The Story Behind Writing The Original “The Wealthy Barber”

How did Dave write “The Wealthy Barber” when he was only 25?? Preet gets the behind-the-scenes story, including how the book was originally set to be in a bar with “The Wealthy Bartender.”

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So let’s go back in time to when you wrote that first book. First of all, how old were you and what gave you the idea to write about personal finance? One of the most unsexy topics there is.

No, I, I was only 26, uh, when I started writing, maybe even 25 when I first started writing the book. A true financial geek. I mean, to the nth degree. I tell this story, not to brag because it shows you what a geek I was, but when I wrote the Canadian Securities Course exam, I didn’t even study, I didn’t even open the textbook.

I was just so on top of that stuff from reading as much as I did and, and being such a nerd that I just drove down to Toronto and wrote it. So I started out as a young investment advisor who had come out of Laurier Economics. And I would give books to clients about personal finance. They wouldn’t read them.

If they did read them. They thought they were too dull, too intimidating, that the authors had assumed a knowledge level that wasn’t yet there, et cetera, et cetera. So I thought there’s gotta be an opportunity to make this more accessible, more approachable. I experimented with a few ideas. In fact, I was on stage teaching teachers financial planning, using humor, using a very casual delivery.

I started a book called The Ultimate Guide to Losing Money. And it was a humorous look at people’s, uh, foibles and other fault failures in financial planning as a way to instruct. And then, I know this sounds corny, but one night I was watching Cheers and I was watching and I thought, Hey, wait a second here.

What about using the bar? And making it the wealthy bartender and he dispenses advice while he is giving out shots, et cetera. And I actually started working on that book. But of course, trying to keep it realistic. There’s people trying to pick up other people, there’s fights, there’s all these things. It got too convoluted and I thought the alcohol could cause a problem.

So I shifted it over to the barber shop and I, I told this story before, but it’s very true. I drove over, it was a Thursday afternoon. I drove over, my father was just getting home, high school principal, and I told him the idea and this guy’s brilliant, but he has no business acumen at all. And he said, Dave, I think that’s really quite a dumb idea.

And I knew then I had a winner. That was when I thought, okay, I’m onto something. And then I started the whole writing process and you know, never envisioned it obviously becoming what it did and it’s really led to a lot of other opportunities. I’ve been a pretty lucky guy to have that success in my lap at age 27.

It’s, you know, was really remarkable.