Beating the Odds: Eddie Brown's Investing and Life Strategies

187 Pages·2011·1.96 MB·English

by  Eddie Brown

Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Disclaimer
Prologue
Chapter 1 Who Says Talk Is Cheap?
Chapter 2 The Big Three to the Rescue
Chapter 3 The Prince of Apopka
Chapter 4 Death and a Kidnapping
Chapter 5 Magnificent, Mysterious Lady B.
Chapter 6 Engineering a New Existence
Chapter 7 Europe on Five Dollars a Day
Chapter 8 “Ed, We’re Already Doing Okay!”
Chapter 9 A Famished Lion in a Butcher Shop
Chapter 10 The Height of Duplicity and Betrayal?
Chapter 11 A Window on the Top 1 Percent
Chapter 12 Pulling the Trigger on Investments
Chapter 13 Swimming with Sharks
Chapter 14 Aren’t You That Financial Guy From TV?
Chapter 15 Walking a Racial Tightrope
Chapter 16 “Go For It, Dad!”
Chapter 17 Everyone’s Medical Nightmare
Chapter 18 My Biggest Business Mistake
Chapter 19 A Horror Movie without Sound
Chapter 20 The Art and Science of Stock Picking
Chapter 21 “God, I Owe You One!”
Chapter 22 Impressive Progress, Baffling Lethargy
Chapter 23 To Heir Is Human
Chapter 24 Anyone Care for a Can of New Coke?
Epilogue
Index
Plates

Copyright © 2011 by Eddie Brown. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108
of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written
permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate
per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive,
Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the Web at
www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be
addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River
Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at
http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have
used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or
warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this
book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or
fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales
representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained
herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a
professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable
for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited
to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services or for technical
support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States
at [phone], outside the United States at [phone] or fax (317) 572-
4002.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content
that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more
information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Brown, Eddie (Eddie C.), 1940-
Beating the odds: Eddie Brown’s investing and life strategies/Eddie Brown.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-93662-7; ISBN 978-1-118-06132-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-
06130-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-06131-2 (ebk) 1. Brown, Eddie (Eddie C.),
1940-2. Investment advisors–Florida–Biography. 3. African American
businesspeople–Florida–Biography. I. Title.
HG4621.B76 2011
332.6092–dc22
[B]
2010053518
This book is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, Mamie Magdalene
Brown, a remarkable woman whose discipline, sacrifice, and unconditional love
got my life on this planet underway in spectacular fashion. Grandma, you’re
largely responsible for the man I am today. I hope you’ve been able to bear
witness to some of the things I’ve accomplished since your untimely death, and I
hope I’ve been able to make you proud.
This book is also for my loving and highly intelligent daughters Tonya and
Jennifer, as well as for their extraordinary mother. Sylvia, we’ve enjoyed nearly
half a century of marriage and I love you today with the same intensity and
passion that I felt during our college days. My most noteworthy wealth-building
achievement has nothing to do with dollars and cents, because I’ve been rich
since the day you agreed to be my life partner.
Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to dedicate Beating the Odds to my
precocious grandsons Elias, Benjamin, and Darrell Jr. If you guys take nothing
else from this book, I hope the following lesson sticks: If you carry yourselves
with dignity and integrity and always give 150 percent to whatever endeavor you
happen to be engaged in, I think you’ll all be impressed with how things turn
out.
This is a true story, so a few names have been changed.
Prologue
Why me?
I’ve asked myself that question a million times in the eons since I graduated
from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
You see, someone I didn’t know from Adam’s housecat decided to foot the
total bill for my undergraduate education, enabling me to earn a bachelor of
science in electrical engineering at the age of 20.
That generosity propelled a kid who once transported illicit liquor onto a path
that saw me eventually create a multi-billion dollar money-management
business.
Remarkably, my benefactor’s generosity came without provisos or conditions.
There were no demands about maintaining a requisite grade point average,
pursuing a specific major, entering a given field after college, or even forwarding
sporadic progress reports while I was at Howard.
I’d love to know what thought processes triggered the life-altering
philanthropy set in motion by that mysterious white woman.
So in some ways, Beating the Odds is a paean to a now-deceased benefactor
I’ll always wish I had properly thanked for her largesse, but never did due to the
obliviousness of youth.
My other reason for writing Beating the Odds is to tell a crackling good tale
filled with valuable nuggets about life, the labyrinthine world of investing, and
my successful quest to become a philanthropist in my own right.
I’ll be dispensing hard-won lessons absorbed over the course of an existence
that’s presented me with some wonderfully gratifying twists and turns, as well as
occasional heartache and heartburn.