Why Boring Businesses Are Skyrocketing— And How You Can Benefit

Investing firms can overwhelm laypeople with their sheer range of options. But according to hedge fund manager Joel Greenblatt, none of these options are necessary for the amateur investor to earn above-market returns. On the contrary, in his 1997 book You Can Be a Stock Market Genius, Greenblatt argues that an approach called special-situation investing can yield lucrative returns that outperform the vast majority of investing funds.

To outline this approach, Greenblatt examines an array of uncommon situations in the corporate world that spawn various promising securities (financial assets that you can buy and sell) at bargain prices—including spinoffs, stub stocks, and orphan equities. In this guide, we’ll discuss the value-based foundations of special-situation investing before proceeding to the special situations that Greenblatt examines. Throughout the guide, we’ll also discuss the risks associated with some of these special situations and update his arguments with research that’s appeared since the book’s 1997 publication.

Most companies achieve success by responding to what their customers want and consistently pursuing higher profits. However, when confronting certain innovations, the strategies that help companies thrive under normal circumstances can instead lead to their demise.

According to Clayton M. Christensen, these kinds of innovations—called disruptive innovations—don’t come along very often, but when they do, they change how companies make and market products, the types of customers that buy them, and how they use them. The Innovator’s Dilemma explains how to recognize disruptive innovations, why they cause industry-leading organizations to fail, and how to avoid the same fate. In this guide, we’ll lay out Christensen’s ideas and explore how they compare to those of other business and management experts who also advise on how to navigate innovative changes.

In The Millionaire Fastlane, multimillionaire entrepreneur and investor MJ DeMarco challenges conventional wisdom about how to create wealth and offers a simple formula to shortcut your path to riches and early retirement.

According to DeMarco, all financial strategies follow one of three formulas—Insatiable Consumption, Hopeful Accumulation, and Active Production. Each formula represents a distinct attitude and approach that determines both the amount of money you can accumulate and the speed at which you can achieve your financial goal.

The Millionaire Fastlane explores DeMarco’s key ideas about each of these three formulas and his argument that the first two represent common shortcuts to wealth that don’t guarantee financial freedom. However, he claims, there is a way to generate a massive income in a short time. DeMarco explains how, providing actionable advice to fast-track your path to wealth. Throughout this guide, we’ll compare and contrast DeMarco’s key ideas with research and practical advice from financial advisors and successful entrepreneurs.

If you’re asked who the greatest CEO of the last century was, one name might naturally come to mind: Jack Welch. Sure, he achieved great financial return and is trumpeted by the press. But is Jack Welch really the greatest CEO of the century? According to the author of The Outsiders, no—not even close. There are CEOs who performed better during worse economic periods.

Studying companies broadly, the author ended with eight CEOs and companies with standout performance during the 20th century. Looking deeper into their management practices, he found virtually identical patterns to their management style and capital allocation decisions. These strategies were unorthodox but directly caused their outsized results. These CEOs and their management practices are the subject of The Outsiders.

If you’re planning to start a business, The Unfair Advantage is the guidebook you need to achieve success. Entrepreneurs Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba tell you how to realize your entrepreneurial dreams by finding and using your unfair advantages, the qualities or conditions that give you an edge over competitors. Ali and Kubba explain that everyone has unfair advantages, and you need to use yours if you want to succeed in the ruthless domain of startups.

Drawing on over 20 years of experience building startups and coaching entrepreneurs, Ali and Kubba describe the mindset you must adopt and the steps you must take to achieve startup success—from identifying a viable business idea to building a winning team. In this guide, we’ll examine Ali and Kubba’s tips for finding and applying your unfair advantages. We’ll also compare the authors’ ideas to those of other business leaders—for instance, ideas from Brian Tracy in Goals! and Grant Cardone in The 10X Rule—and share additional steps you can take to achieve startup success.

Brandon Turner’s The Book on Rental Property Investing is an educational guide to effectively locating, buying, and managing real estate properties. Turner identifies the major pitfalls new investors encounter, and he suggests how to profitably overcome these challenges by working smarter, not harder.

Turner is a real estate investor with hundreds of income-earning properties. He’s also a bestselling author and a former host of Bigger Pockets, a real estate investment podcast. In this guide, we’ll cover Turner’s detailed approach to each stage of the rental property investment process, as well as explore overarching strategies to help new investors think professionally about their portfolios. In our commentary, we’ll provide further advice on various elements of the rental property investment process, such as handling paperwork and securing a good agent.

From moguls like Donald Trump to HGTV house-flippers, countless people have invested in real estate to build their wealth and pursue financial freedom. In Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat, real estate investor David M. Greene explains how to use the buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat (BRRRR) method to develop a portfolio of investment rental properties that produce consistent, passive income. The keys to this approach are finding a property below market value, paying full price for the purchase and home improvements up front, and recouping your investment by refinancing after renovating.

In this guide, we’ll describe Greene’s tips for executing each step of the BRRRR method and compare his strategies to other methods. We’ll also provide additional information and key context for using Greene’s advice effectively.