No Mercy No Malice

How Scott Galloway Learned How to Invest at 13 — From a Stranger

Proof that kindness compounds over the long term

As the news keeps thrusting the CEO of Robinhood in my face, I have two thoughts. One: Is the Javier Bardem No Country for Old Men hairstyle back in vogue? And two: Investing in — and holding — stocks has changed my life profoundly. The risk my parents took in immigrating to America, the generosity of California taxpayers (funding my education at UCLA and Berkeley), and my investments in stocks are the reasons my sons have health insurance and a dad who can go to Burning Man (soon, I hope) without really going to Burning Man (no yurt at my age).

I started buying stocks when I was 13 — this is that story. (Originally published in March of 2018.)

Cy Cordner

In junior high I was invisible.

In the second grade, I was the only son in a nuclear family where Dad was a vice president for International Telegraph and Telegram (ITT) and Mom was a secretary. We lived in a house overlooking the Pacific in Laguna Niguel. By eighth grade, I was the son of a single mother, still a secretary, living in a condo in Westwood. In the third grade, Debbie Brubaker and I were sent to the fifth grade for math and…