GEERT SCHAAIJ, CEO BEURSGENOTEN

An enthusiastic and successful asset manager and investor in the financial world: Geert Schaaij, CEO of Beursgenoot. His motto: “A third of your life you learn, a third of your life you gain and a third of your life you give.” Who gave him the tools in life to get where he is today?Text: Mical Joseph
Image: Stock exchange peers

What was your very first job?

“As a teenager I worked for a farmer and helped milk the cows, clean the stables and also drove the tractor. Selling was also an option from an early age: that's how I traded in rabbits. I bought the animals for 2,50 and sold them for 4 guilders. After the farm I worked at V&D and that is where I really learned the sales tricks of the trade. Through this job I developed my interest in the financial world and at the age of 24e I started investing. When I started investing for myself I used advisors from banks, but they turned my 20.000 guilders into 3000 guilders in a short time. With that last bit of money I got to work myself and, like a true autodidact, I pulled all the books in the library off the shelves and read up on the financial world. Three months later I had earned 50.000 guilders with my own investments.” Geert Schaaij

How did you end up in your current job?

“After I started my own financial company, I decided to continue studying to gain even more knowledge. I did this at the Netherlands Institute for Banking and Securities. I specialized in derivatives. Simply put: how can you protect shares and avoid limiting damage when prices fall? This study was a good choice because I learned how to protect money. I took this knowledge with me into the rest of my life and it has contributed to my becoming a successful investor and I still benefit from it every day.

My first steps in business did not go well and this was a difficult time for me personally. Selling is of course one thing, but doing business is another. You have to deal with accounting, discipline and the right network, among other things. When someone asks, 'How are your wife and children?', they are really asking, 'Where is your wallet?'”

Who was your wheelbarrow in that?

“My own motivation. I won't lie about this, because I have supported myself through thick and thin and tackled everything self-taught. I grew a thick elephant skin in my twenties and found out who had my best interests at heart and who didn't. People in my immediate environment also looked at me strangely, people did not expect me management skills and had ambition. There was little incentive, I was just that boy from the village with dyslexia. The only person who trusted and supported me was my wife. Everyone who did business with me in my younger years did so purely out of selfishness. Of course I got further with these matters, but it was not the motivation of those to help me.”

What advice would you give to your 18 year old self?

“Be more confident, that's what I would tell my younger self. I had low self-esteem for a long time and I still do. The only difference is that nowadays I think more rationally and know that I have to live my life, I want to live as a good person and love my neighbors, as it is written in the Bible. I also dare to live life exuberantly and live a good life. I used to care very much about what people thought of me, but now those kinds of things affect me less and I know that I can take on the world with my good, strong energy.”

What has been your biggest learning moment in your career?

“I had a profitable asset management company and eventually merged with a larger company. I quickly learned that when I was working at 30% of my capacity, I was working the hardest of all. No sooner said than done: the company grew tremendously. Because we became so successful, this influence was reflected in price increases in shares on the stock exchange in 2006. This effect was also called the 'Geert Schaaij effect'.

This phenomenon led to an investigation that examined the entire company, but I had become the leader in it. I was accused of insider trading. This meant that I tipped a share, I knew it was going to rise and I therefore tipped these shares with premeditation. The fact was that I did not buy those shares myself, apart from the fact that I do not consider this inside information, but knowledge. The Supreme Court made mincemeat of that, so that case did not make it. Unfortunately, this was put in the newspaper in tiny letters.

This research situation opened my eyes at the time. The people I thought I worked well with dropped me and wanted nothing to do with me for a while. I met my real friends. Afterwards it made me stronger, better and sharper. The “Geert Schaaij effect” is still there, experts say. My Beursgenoot subscribers are my clients and I want to find pearls for them.”

Have you been a wheelbarrow for someone?

“In my life I have been a wheelbarrow for several people and have helped put several larger asset managers that are still active today on the map. I don't flaunt this because I always work under the radar. If I believe in someone, I act as a wheelbarrow to support that person both financially and emotionally, but it is not the case that this person no longer has to do anything. Ultimately, I can teach you norms and values ​​and teach you how to be distinctive, but I can let you take the lead yourself. Therefore, there is no need to pat myself on the back.”