Jack Bogle on CBS Evening News, Part 1

A second clip from the interview:

To Principals and Veterans:

After Sixty Years of Past Service, Looking to the Future

I can still remember my first day on the job at our predecessor company (Wellington Management). It was July 5, 1951, as I walked into our offices at 1420 Walnut Street in Philadelphia, where Wellington employed about 60 people. I had the same aspirations and apprehensions that any young person would feel. It was my first full-time job, but I’d been working at part-time jobs year-round since I was about ten years old, and also worked while attending Blair Academy and Princeton University. So I knew what work was all about—doing whatever job I was assigned to the best of my ability; seeking and accepting responsibility; always doing more than was expected of me; and treating those with whom I worked with kindness and trust.

That proved to be a pretty sound framework for my long career, and served me well through times of accomplishment as well as times of failure; of keen perceptions and embarrassing misjudgments; of days of hearty health and days of illness, often severe. But you know most of these vicissitudes, for I’ve written about them all in my voluminous outpouring of essays, speeches, and books. I’m already working on yet another: The Clash of the Cultures: Investment vs. Speculation, continuing my role as Vanguard ambassador and investor advocate, with “Common Sense” as my theme.

Vanguard at 100

But at this 60-year milestone, I’m less interested in looking back than looking forward. In fact, I’m already thinking about Vanguard’s 100th Anniversary, dating back to the founding of our first fund, Wellington Fund, on December 28, 1928. Coincidentally, I recently came across a speech I gave way back in 1992 entitled “Vanguard: The First Century.” That was a brassy (maybe even arrogant) theme, for remarkably few companies in the annuals of American business and finance have passed that stern test.

In the near-two-decade span since I gave that speech, virtually all of my predictions for us have been met, as you’ll see. (EXHIBIT A includes excerpts from that speech.) I’m confident that—with our strong human values and our simple investment strategies—the (mere!) 17 years that remain before Vanguard’s first century is completed will be an era of continuing growth and service to investors.

IBM At 100

When we reach Vanguard’s 100-year milestone in 2028, how will we look at ourselves? One possible example emerged only a few weeks ago, when IBM reached that mark. In a four page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal, this extraordinary technology company described what it took to get there. (Excerpts are attached in EXHIBIT B.) I’m sure you’ll be struck, as I was, at the many parallels between our corporate cultures, our philosophies of service, and our structures of independence. (I hope someone here will file that ad away and exhume it early in 2028!)

This industry will likely look far different when 2028 rolls around. But at the moment, our strategies and structure—implemented by the astonishing commitment, professionalism, and loyalty of our crew—have made us the industry leader. Yes, “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” but even as we have grasped the mantle of leadership, it will take all of our wisdom, character and steadfastness to hang on to it.

It has been the thrill of a lifetime to work with such a great group of colleagues over all of these years. Thanks to you all, and best always. “Press On, Regardless!”

Jack Bogle