Ryan Cohen says the best and worst investments of his life have to do with people, not money.
GameStop’s CEO and Chewy’s billionaire cofounder told Business Insider by email last week that nothing has yielded a greater return for him than spending “time with my dad.”
“I’m still collecting dividends,” Cohen said about his father, Ted, who died in 2019.
Cohen launched a “Teddy” series of children’s books in 2022 to share his father’s lessons with a wider audience. He detailed some of them in an email to Business Insider in 2020.
“My dad showed me how to trust my instincts,” he wrote. “When I was a child, he treated me like an adult. He never patronized me. When I asked him for his opinion, he turned it back on me and asked me what I thought. He never wanted to bias me with his. He was the best listener. He was a glassware importer and knew his business inside and out. I learned how to build my company by watching him build his.”
In a prior phone interview, Cohen said that his father had the “greatest influence” on him of anyone, and “taught me everything.”
“Most importantly, he taught me to shave,” he quipped.
In his email last week, Cohen said his gravest investing error was putting his faith in others who talked a big game but ultimately disappointed him.
“Trusting people who were better at selling themselves than doing the work,” he said.
Warren Buffett, Cohen’s biggest professional influence after his dad, has warned against falling for false promises.
In his final shareholder letter as Berkshire Hathaway CEO, Buffett wrote that “our country has forever had many scoundrels and promoters who seek to take advantage of those who mistakenly trust them with their savings.”
Writing about brokers in his 1983 letter, Buffett said: “Those who cannot fill your pocket will confidently fill your ear.”
Cohen was clearly burned by people who sold him on their abilities but failed to deliver, leading him to chalk up his investment of time, energy, and resources in them as a loss.
