My Life Story

Here is a collection of stories from my personal life. They highlight key pivot points, challenges, and successes I've faced during my investment career.

How I became Investment Superstar Who Could Pick Stocks That Outperform The Market

Back in high school, I was a noobie investor who knew nothing about the stock market. But I took took Warren Buffett as my metaphorical investment mentor. That lead to outstanding investment success:

Back in high school, I read a complete noobie in the stock market. I didn't know what I was doing. I was like one of those Robinhood investors who throw a bunch of money at whatever the hottest stock it. But that approach to the stock market wasn't working. The first stock I ever bought(General Electric) fell 50% within a few short weeks.

I knew that I needed to change my approach.

I decided to take Warren Buffett as my metaphorical investment mentor. I listened to every speech he published. I read every annual report he's ever written. And I read every book that was written about him.

That changed my life forever. The following stock I bought turned out to be some of the best investment I ever made. I invested in Apple at $38 per share, which grew to be worth well over $250 per share. I bought Meta stock at $38 per share, which went on to be worth well over $600 per share.

From Walgreens Cashier to a Number One Best-Selling Author on Amazon

However, I was still struggling financially. Even though I was outperforming the market, I still didn't have a lot of money to invest in the market. So I published an international best-seller book on investing, which gave me the capital to make big investment trades.

Even though I was good at picking stocks, I hadn't created financial freedom for myself yet. The issue was that I needed more money to invest. At the time, I was making only $13 per hour working as a cashier at Walgreens. Even if I invested all the money I made from working from Walgreens, I still wasn't going to become financially free.

I somehow needed to accumulate more money.

I decided to publish a book about everything I knew on investing called Buffett's 2-Step Stock Market Strategy.

It turned out to be an outstanding success.

The book went on to become a number one best-seller on Amazon for over 4 years straight. It has sold over 50,000 copies, making it one of the highest grossing books about stock market investing in the United States.

Keep in mind that I did this during my senior year of high school. (Yes, I wrote a best-selling book in high school).

From College Investment Club Reject To Being Studied By Howard Marks and Bill Ackman

I was ironically rejected from my college investment club 2x times. But I didn't let that stop me from making my name in the investment community and getting Howard Marks and Bill Ackman to read my books.

Back in college, I applied to join my school's investment club: Investment Portfolio Organization. At the time, I had a strong track record at investing. I managed my own stock portfolio, and I had written a. couple books on investing at the time.

I expected to get into the club without any trouble. After all, what other college student has written a book on investing?

Turns out that I was a little cocky.

I got rejected from the club.

My interviewer said that I wasn't "passionate about investing." I'm not sure what made him conclude that I wasn't enthusiastic about investing, but that was his feedback.

I felt a need to prove the. club that I was worthy.

So I did something that no else dared.

I sent an email to both Howard Marks and Bill Ackaman asking them to read my book. Why? If they read my books and like it, then I'll have the credibility in the investment space.

I wrote two emails: one to Howard Marks and another to Bill Ackman. Both emails said: "My name is Danial Jiwani. I'm the author of Buffett's 2-Step Stock Market Strategy. Would you be interested in my books? Both Ackman and Marks responded to my emails, and they were both estatic to read my books. Howard Marks said that my books were "very interesting." Bill Ackman gave me his address to send him a personal copy right away.

It was a dream come true.

Some of the greatest investors in the world were reading my books.

No one else has ever done that, especially not at my age.

And best of all?

I eventually got accepted into my school's investment club.

One Stock Pick That Outperformed The Market by 30% After My Failed Investment in Walgreens

After my failed investment in Walgreens, I did needed to restore my name in the investment community. So I revisited my core investment principles and found a stock that outperformed the market by over 30%.

A few years ago, I was researching Walgreen stock. Truthfully, the company didn't meet all of my investment criteria. One of the things I look for in companies is that they do something more valuable than the competition and have a difficult to imitate business model.

Walgreens didn't meet that investment criteria.

But I decided to invest in it anyways.

It was a huge mistake.

The stock went on the fall over 70%. I was one of the worst investments I ever made. I had gotten arrogant, thinking that I was an investment god who could make money in any stocks. Boy was I wrong.

My ego was hit bad. The great investor that I thought I didn't seem to be reality. I felt like a total loser. I needed a way to re-become the greatest investor of all time.

So I had an idea: this time, let me be patient and wait for an investment opportunity that truly meets all of my investment criteria.

After patiently waiting, I finally came across a company called JD.com. It was one of the leading e-commerce companies in China. And best of all, it met all of my investment crtiera. It had a moat. It was in an attractive industry, and it earned strong returns on capital.

So I invested in it.

It turned out to be an excellent investment.

As of March 2025, I was up over 45% on my investment in JD.com. By comparison, the S&P 500 was only up 8% over the same period. I was outperforming the market by over 30%. Most people struggle with beating the market by 1%. But here I was crushing the market by over 30%.

The Moment I Learned I would Become a Legendary Stock Investor

The third stock I ever bought was Apple, which has earned over 400% returns. My early success at Apple taught me that I have the potential to become a legendary investor in the stock market.

Not long ago, I was a fairly new investor who didn't know much about the market. I was a new investor who was experimenting with this thing called the "stock market"

I came across a company called Apple.

At the time, nobody wanted to own it. There was US-China trade war tensions. IPhone sales were slowing down. Analysts didn't expect Apple to be able to continue to raise prices on its products, limiting growth. In short, there were lots of problems in the company.

But there were a few things that stood out to me about Apple:

1. First, the company created more valuable product than the competition, and it's business model was difficult to imitate.

2. Second, it traded at a free cash flow yield of 8%, which was above the S&P 500 free cash flow yield of 6%. Hence, it was premium company trading at a cheaper valuation than the overall market.

3. Third, it had a lots of room to grow sales over the long run, creating upside potential

So, I decided to pull the trigger on the investment.

Since then, it's been one of the best investment within my portfolio, crushing the S&P 500 by several hundred percent. People struggle to outperform the market by 1-2%. Yet, my third stock was crushing the market by hundreds of percent. It taught me that I had the potential to become one of the best investors on the street.

How I Earned Over 300% Returns in Meta

Meta has been one of my most successful investments in my portfolio, earning over 300% returns. The reason it performed so well is all because I made a decision to pay up for a quality business:

During the Covid-19 crash, I was researching Meta stock. The truth is that the company didn't sound like a super cheap investment opportunity. The company was trading at a free cash flow yield of 6.5%, which wasn't incredibly cheap relative to the overall market.

Most people wouldn't have invested in the company. After all, investor say, "buy low, sell high, and invest in cheap companies. Who would want to invest in a company that wasn't trading at that cheap of a valuation?"

But I took a different approach.

Rather than obsessing over price, I focused on quality. I said, "what if I pay a small premium for quality company?"

It turned out to be one of the best investment decisions I ever made. To date, Meta is up over 350%, making it one of the best investments within my portfolio. All that success came from being willing to pay a premium for a quality company.

Since then, I've strived to never underrate the importance of paying up for quality businesses.

A Secret That the Founder of a $1B+ Private Equity Firm in Chicago Taught Me

I had the honor of once meeting the founder/CEO of a multi-billion-dollar private equity firm in Chicago. He taught me a valuable lesson about reading financial statements: pressure test the business.

A lot of people read financial statements with the purpose of assessing the financial health of companies. But the truth is that I was never sold on the fact that the purpose of financial statements is to understand the financial health of companies.

If you think about it, it's not very useful to assess the financial health of companies. According to one source, over 70% of companies in the S&P 500 have healthy financials. Yet, less than 4% of companies in the S&P 500 will compound at 20% returns per year.

If 4% of companies in the S&P 500 compound at 20% returns per year, and 70% of companies in the S&P 500 have healthy financials, you aren't going to narrow down to the top 4% of companies if you run a screen for "financially health companies."

That's why I never believed in assessing a company's financial health.

But what's the purpose of reading financial statements then?

Well, I once had the opportunity to meet the founder of a multi-billion-dollar private equity firm in Chicago. I asked, "what do you look for in a company's financial statements?"

He said, "we read financial statements to pressure test businesses. We see how the company's financials react in response to risk factors (Covid-19, new competition, market dynamics changes, etc.). For example, he read how a healthcare company's financials reacted in response to Covid-19 to understand how adaptable management is during a crisis.

That was an epiphany for me.

I realized that the purpose of financial statements isn't to assess the financial health of a company.

Rather, the purpose of financial statements are to pressure test businesses - to see how resillient they are in response to various risk factors. Since then, I've stopped asking myself, "does this company have healthy margins?" Instead I ask myself, "what does this company's financials tell me about how resllient the company is?"

How I Narrowly Missed a 99% Drop In My Investment Portolfio

I was inches away from dodging a 99% drop in my investment portfolio. It was all thanks to one simple lesson on investing: never buy a stock people expect to do well.

In 2019, I was looking for a new stock to buy. I was honestly desperate to find a new investment opportunity becuase I had thousands of dollars in capital and no where to deploy it. Everyday that I wasn't invested in the market was a day that I was missing out on potential market gains.

At the same time, someone recommended me to invest in Beyond Meat. The truth is that it seemed like an interesting investment opportunity. it was one of the largest plant-based meat companies in all of America. It seemed to be the next leading meat company in America.

I bought some shares at $150.

It sounded like a wonderful investment opportunity.

But there was one red flag with the investment: everybody was chasing after the stock. It was perhaps the most hyped up stock on all of Wall Street.

I knew that it's almost impossible to make money in a hyped-up stock. When the market expects a company to perform extraordinarily well, it's almost impossible for management to beat those lofty expectations, making it impossible for the stock to outperform the market.

I knew that the company was going to struggle to outperform the market since it was so hyped up.

So I decided to dump my shares at the same price that I had paid for them.

It turned out to be one of my best sell decision ever. The stock went on to drop from $150 per share to merely $2 per share in the following years. I had dodged a 99% drop - and it was all thanks to one investment principle: never buy a stock if it's hard for management to beat expectations.

How I Doubled My Money in The Cheesecake Factory Within a Few Short Months

I once doubled my investment in The Cheesecake Factory and outperformed the S&P 500 by over 100% within a few short months. The key to my success here was viewing the pandemic as "a small blip" rather than as a "total catastrophe."

During the Covid-19 crash, restaurant stocks were hit the hardest. They were shut down for months. No one expected them to perform well at all. One of the stocks that was hit the hardest was The Cheesecake Factory, which was down over 50% in the weeks after the Covid-19 crisis.

Logically, the right thing to do was buy the stock. After all, you're supposed to "buy low, sell high." Right?

Just one issue.

Nobody had the courage to invest in restaurants in the middle of a pandemic.

The reason nobody had the courage to buy restraunts is because they veiwed the pandemic as a total catastrophe. They said, "this pandemic is a total disaster to The Chessecake Factory's business. Even though it's trading at a cheap price, it's still not worth investing in."

But I took a different approach.

I didn't view the pandemic as a total catastrophe to the Cheesecake Factory's business. Rather, I viewed it as a tiny blip in the grande scheme of things.

That gave me the courage to buy a stock that people viewed as untouchable.

And it turned out extraordinarily well. The stock doubled and outperformed the S&P 500 by over 100%, making it one of my best trades. People struggle to get 1% outperformance. But here I was outperforming the market by over 100% in one trade.

All that success came from viewing the Covid-19 "as a tiny blip in the grand scheme of things" rather than as a "total catastrophe."

Why I Can Find The Perfect Stock With Only 15 Minutes of Research

An interesting thing about my investment philosophy is that I try to spend no more than 15 minutes researching a stock before buying it.

Back in the middle of the Covid crisis, there was lots of movements in the market: things were completely changing overnight. Stores that were once open were suddenly forced in shut down. Consumer behavior was shifting from in-person to online shopping. Stocks were moving up and down.

Everything was changing in the markets.

You would have expected investors to have spend countless hours carefully thinking through their investment decisions. After all, the markets were changing during Covid, so there must have been countless varibles to consider. Plus, one small mistake could wipe out your investment given that companies were going bankrupt left and right.

But the truth is that I didn't spend much time thinking through any of my investment during the pandemic. I spent no more than 15 minutes researching The Cheesecake Factory, and I spent no more than a few minutes researching Meta.

And guess what? Both investments have outperformed the market by well over 100%.

The truth is that you don't need to spend much time thinking through investment decisions. If an investment decision is attractive, it's going to be clear within the first few minutes of researching the company.

Take a look at these companies: Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks. It doesn't take any more than a few minutes to conclude that these are wonderful businesses. Not 1 months. Not 2 weeks. Only a few minutes.

Warren Buffett once said, "if we can't aim to make an investment decision in 5 minutes, we aren't going to make it in 5 months." That's very true. If a company is truly an attractive investment, you'll know within the first few minutes of researching it because it will stand out from the crowd. You won't need countless hours to research it.

I always aim to buy a stock within a. few minutes of researching it. Why? If it's truly an attractive investment, it will be clear within the first few minutes of researching it.

My Mistake of Not Investing in Credit Cards

I missed out on big bucks by not investing in credit card companies. My mistake was underrating the importance of investing in an attractive industry. Today, I'm much more cautious about investing in the right industry.

Not long ago, I was researching the major credit card companies: American Express, Discover Financial Services, and Visa.

My initial feeling was that it wouldn’t make sense to invest in any of the major credit card companies. None of them had an edge over the competition. No one says, “American Express is much better than Discover Financial Services.” No one says, “Visa charges much lower fees than

Mastercard.”

If none of the credit card companies have an edge, how can they be a worthy investment? I asked.

But my conclusion couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

The reality is that nearly every single credit card company has performed well throughout history. In fact, many of them have even been some of the best investments in the entire stock

market over the past decades.

If you bought Visa and Mastercard at the end of the financial crisis, you would have outperformed the S&P 500 by 9% and 7% per year, respectively.

If you invested in American Express at the same time Buffett bought it during the 90s, your investment would have grown more than 30x times to date.

Even if you invested in Discover Financial Services right before it crashed 70% during 2008, you would have still outperformed the market

Why have they performed so well? The indsutry is so attractive. There isn't a better business model than getting a cut of every transaction in America, especailly when you have minimal competition.

The credit card industry taught me an important lesson: industry matters. You can be wrong about the company, but you'll still make a fortune if you are right about the industry.

Throughout my investment career, I've overweighted the importance of investing in companies with a competitive advantage and underweighted the importance of investing in an attractive industry. That mistake has resulted me in missing out on the gains of attractive industries (such as credit cards), and it's resulted me in losing money because I invested in unattractive industries (such as retail) without giving a second thought.

I vow in the future to never underestimate the importance of industry attractiveness. Now, in every single one of my investment decisions, industry attractiveness is at the forefront of the investment decision.

My Greatest Investment Ability - Consistently Picking Multi-baggers

I quickly learned that one of my greatest strengths as an investor is my ability to spot stocks that can become multi-baggers (stocks that rise by 100% or more).

Growing up, I was always told that "it's speculative to pick multi-baggers, stock that have the potential to increase by over 100% in value." People said, "the only way to pick multi-baggers is by investing in penny stocks that happen to become the next Amazon, and that's a risky strategy."

But the reality couldn't be farther from the truth.

If you took a look at my portolfio, you'll see that it's filled with multi-baggers. My investment in Amazon, Apple, Meta, Union Pacific, and The Cheesecake Factory grew by 120%, 450%, 350%, 70%, and 120% shortly after investing in them.

People were telling me that it's risky to pick multi-baggers. They were also telling me that the only way to earn 2-3x times your investment is by investing in penny stocks that happen to acheive wild success.

But here I was proving them wrong. I was earning multi-bagger returns by investing in safe companies.

That taught me a few important lessons on investing.

1. First, I have a knack for spotting companies that will become multi-baggers.

2. Second, it's possible to earn multi-bagger returns by investing in safe companies. You don't have to invest in speculative penny stocks to earn multi-bagger returns. You can earn those huge returns by investing in safe companies like Amazon, Apple, and Meta.

Now, I don't aim to pick stocks that will merely outperform the market by 1-2%. I aim to invest in stocks that have the potential to become multi-baggers.

How I Avoided a 90% Drop in My Investment Portfolio (Again)

A famous investing influencer was once telling me, "invest in Gropro stock at $10 per share. It's going to become a hit." I didn't listen to his advice I believed it was more important to "avoid losers than try to pick the next hit." As a result, I dodged a bullet and avoided investing in a stock that went on the decline over 95%.

Back in late 2020 and early 2021, GoPro stock became one of the hottest stocks on Wall Street. It's share price grew from a mere $3 per share all the way to $13 per share, making it one of the highest returning stocks in the market.

There was an investing influencer (1 million+ followers) was trying to convince me to invest in GoPro stock. He said, "GoPro's business is taking off. Growth is spectacular. Things are only going to get better for GoPro from here."

But the truth is that there were also lots of risks with the comapny. What if the company didn't acheive break even? What if consumers didn't like it's products as much as investors thought? What if the company doesn't grow as fast as investors think?

The influencer prioritised picking a winning stock over managing risk, so he invest in GoPro at around $10 per share.

By contrast, I never beleived returns should supercede risk management. Before ever considering the upside, an investor's first objective should be to manage the risk of their investment. So I didn't invest in the company.

Guess who was ended up better off?

Myself.

The stock went on to decline 95% to a mere $0.50 per share as of the time I'm writing this. The influencer lost nearly his entire investment in GoPro. By contrast, I had doged a bullet that other people got stuck by.

That taught me an important lesson about investing: getting big returns should never supercede risk management. Risk management comes before trying to make big bucks. In other words, it's more important to avoid loser investments than it is to pick winners.

Setback are Part of the Formula to (My) Success

I've faced lots of setbacks in life. For example, despite being a famous writer, I've always struggled to get good grades in English class. But the one thing the've all taught me is that setbacks are a part of success.

I'm a successful guy. I've written Amazon best-selling books. I've taught Bill Ackman and Howard Marks about investing. And I've made several highly successful trades, including earning hundreds of percent returns in Amazon and Meta.

But here is the thing.

I've also had a lot of setbacks along the way.

I've written two failed books. During college, I lost $50,000 on an advertising campaign to promote my books. I even sturggled to get an A- in my english classes every single year of high school and college, despite being a writer.

What that taught me is that setbacks are a part of success. If you are going to be successful, setbacks are going to be a part of the journey.

And the same is true for stocks: even the most successful companies in the stock market will face huge setbacks:

• Apple destroyed 80% of its market value between 1992 and '97, and the company almost went bankrupt in 1985, shortly after Steve Jobs was fired from the company

• Tesla almost went bankrupt during the 2008 financial crisis, and the stock fell 50% from its highs during 2022 because of a slowdown in delivers.

• Starbucks was seven months away from bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis, and it once had to close two thirds of its locations in Australia

Here is the punchline: even the most successful businesses face setbacks. When you come come across a stock that's down 50% because it's ran into some issue, I don't conclude that something is wrong with the company. Why? Because even the best businesses face huge setbacks. You should feel comfortable investing in companies that face huge setbacks because chances are that it's probably a good business.

I'm famous!

At an early age, I was featured across all the major media publications, such as TV shows and newspapers like The Chicago Tribune. Today, I'm working with the 6th largest political advertising company in the USA in order to build my personal brand.

I've always wanted to become famous.

I wanted to leverage my success with my books to get attention.

Shortly after graduating high school, I pitched my books to TV shows and newspapers like the Chicago Tribune. And guess what? They loved the idea of writing about a young student who has published successful books on investing.

So I got featured and became a mini celebrity.

Today, I'm working with the 6th largest political advertising company in the USA in order to build my personal brand. Let's see where this takes me :)