self-made billionaire, financier and philanthropist Seymour Schulich has written a book to pass on the lessons of his 67 years to young, business-minded persons. Entitled Get Smarter: Life and Business Lessons, this mentoring book will be in bookstores as of August 15.
Long intrigued by Schulich and his path to fortune, I obtained an advance copy of his book (co-authored by Derek DeCloet of the Globe and Mail) from the publisher, Key Porter. Having just finished reading it, I think it's worth writing up a review if only because it could be one of the more important business books of the year. Indeed, I have heard (unconfirmed) that pre-orders over the Internet at Chapters Indigos are second only to the new Harry Potter book.
It's captivating, has plenty of sage advice, and is worth adding to one's library. But I do have one complaint: I wish there was more of it. It's a quick read, one that can be finished in a sitting or two. Maybe that's good given the book is aimed at entrepreneurial 20 to 40 year olds, a group usually pressed for time. But what might also be useful for others with more time is a full-length biography that goes deeper into aspects of his life. Mr. Boswell, where are you?
Nevertheless, with a few well-placed brushstrokes, Get Smarter deftly tells us who Schulich is and where he is coming from. He's a billionaire with an eleven-year-old car and a thirty-year-old house, a veteran poker player with several tournaments under his belt, and a bookworm who devours one book a week (2,500 to date). And he modestly describes his personality as "introverted, studious nerd."
Schulich explains why he has turned to helping young people, as highlighted by the $200 million he has donated to fund scholarships, university chairs, etc. and his writing of a mentoring book. Instrumental in the decision, like many other important moments in his life, was a passage read in a book:
"A hundred years from now it will not matter what your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove… but the world may be different because you were important in the life of a young person."
Schulich started out as an oil analyst at a small brokerage firm in 1967 and then moved on in 1969 to work at Toronto-based investment counseling firm Beutel, Goodman and Co. as an oil analyst, head of research, and partner until 1990. He was involved in running mutual funds, pension funds and private accounts, but where he really made most of his money was in the venture capital and merchant-banking division of Beutel, Goodman and Co., investing in energy and mining start-ups.
Schulich and office mate, Pierre Lassonde, also teamed up for a "weekend diversion" called Franco-Nevada, a public company formed to buy royalty interests in junior gold exploration companies in the Nevada area. It was set-up almost as a lark: Schulich liked to visit Nevada two or three times a year to ski and play poker and thought at least he would be able to write off his vacations.
After 40-some "dry-holes," Franco-Nevada hit it big with an 18% royalty on the output from Barrick Gold's huge Goldstrike discovery, and went on from there to more successes. Franco-Nevada's stock turned $1,000 into $1.25 million over 19 years to 2002, the year it merged with Newmont Mining (I believe that works out to an astounding average compound return of 39% per year). Schulich now works three days a week at Newmont.
The way to make money in the stock market is to buy $2 of assets for $1 or by identifying commodity price trends, says Schulich. Concerning the latter, gold and oil are now the places to be. Gold will benefit from the debasement of the U.S. dollar and oil "is entering a golden age of shortage of supply. Very tight oil markets will last for the next thirty to fifty years, until fusion power becomes commercialized." Right now, Schulich has major investments in BlackRock Ventures Inc. and Canadian Oil Sands Trust.
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