choose to write on financial planning

25:26 – How did David transition his thinking once he started to make real money

29:01 – It seems like boring investments tend to do well over time

30:23 – David’s investing philosophy over his lifetime

31:44 – Exploring the due diligence of investing in a stock

36:16 – Most interesting things David learned about Mongolian gold exploration

39:09 – How David got involved in Dragon Den’s

42:17 – The process behind picking a company to invest in from the show

44:44 – Looking at permanent investing and how David continues to invest in small businesses outside of the show and what he looks for in making those decisions

47:14 – What were the negative screens when checking out a business

38:34 – The Accounting Game: Basic Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand

50:04 – The importance of smart marketing when selling a product or service

53:54 – The practice of writing a good intro for everything you do as an exercise in determining if an idea has potential

56:37 – Millennial Money: How Young Investors Can Build a Fortune

58:25 – Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

58:41 – What does David do with a bad book

1:00:22 – How Patrick discovers new books to read

1:01:56 – People are paying less attention to Amazon reviews

1:03:20 – The power of brand as credibility in media suggestions

1:04:45 – Alex Moazed Podcast

1:04:52 – Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy

1:06:54 – How publishers are impacting the length of books

1:07:52 – Exploring the impact of books all being the same price

1:09:39 – Shifting to fintech and where David fits into that space

1:15:46 – The shift to passive investing

1:19:26 – David gets Patrick to clarify his investing process and strategy

1:25:22 – Michael Mauboussin Podcast

1:25:32 – Efficiently Inefficient: How Smart Money Invests and Market Prices Are Determined

1:25:54 – Philosophical Economics

1:25:56 – Has David ever thought about operating a business as a founder

1:28:35 – David’s most memorable day in his career

1:31:38 – Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

1:33:43 – Kindest thing anyone has ever done for David

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

FOR ITUNES