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 John C. Bogle, born in Montclair, New Jersey, on May 8, 1929, is the founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc., creator of the first index mutual fund—the Vanguard 500 Index Fund—and President of Vanguard's Bogle Financial Markets Research Center. Created in 1974 and headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, the Vanguard has now evolved into the Vanguard Group, one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world. Vanguard has more than 100 mutual funds with current assets of about US$ 950 billion.
Fame and power have been bestowed upon Mr. Bogle, such as the TIME magazine's world's 100 most powerful and influential people and Institutional Investor's Lifetime Achievement Award (both in 2004), Pennsylvania's Business Leader of the Year named by the Commonwealth's Chamber of Commerce (2000), one of the investment industry's four "Giants of the 20th Century" from FORTUNE magazine (1999), and the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University for "distinguished achievement in the nation's service" (1999). He has served as Chairman of the Board of the National Constitution Center since September 1999, and is a member of the American Philosophical Society. Graduated from Princeton University, magna cum laude in Economics in 1951, he has received honorary doctoral degrees from ten U.S. universities, including Princeton University, the University of Delaware, and the University of Rochester.
Mr. Bogle, an eloquent and insightful writer and speaker, is also a best-selling author on mutual funds, investing, business ethics, and leadership. All his books have received critical acclaim. His fifth, The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, was published in 2005 by Yale University Press. He also authored Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life, a book which expounds his main philosophy. He is often an invited speaker at various CEO, management, and academic seminars, and most of his speeches can be accessed from his eBlog at < http://johncbogle.com/wordpress/bogle-speeches/ >.
Relentless Battler for Advancement
Mr. Bogle has always been hard working and has done various jobs, including newspaper deliverer, waiter, ticket seller, mail clerk, cub reporter, runner for a brokerage firm, and pin setter in a bowling alley, which he described as a "Sisyphean battle." He strives for personal advancement, attention, innovation, progress, service to society, and power, and he hopes to be remembered. The heroes that inspire and encourage him are Alexander Hamilton, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and even the cinematic character Rocky Balboa.
Skeptic of Numeracy
Seeing how people have subjected their intuitive power to the dominance of numbers in modern society, economics, and finance, Mr. Bogle often reminds us that numbers are at best "a pale reflection of reality" and at worst "a gross distortion of the truths" people seek to measure. In dealing with investment, he argues that people should not rely too heavily on historical economic and market data, and points out that an optimistic bias often leads to a distorted perception of such data. He then reminds people to seek security from intrinsic corporate values rather than worshiping hard numbers and the momentary levels of stock prices. He advocates restoring a real economy, which is against "numerical illusions of certainty," with immeasurable but invaluable qualities of perspective, experience, common sense, and judgment.
The "Impartial Spectator" as Guiding Light
Mr. Bogle describes modern society as bombarded with BUSINESS, which, unfortunately, "measures the wrong bottom line, form over substance, prestige over virtue, money over achievement, charisma over character, the ephemeral over the enduring, even Mammon over God."
Mr. Bogle resorts to the "Impartial Spectator," a concept created by Adam Smith, as the guiding light for people to navigate through the confusing circumstances in life. Explained as "the force that arouses in us principles that are both generous and noble," and, in Smith's words, is "reason, principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the great judge and arbiter of our conduct," the Impartial Spectator "calls to us, with a voice capable of astonishing the most presumptuous of our passions, that we are but one of the multitude, in no respect better than any other in it…it is this impartial spectator…who shows us …the propriety of reining the greatest interests of our own, for the yet greater interests of others…in order to obtain the greatest benefit to ourselves." This "love of what is honorable and noble, the grandeur, and dignity, and superiority of our own characters" can motivate people to practice high-level virtues.
Authentic Leadership
Mr. Bogle's ideal type of leaders are "authentic": they serve others through their leadership, and focus more on empowering the people they lead to make a difference than on power, money, or prestige for themselves. They use their heart, passion, and compassion to lead, with purpose, meaning, and values, and they build enduring relationships with people. They are consistent and self-disciplined, and can hold on to their principles when tested.
Conclusion: Living an Examined Life
Mr. Bogle used a parable of a racing dog that stopped chasing a rabbit, not because he was too old to race, unambitious, being treated badly, or wounded, but because, while he was chasing that rabbit, he suddenly realized that it was an "unreal rabbit." Mr. Bogle thinks that those who help others to live their lives in comfort, to work hard, and to be honest can be certain that they are toiling for a justified cause.
In a speech given at Immaculata University in 2006, Mr. Bogle reminded young people to make the world a better place through their daily work, and to illuminate with William Penn's Words:
I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore, that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. Upon receiving the 2000 Business Leader of the Year Award by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, Mr. Bogle humbly said that his accomplishments were not his alone and re-emphasized the power of simplicity, which was the essence of those accomplishments. Once mocked as having “the uncanny ability to recognize the obvious,” he responded that in a world already too complex and gone astray, what was intended as a criticism was, in fact, a compliment, because so many seem oblivious to the obvious.
Helen Chang
The Banyan Editorial Office
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