Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on June 18, 2011, 10:43:06 AMQuote from: AceCubbie on June 17, 2011, 07:21:57 PMQuote from: Slaky on June 17, 2011, 04:28:32 PMQuote from: BH on June 17, 2011, 02:24:52 PM
Ace gets it.
Holy shit - that's the same dude who started the gay porn wars of aught-three! Or whatever the fuck year it was. Holy shit!
To be fair, I didn't participate in that business. It just happened to start because of a (stupid) disagreement (which was my fault) about Nomar Garciaparra (about which I was wrong). Other people went a little overboard.
Actually, Ace, from what dad said, the business took a long time to be successful. As Joe said when they bought the team about InCapital, "He loves it and it's just starting to do well now. He's been at it 10 or 15 years."
We really have no idea of how good of a businessman Tom is. InCapital is privately held. No financial statements are available for you and I to review. And dad said that it took 10 to 15 years to get really going.
You said, "The guy plain knows how to make wise investments and run a business." We don't really know that to be the case.
You wonder if InCapital would have survived 10 to 15 years without dad's backing. Maybe it would have, maybe not. But based on public information, I don't think your statement is backed by much more than opinion.
Who's basing it solely on Incapital? The younger Ricketts' professional background extends back much further than 1999, when he founded Incapital. I think you're underestimating his prior success - completely unrelated to TD Ameritrade, at Mesirow and ABN.
Even if we look only at Incapital - which is not what the article does - if you are suggesting that Joe Ricketts (a man so devoted to the idea that his children make it on their own that he forbade them to work at TD Ameritrade until they were 30) would prop up an unsuccessful venture for 12 years, I think I'll choose my opinion over yours.