Top 25 Quotes & Sayings by Charles R. Schwab

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American businessman Charles R. Schwab.

Last updated on April 14, 2025.

Charles Robert Schwab Sr. is an American investor and financial executive. He is the founder and chairman of the Charles Schwab Corporation. He pioneered discount sales of equity securities starting in 1975. His company became by far the largest discount securities dealer in the United States. He semi-retired from the company in 2008 when he stepped down as CEO, but he remains chairman and is the largest shareholder to this day.

American - Businessman | Born: July 29, 1937

Source: Wikipedia

Most of the mutual fund investments I have are index funds, approximately 75%.

Charles R. Schwab

The word passive does a disservice to investors considering their options. Indexing provides an effective means of owning the market and allows investors to participate in the returns of a basket of stocks. The basket of stocks changes over time as stocks are added or removed based on its rules.

Charles R. Schwab

I did as much as I could: raising chickens, pushing an ice-cream cart, bagging walnuts, driving a tractor on a beet farm, working on the railroad. I think this eclectic career helped me a lot in life.

Charles R. Schwab

Nobody wants to be passive; indexing is not passive - much more goes into indexing than watching a stock become the next buggy whip.

Charles R. Schwab

The best place to succeed is where you are with what you've got.

Charles R. Schwab

The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor find much fun in life.

Charles R. Schwab

It's fun to play around... it's human nature to try to select the right horse... But for the average person, I'm more of an indexer... The predictability is so high... For 10, 15, 20 years you'll be in the 85th percentile of performance. Why would you screw it up?

Charles R. Schwab

At the end of every day, having a clientele that speaks well of you, that's the largest source of business. I don't care what kind of business you're in. Clients referring us to their friends or relatives is so much more powerful than any advertising we could ever do.

Charles R. Schwab

I am like a chief. I like to taste the food. If it tastes bad, I don't serve it. I'm constantly monitoring what we do, and I'm always looking for better ways we can provide financial services, ways that would make me happy if I were a client.

Charles R. Schwab

Kindness is more powerful than compulsion.

Charles R. Schwab

There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors. I never criticize anyone...If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise.

Charles R. Schwab

People succeed at just about anything they're genuinely enthusiastic about.

Charles R. Schwab

Three men were laying brick. The first was asked: " What are you doing? He answered: " Laying some brick." The second man was asked: " What are you working for? " He answered: " Five dollars a day." The third man was asked: " What are you doing? He answered: " I am helping to build a great cathedral." Which man are you?

Charles R. Schwab

Many times I can see a solution to something differently and quicker than other people. I see the end zone and say 'This is where I want to go.'

Charles R. Schwab

I was once ask if a big business man ever reached his objective. I replied that if a man ever reached his objective he was not a big business man.

Charles R. Schwab

I couldn't read. I just scraped by. My solution back then was to read classic comic books because I could figure them out from the context of the pictures. Now I listen to books on tape.

Charles R. Schwab

I quickly learned that if I kept at it and plowed right through the rejections I would eventually get somebody to buy my wares.

Charles R. Schwab

The nasty little secret was that I couldn't read worth a darn. In my case, I still read very slowly to this moment.

Charles R. Schwab

One can succeed at almost anything for which he has enthusiasm.

Charles R. Schwab

There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors. I never criticize anyone. I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. . . . I have yet to find a person, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism.

Charles R. Schwab

We are all salesmen every day of our lives. We are selling our ideas, our plans, our enthusiasms to those with whom we come in contact.

Charles R. Schwab