In my Money Makers interview series, I interview notable professionals and entrepreneurs. Generally, my interviewees have created a successful business or are leaders in their field. In this article I interviewed Darwin Li, a successful investor and wealth coach. He has a lot to share about leadership, wealth building, and achieving financial freedom. Without further ado, let’s get into the interview!
For my readers who may not be familiar with you, would you please introduce yourself? Who are you? What do you do?
My name is Darwin Li. I have the twitter handle @ModestMultiMill.
I help leaders evolve their thinking to achieve extraordinary results and I do that in two areas, leadership and wealth creation. I am a wealth and leadership coach and I also publish a stock investment newsletter with stock suggestions (the same stocks that I buy & own).
I also work in IT and host a podcast called “Darwin’s Theories of Awesomeness”.
Is there anything you want people to know about what you do for a living? For example, what sets you apart from others in your industry?
I find market-beating growth stocks and I buy and hold for years. I’ve cleanly beaten the market average by many multiples for the past 20 years and I show others how to do the same with my investment newsletter.
The chart below shows performance against the S&P 500 benchmark. My returns also soundly outperformed ARKK (Ark Innovation ETF).
(The chart goes back only to 2013 because I switched brokerages but results have been similar for the last two decades).
A number of years ago, I invested in a data science and stock analyst team for private research. My returns went from good to extraordinary. They’re not a cheap investment, but worth every penny.
Paying for good advice is worth it.
How did you get your start? Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently?
I worked at a .com (dot “bomb”) early in my career. Early on our CEO got in front of the company and boldly declared, “Everyone in this room will be a millionaire”.
WHOA!
Hello stock options! But the company went bankrupt. Buh-bye stock options!
But this is when I developed my passion for the stock market.
In hindsight, I would not have invested into the .com, as I believed in the hype and didn’t follow the financials or the market enough. It is my single worst investment but best investing lesson.
Is there anyone who has really inspired you – authors, coworkers, or managers?
I’m a buy and hold investor – Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch.
I greatly admire Cathie Wood a lot, and I think Elon Musk is the greatest visionary in innovation since Steve Jobs.
Personally, I proudly maintain a list of world-class mentors with whom I keep in regular contact and seek advice. They’re all 10x smarter than me in their area of expertise and I’m better because of them. One such example in business is JT Foxx who is a 9-figure entrepreneur.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far, both in your field and in personal finance?
In my field, the biggest challenge I’ve faced, by far, is in learning to lead myself well.
True excellence is the result of a series of habits, traits and behaviours that very few people bother to cultivate. When we find these folks, we need to learn from them. It’s why I’ve interviewed so many Olympians on my podcast – they have incredible mindsets.
In personal finance, the switch from the easy world of ETFs to buying stocks is big. With apologies to all ETF lovers, they are easy and low-cost, but they present only average level returns.
By contrast, the mindset that leads to market smashing returns is totally different. In fact, each shift – from millionaire to multi-millionaire to decamillionaire (of which I’m not one). to billionaire (definitely not there either) – demands an elevated level of attitude, mindset and thinking…you need a mentor at each level above to help you get there.
I’m really blessed to have one at each level.
Time for a bit of a loaded question – what is your favorite type of investment and why (index funds, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.)?
Growth stocks!
At the end of the day, what is the main thing you hope you achieve?
I want to be able to help others to evolve their thinking to find extraordinary results.
To me this means 3 things (sorry I’m ignoring the bounds of your question):
1 – In terms of leadership, that means helping people to become excellent and effective in their personal and professional lives.
2 – In terms of financial freedom, I want to show people how to escape the golden handcuffs and find financial freedom for themselves and their families through growth stock investing.
3 – In terms of helping the less fortunate, my goal is to start businesses so that I can provide jobs to people, sponsor working visas, and help them and their future generations to escape poverty.
What’s the best piece of advice you received growing up? How did it shape you into the person you are today?
Find a mentor who’s truly excellent at what they do. Learn.
Never, ever lose touch with a wise mentor.
Value and cherish them. Tell them this often.
Everyone views success differently, what personal metric do you use to define your own success?
My success is determined by how much I am able to help others to succeed. By the end of my life, I have a goal to have sponsored and employed hundreds of the less fortunate and provide them with jobs while helping to lift their families out of poverty.
People tend to struggle with finding a good work-life balance, especially these days. How do you manage? In other words, what’s an average weekday like for you?
I do not believe in work-life balance. The “life” part of work-life balance usually translates into watching too much TV and Netflix.
I believe rather in setting a few narrow priorities that align with one’s passions and devoting most of their time in those directions. For me, this includes family, faith, finance and “f”leadership. (I wish leadership started with “f”).
I’m active on twitter, providing personal finance advice, and I run several leadership activities such as a weekly leadership book mastermind.
I’m physically active and work out at least 6 times a week.
What’s something you’re interested in – outside of work?
Sports. I coached a World Championship team in the sport of Dragon Boat – it’s a long canoe – and also competed at a high level, being a national champion back in the day. I enjoy interviewing world class athletes and coaches.
If you had to give advice to someone who has just joined the job market and started their personal finance journey, what would it be?
Learn. Be calm. Be rational.
Read more in books than on the internet. Learn to be calm and rational…the 2 best traits for an investor.
Most social media influencers are young and have never been through a superbubble and definitely not a bear market. Most influencers mean well, but they rate high on “flash” and low on content.
I started my Twitter feed, Modest Multi-Millionaire, in October of 2021 because I could see the bubble crash coming and I knew that I could help people, as I’ve been through 3, of which one (in 2000) was a stock market super-bubble. I do my best to provide free advice that comes from a lifetime of reading, experience and learning…the seeds of my wealth were sown in the 3 bleakest investment periods, 2000, 2008, and 2020.
I think 2022 is going to be the worst bubble burst in history. See past the pain towards the opportunity ahead – it’s there.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed learning about Darwin and his views on leadership and achieving financial freedom! If you like what he had to say and want to see more, be sure to check him out on Twitter, @ModestMultiMill. If you are interested in any of his services, check out his website. As always, if you have any thoughts you’d like to contribute, add a comment!
