YouSaid · the spoken record

David Gardner

lines on the record: 90
first: 2026-04-24
most recent: 2026-04-24
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Are the bedrocks as an entrepreneur? I know. I see it in my own company. When we fail and when we succeed, none of those is being captured in the financial statements. And we're living in a left-brain-driven algorithmic world. And so I think here now I see, and I only think longer term than I ever did before when I was 30 years ago, I think longer term today at the age of 59 than 29. And I use my right brain.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would just say that when I first got started in 1993, investing was more of a math exercise for me. I was taught by a dad. I mentioned value line, lots of ratios that we know. I never learned financial statements until I bought how to read a financial statement the year after I'd graduated college thinking, you know, I kind of miss that. I never really did that. And so I was very numerically driven. I think what I've realized is that using your right brain in a world where many people are just using their left brain is where the real values added. My favorite chapter in my rulebreaker investing book points out that most of the things that win in business are not actually on the financial statements. We've already talked about a few of them. Who's running the company? That is incredibly important. How about the brand value of a company? Most of those are never expressed anywhere in the financial statements, the culture of the company. Can it innovate? Those four...”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Seeing what's happening in genomics or robotic surgery or whatever. And I'm an English major and I care about these things and profiting as a consequence. I would also say that any young person start investing yesterday.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I would first of all say that you should pick individual stocks and you should pay attention to the game and you should love it. You should have a lot of fun. I mean, I love sports. We've talked, I know you do too. We've talked about that a lot. People follow their sports teams day to day. I follow the markets day to day. And the difference is you actually can make serious money by learning and following the market in a way you never will as a sports fan. And I love sports. And, you know, sports can be a little bit more fun day to day, but the markets are open every day. Your NFL team only plays on Sundays and starting to figure out what wins in the marketplace and why is that app on your phone not somebody else's app? What's in your fridge? What are you wearing? Noticing the things that go on around you. This is going to lead to riches, but it's also going to open your mind to awareness of what's happening in our society. And I do think that people who are taught to index and not really care are kind of walking blind in society when they could be poking their feelers up.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We've ended up doing really well. But, you know, andor obviously Star Wars, and I love brands and I love family entertainment. So those are some that come to mind.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly, just such a slow horses, great, great show. Apple andor. Sure, I love sci-fi. I love all the Marvel stuff. By the way, Marvel's been an amazing stock for me. It got bought out by Disney. So these days, we have a very low cost basis you couldn't have gotten because when Disney bought Marvel at a huge premium, we Marvel's shareholders. We happy few buying a rule breaker that looked overvalued.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Totally recommend that. That's just season one. I mean, we had a lot of British comedy fans in my family. So shows like Mitchell and Webb, the comedy duo, their clips are all over YouTube. But IT crowd, hilarious show, streaming. Totally recommend that. Not as funny, but very British. All creatures great and small. Just an absolute delight.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Barry, indeed. I mean, the inevitable by Kevin Kelly is a great book about the future. I'm a big Kevin Kelly fan. He founded Wired Magazine. He's a genius. I enjoy Arthur Brooks' columns in The Atlantic. He writes about happiness. I really loved his book, Love Your Enemies, talking about the divisiveness in our country and how to solve that. And I would love to see more of that. Stephen Pinker and all of his data accumulation around technologies trends in our culture. It seems always to be smart to be a pessimist. You always sound smarter when you talk something down. And yet pinch yourself that you're living today. I know we have a lot of problems. We have many, many better problems. There were many worse problems over human history. Stephen Pinker reminds us of that.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This score. I've had Tina Nguyen on my podcast a couple of times. Love the guy. I mean, we just can geek out about board games, but that's what I'm reading right now. But, you know, when I think about books, I mean, it's a motley array of books. No punishment.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so first of all, I'm reading right now the score by Tin Nguen. And the score is an amazing, but I think the subtitle is something like How to Stop Playing Somebody Else Game. And Nguyen is a games philosopher. So people are philosophers about ideas or art. He specifically looks at games and his book talks about how social media, for example, is sort of a game. Like as soon as you start imposing likes and follows, you're playing somebody else's game. You're playing Twitter X's game or Facebook's game. When you have to accept GPA as a measure of how well you've done in college and it becomes big and bureaucratic and everybody's using that, you are unfortunately playing somebody else's game. Sometimes you have to do it, but being self-aware of what is motivating you, it is an amazing book. And I highly recommend.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I've taught you how to value line that big black tome, the numbers of investing. And I know you love sports statistics. Another of my mentors, Bill James, the awesome baseball statistician. Actually, he was a journalist. But James, who influenced Moneyball, of course. So who I've met before. But, you know, these are early people who convince me of the fun of life and that it could be counted with numbers. I'm an English major, but there's a big left brain going on with me with loving numbers and baseball stats and college basketball stats. Ken Palm, by the way. Ken Palm, that is a $25 subscription any sports fan would enjoy. I'm thinking about Clayton Christensen I mentioned. These are all people who really have helped me think about what wins.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, my father, who at the age of 18 said, Here you go, David, I've been investing this for you from birth. This is all you're ever getting from me.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Customers and how their partners and suppliers are proud to be associated with them. And guess what? Usually the stocks end up outperforming in a world where many people think it's too risky to even buy individual stocks. So the more there's big dumb money sloshing around out there, Barry, the easier it is for stock pickers like me, like you, if you like, like anybody listening to us to actually pick and discern the good companies, hold them longer than Wall Street, longer than the headlines, then CNBC will be talking about. do really well”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Net net, please. Amazon is a huge value contributor. So that's an example of a company. Reed Hastings and what he created at Netflix. I mean, there's a whole 80-page slide a lot of entrepreneurs have seen about how Netflix does culture that they just kind of shared out. And you could see why they're so successful, because how they treat their employees and the standards that they hold. doing good actually leads to doing well. And again, many people think that's a trade-off or they don't actually think that's real. I specifically want you and I to make our portfolios reflect our best vision for our future. And so every company that I already invade against an entire industry, the gaming industry earlier, sorry gamers. But by the way, I'm a gamer, but I play video games and board games, not 50-50 and the house takes 10% game. But I would say that you're looking for the people who are doing good or within their industry. They're admired for how they treat their employees, how they win for their”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I know But you and I do, though. Yeah, of course. And we got some of our peeps listening, right? Yeah. All right. Sure. So, yeah. I should have just answered the question. So I look for companies that are conscious capitalism kinds of companies. I want companies that, first of all, are doing good in this world by my perception. A lot of people think it's a trade-off in life. They think capitalism is greedy and evil and you're abusing workers and it's all about maximizing shareholder value. I completely disagree in many cases. Sure, that exists in the world, but that's not the story of Amazon. Amazon is a big, beautiful, amazing enterprise that helps save lives during COVID. And yes, they'll get criticized for some of the things that they've done. And Jeff Bezos is considered an egomaniac by some.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Picked in 2011 or Shopify in 2016. These are all rule breakers. They're not going to hit right away. Shopify has been up and down, but mostly up. It's a great example of a rulebreaker. Circa the last 10 years, not the first 20 years. But I never want people to forget we were right there at the beginning with AOL and we were picking AOL and Amazon and Starbucks, by the way, and the list goes on. So I would just say compounding numbers are always going to make it look like all of your big winners are early in your career.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, first of all, I would say that invest every day of your life, every two weeks, if you can. Young people, the first thing you should do is open an account. If you haven't already, save with every paycheck, try to put up to 10% away and put it in. If you want, you can index. But I think you should be buying stocks as well alongside that and learning as you go. And anybody who's playing the long game in the markets as they start to hit their 30th or 40th year, which is where I am, it's always going to look like all your big winners were the first 10 years because, of course, they are, I mean, literally, Amazon is now more than a thousand times the value for me. I'm not trying to be Amazon guy. You don't walk me, you don't see me walking around going, I'm the guy who had Amazon. 16 cents. I also have that for NVIDIA, but just by the nature of compounding, Barry, which I think you understand as well as anyone, it's always going to look like all your big winners were early. But, you know, whether it's Tessa.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Go forward on what are the companies that are going to add value to our world in a way that is consumer noticeable. And when they're called overvalued, that's even better for us as rulebreaker investors.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A lot about their character, which matters deeply to me. I'm a big character person. So I want to feel really good about the people I'm invested in across my portfolio. So we're looking at important emerging industries, and we're not trying to force things that don't exist yet. There's no ultra AI stock. I mean, NVIDIA has been an amazing hold for us now 21 years in counting. It was not an AI company when I first recommended it, but we're still holding. But, you know, these things are going to emerge. I already mentioned earlier things like Uber, Airbnb didn't show up till more than 10 years after the internet had really started to penetrate American life. And so for me, it's just keeping our eyes out, whether it's genomics or some duolingo, a video game on your phone where you're learning languages. Again, all of these are from different industries, but they are the innovator. And so, yeah, we're staying focused.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I would always be, first of all, looking at industries, and you just did that, some. And, you know, even something like biotech, which you said, right, that's, as you know, Barry, that's multiple industries. I mean, there's, so the internet was never an industry. AI is not in this industry. So we're talking about, again, huge technologies. I was saying earlier, plate tectonic shifts for our society. And you're looking for the beneficiaries. You're looking for the visionaries who are starting something that might sound a little crazy like mailing DVDs back and forth or an electric car. And you want to get invested in those, assuming that you agree with the vision, you think the person is great, you and I were referencing investment research circa 1980s, 90s, an annual report being mailed to you through the mail. That was about all you had. There weren't online forms or anything. These days, you can watch long-form YouTube videos watching any CEO be interviewed and learned.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. Still buy another one. So we had a friend of ours who is British go in with a British accent and explain to Blockbuster that we were renting his place. He doesn't really know about it, but here's this video that he found. And so we kind of got out of that one. It wasn't totally above board, so I'm happy now to admit that. This is helpful for me. But yeah, that was kind of the state of things, the anxiety, the angst around returning a video late and not feeling great, you know, from a consumer branding standpoint. So, yeah, Netflix love them.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have a small confession to make that Wall Street Summer I referenced when I went to Solomon Brothers we did. We had a video out from BlogPoster and we kept it the whole summer. We just kept not returning. We were irresponsible college sophomores. And at the end of the summer, I'm not even sure. Like we had racked up a triple digit late fee.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And as a master of business administration, actually, I don't have an MBA, but I know I'm a master of business. Beautiful. But as students of the game, as people who love business, what actually was happening was Netflix was changing the business model of the consumer proposition in the whole industry, right? Because as you just pointed out, Blockbuster was a transactional late fee driven. And all of a sudden, you're subscribing to Netflix. You're now in a subscription relationship. Very disruptive. There was no There was really no precedent for that in that industry. So it looked like this crazy thing and it was easy to mock. Why wouldn't you just drop it off a block away? Mail it to these people? And yet it fundamentally changed the business model forever. And then we're not even talking about streaming, which we don't have to, but they keep innovating.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's like Yahoo could have bought Google. You love those stories, but I would say that I never really thought too much about Blockbuster as a stock. I remember we had the CEO on our Motley Full Radio Show, and at that time, Blockbuster maybe had 25 million customers, and Netflix had 1 million. And he was like, you know, we were watching what they're doing. It's neat what they're doing. I don't think it's not a big scaling thing. You know, it's kind of a niche thing. Do you want to mail your DVD back and forth? And I think it was John Antiocho, but I mean, good man probably, but wrong. He was wrong. And so it wasn't so much that I ever cared or loved Blockbuster. I just was watching this rulebreaker emerge. And it was doing crazy stuff like you can't just drop it off two blocks away. Your blockbuster, you have to mail it and keep a cue and send it back and forth.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Be best in class, and it may have a famous CEO that everybody loves, but all of a sudden there's this upstart, might be a whole industry of new players. And when I see that in a company going down, I may not want to hold on to that stock. But if Netflix, which has been ascendant now for 20 plus years every time, if it's down two-thirds of its value, which has happened more than once, including Quickster. I keep holding that one, right? So the question is does this company remain a rule breaker? Is it a top dog and still first mover in an emergent industry? And when it is, I'm going to keep holding that stock.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, first of all, I'd say you can't know. I mean, it would be too headstrong of me to say here's what you do, here's how you know. So for me, I just like to keep my stocks in place and recognize someone are going to trip. I love horse racing metaphors, and not every horse is going to win the race. Not everyone's going to make to the race. Some get out to a great start and don't finish well. And I can't always know. But by holding, I allow the ones that clearly will win to win so grandly. You know, when you make more than a thousand times your money on Amazon or Nvidia, it doesn't actually matter that you had some dogs in your portfolio. So you can be wrong, and that's okay because being right is so much more valuable. I will also add, though, to answer your question a little bit more directly, usually the companies that fall and don't come back are being disrupted. Earlier, I mentioned Clayton Christensen, Innovator's Dilemma. You can usually kind of see it that the world is changing. The company might start.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really cool In the mail Yeah, well, so more transparency is the theme here. So for me, I think a lot about what is going to be in the best interest of armchair investors like me, because Barry, we are individual investors. And so I'm there representing anybody who is in an investment club or was given a portfolio of stocks and they're trying to figure out how to make better decisions. And I think it's so rewarding to pick stocks in a world where it's increasingly called out as crazy talk to actually buy an individual stock.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, no. I mean, we love following business. By the way, one thing you asked me to think a little bit about is there anything that people should be talking more about, especially if something that troubles me. And a quick example would be, I really think we should have companies reporting every three months their financial results. And you may know there's a movement afoot to allow some companies just to report twice a year. I think that's a really bad decision. And I hope we don't do that. I hope companies will self-report and choose to be transparent on a regular basis with their results.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Buying on it, that's usually when you want to be on the other side of that, right? That can be true. I will also, but no, no, no. I definitely appreciate the sentiment and I smile at that askance with you as well. I will say that we typically just hold well longer than whatever analysts are thinking or saying. We don't really pay attention. So you're not quoted a quarter?”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, you're right. And yet, not everybody would have felt that way back then, but it was, I mean, we had no inside view of AOL. We were separately domiciled, but we watched AOL grow. And it was such an object business lesson as an entrepreneur for me. But as a stock picker, I was watching it get called out as the most overvalued stock repeatedly by august bodies like the World Economic. It's not the World Economic Forum today, but basically all the economists in the world would get together every summer and two summers in a row. It was like 96 and 97. They voted the most overvalued stock. And it was the stock that we had backed. And our members were like, guys, they're calling the most overvalued again. We're like, this is an amazing company. It went up 150 times in value. And I learned so much from that experience. And as we mentioned, it didn't end there. It started to drop back and fell back and eventually just kind of”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Definitely We literally picked it the day we launched on AOL 1994, August 4th, 1994. And from that point, I watched AOL. And again, we were, I mean, we were always fully transparent. People were like, wait, you guys are on AOL. Is there a conflict of interest? You're recommending AOL stop? No.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but I've watched, it's such a key indicator trait number six. When people say it's toast, that not for every stock, but for the rule breakers, that is magic. It has been for me.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is not going to happen for companies that are not dynamic. This is not going to happen so much for cyclicals. I mean, there will be some cyclicality. These are rule breakers. These are stocks.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, it's now split down to 16 cents, which, by the way, is also my cost basis on NVIDIA. Thanks to the magic of stock splits, they both got me at my 16 cent cost bases still holding. But to do that, like NVIDIA just three years ago lost half its value in one year. This is one of the largest”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're right, Barry. And the truth is that if you follow any of these companies, I've littered our conversation with 15 to 20 company names that are really 15 to 20 generationally great stocks. Every single one of these stocks has lost 50% or more of its value more than once, which means that if you'd followed Motley Full advice, depending on your timing, you might love me or not like me. You might be like, yeah, I got in there, but got cut in half and I got out. Holding all the way through. Buying and we're holding. So I have watched Amazon go. This is kind of pre-split. It was at three when we first recommended it. Went to 95 down to seven during that 2001 era. Incredible.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I experienced it all the way. In fact, our cost basis, 16 cents, it had gone up. It was a 30 bagger. And again, when I'm picking stocks, this is not for my own portfolio. This is lots of people following the Molly Fool. These are people subscribing to us. When I pick a good stock, it feels really good. It's not about me. When I pick a bad stock, it doesn't feel very good. It's not about me.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I think that, first of all, let's be clear there are things that are overvalued that you and I would not want to buy. But if you're following our conversation, if you're buying a top dog and first mover in an important emerging industry with a sustainable competitive advantage, stellar past price appreciation, excellent management, smart backing, strong consumer appeal. It has all five of those things in place. And then some guy on CNBC is telling you it's blatantly overvalued. It's crazy no one should ever buy that stock. Amazon.bom cover of barons. That is the special sauce that causes me to say bam, now we're buying. Well, the Amazon.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We are specifically wanting people to call out Tesla as ridiculously overpriced. Amazon will never make money. Intuitive surgical, when I first recommended it, over a hundred bagger ago, it was at 73 times earnings. There are people, if they even do pay attention to stocks anymore, that say I would never buy a stock with a price-to-earnings ratio of 73. The list goes on.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably my favorite secret sauce. So if you're following us the first two were about the company of the third was the stock. Then the next two, four and five, the people and the brand are about the company. Number six is about the stock and it's specifically that the stock is generally considered capital O overvalued by the by the world at large, by Wall Street commentators, by people in Barrons, CNBC never Bloomberg Radio.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And they're not noticing or caring, I think, about trait number four who the heck's running this thing and who's backing it. That matters deeply to me, especially if I'm holding, as I do for three decades. Number five, we're looking for strong consumer brands. I love companies that have raving fans. And it doesn't mean every time that they are a consumer brand, striker drilling, intuitive surgical, these are not consumer brands per se, although Intuitive Surgical with its Da Vinci Surgical Robot, you will hear your local on your local radio if you still listen to it. You'll hear an ad for the hospital bragging in some cases that they have a da Vinci. So there is some brand recognition there, but Starbucks, Netflix, Amazon. These are all my best stock picks, and I bought them years ago and still hold them today. And they all exhibit that strong consumer appeal.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hidden in plain sight, I think profound insight that most people don't see, even though it's hidden in plain sight. There is no number to express the value of the CEO running companies. So we have a whole Wall Street world that's built on valuation ratios generally off of earnings or cash flow, sometimes off of assets. And they're not including that Elon Musk is the CEO of the company. And by the way, there are a lot of CEOs who are subtracting value from their companies. And there's nothing to express that. And so we have a whole world. Driven off algorithms that increasingly is computer trading. It's not even humans anymore.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sure. So number four, it's all about the people. We're looking for smart backing and excellent management. So it's the human capital. And this is, again, in some ways obvious. Yeah, we'd love to have Steve Jobs be our CEO. Yeah, we're glad that Jeff Bezos is our CEO or Warren Buffett. But keep in mind, and this is a really...”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. And so part of the reason rule breaker investing works is because I'm willing at that point not just to buy it, but to actually be more excited about it. Because clearly, the market is noticing what's happening now. And when companies rise, reflexivity starts to show up, Barry. They start having more resources. They're getting mention on Bloomberg Radio. All of a sudden, a lot of good stuff starts coming to them. That strengthens them. That's not a reason to look for another cigar bot and ignore NVIDIA. So that is trait number three, stellar past price appreciation in a world where most people are like, buy low, sell high. I'm looking to the 52-week low list, friends, not the 52-week high. And when I say friends, I mean, that's the average person speaking. I'm looking for the 52-week high.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Opposite A chapter in my book, and it was an eye-opener as I wrote it and realized it, where I listed out seven of my best stockpicks from Intuitive Surgical to Netflix to Apple to Amazon to Nvidia and a couple of others. In the three to nine months leading up to my first pick of them On average, they had risen 30 to 90 percent. And a lot of people, I think most people, when they are researching a stock, goes up 50%. They're like, oh, that's it.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You bet. And because we're holding stocks for a dead minimum of three years. Preferably three decades, sustainable competitive advantage really, really matters. And that takes many forms. We could talk about that. Number three, so the first two are about the company. The third is about the stock. And this is, I'm looking for a strong stellar past price appreciation in the stock.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I truly go into all hundreds saying, I like this company, I believe in it, I hope it works out, but I'm never loading up on one, et cetera. So top dog on first mover, an important emerging industry of my six trades. That's the most important. So, number two, we're looking for a sustainable competitive advantage.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are, and by the way, not all of these work out as stocks. I certainly have a closet full of bad stock picks as well. And we could talk about that later, but that's very important. If you have sort of a venture capital mentality as you look at the public markets, which is how I describe myself, you need, just like a VC, you need to be comfortable with losing.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and also, by the way, restaurant companies, retail, I mean, every industry I'm asking, who's the innovator? I want to know who the innovator. And if you honestly just only focus your stock market attention on the biggest innovator in each industry, some of them are small, emergent, some of them are big, you're going to do so much better.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is. It's six traits that I'm looking for, and that's the middle of my book. And I didn't start the book that way, and we could talk about that later if you like. But let me just rattle right now through my six traits of rulebreaker investing. And by the way, I've used these now into my fourth decade. I didn't just come up with these yesterday. This is exactly what caused me to pick AOL, Amazon, Tesla, Nvidia. The list goes on. And some of them are so contrary, which is why I think it works. Number one, top dog and first mover in an important emerging industry. We already spoke to that one. We could go deeper.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Intellectual curiosity is the flame that will burn my whole life long, and in many of my fellow fools, and I think my host today as well. So I think that if you're curious and you're asking questions about where society is headed and you're specifically looking for products and services that will improve our lives and our kids' lives, you're going to be looking in the right pond.”
2026-04-24 · Masters in Business · The Stock Picking Philosophy to Find the Next Amazon with Motley Fool's David Gardner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source