Here’s the Real Secret of John Bogle’s Success
The late Vanguard founder knew the limitations of investors, money managers — and outrageous wealth.
Unusually for a giant of the financial (or any other) industry, John Bogle’s success was built on humility.
Bogle, who died yesterday at 89, turned the Vanguard Group of Investment Funds into a $5 trillion behemoth largely by preaching the humble gospel that individual investors will never consistently beat the market and are better off simply buying a little fund representing it instead. He added another layer of humility by telling investors they didn’t need to pay him huge fees for such a service. As if that weren’t enough self-abnegation, as Joe Nocera notes, Bogle preached this gospel for decades to an uninterested, often hostile crowd. Finally, though, the rest of the world caught up with him; before long, Bogle had transformed an industry.