You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
GROWING RICH WITH GROWTH STOCKS<br />
fund because I was focused on following different kinds of stocks, I<br />
called her. She saw it as a great opportunity as well,” he says.<br />
KEEPING YOUR FOCUS<br />
Maintaining your focus, in both life and investing, is something<br />
Davis has always taken very seriously. It’s also a lesson he has passed<br />
on to his six kids. He has three children from his first marriage, Andrew,<br />
Christopher, and Victoria. Like his father, Davis let them work<br />
for him during the summer. Unlike his dad, however, he offered them<br />
a real incentive to perform. “They were all given a chance to go out<br />
with me on many of the <strong>com</strong>pany meetings held in New York,” he<br />
explains. “It’s like going to a lecture and hearing management tell its<br />
story. After that, they would have to write up a one-page report, based<br />
on a format I gave them. It was to include a few statistics, a description<br />
of the <strong>com</strong>pany, a discussion of current operations, and its outlook<br />
for the future. If they did the report, they would get $100. That<br />
way, they could make as little or as much as they chose. I didn’t pay<br />
them until they produced a report.”<br />
VICTORIA DAVIS<br />
Victoria really broke the bank. “She was writing five or six reports<br />
a week,” Davis says. “Chris and Andrew did only two or three. But it<br />
was a good introduction for them on how I go about looking at a<br />
<strong>com</strong>pany. You hear their story and keep track of what happens. I remember<br />
Victoria heard the president of MCI when the stock was<br />
trading for around $3 or $4 a share. She told me to buy it. I eventually<br />
did, but she got the first double. A lot of my kids bought stock with<br />
the money they earned, and sometimes I would even match it.”<br />
Ironically, Victoria, 31, is the only one of Davis’ three eldest children<br />
not to enter the investment business. She’s a Harvard graduate<br />
who is now attending Stanford Medical School. She plans to be<strong>com</strong>e<br />
a general practitioner. His other two elder children, Andrew and Chris,<br />
initially took different routes, but now have high-profile jobs at<br />
Davis’s firm. “It was a big surprise that any of them came to work<br />
for me,” he says. “I never really pushed it. When they were younger,<br />
I used to tell them that it didn’t matter if they chose a different vocation<br />
in life; it would still be valuable for them to know how to pick<br />
135