At 76, he heads the nation's first and largest discount brokerage, the Charles Schwab & Co. Overseeing more than $1.65 TRILLION in assets. His second book, Charles Schwab's Guide to Financial Independence, was a best seller in 1998.
Stanford's capacious new centre for business students, opened in 1997, bears his name as its benefactor. His smooth, ad-friendly face suggests a man 20 years younger.
Even now Schwab finds reading and writing tedious at best. He once confessed to a reporter that he had attempted to read the novel Shogun six or seven times. "When I read, I can feel myself converting the written code into sounds [with my mouth] before I can process it" he explains. "Fast readers don't go through all that"
Like some 24+ million other Americans, Schwab copes with dyslexia. The condition - characterized by unusual difficulty sounding out letters and distinguishing words that sound similar - is by far the most common language-related learning disability.
Ten years out of school, something did happen. By then a seasoned mutual fund manager, Schwab borrowed $100,000 from an uncle to start what would become the country's first discount brokerage firm. Its philosophy -- that the stock market should be accessible to everyone -proved enormously popular.
By the time The Charles Schwab Corp. went public in 1987, it had a market capitalization value of $400 million. In January, that figure was up to $23.1 billion -- and counting. His net worth is in the billions.