A Gift to My Children

The Back Story

Jim Rogers grew up in the little town of Demopolis, Alabama. At age six, in 1948, he started a peanut parching business. Thanks to a loan from his father, Rogers was able to invest $100 in a peanut parching machine, so that he could sell dried peanuts at Little League games. He worked hard and hired his friends. In five years, he repaid the loan from his father and had another $100 in the bank.

As a young man, Rogers worked in his uncle’s store, selling sandwiches and tobacco to workers from the nearby factory and stockyard. He worked so diligently that his uncle gave him a raise without Rogers requesting it. Later, he got a job with a construction contractor and always tried to stay busy. When Rogers lacked any immediate task, he would sweep. His work was so impressive that the contractor taught him skilled construction work, such as carpentry and roofing.

Rogers attended Yale on scholarship and then went to Oxford University, where he set his first Guinness record (in rowing). He eventually entered the field of money management. At age 30, he and his business partner, George Soros, co-founded the Quantum Fund. Rogers retired at age 37 and decided...