Financial Expert: "Owning 5 Tech Stocks Isn't A Portfolio" | Ep. 447 with Christopher Zook Chairman & Chief Investment Officer of CAZ Investments

Christopher Zook (0:00)

I'm totally diversified. I own five of the magnificent seven stocks.

Daniel (0:04)

30 years on Wall Street, Lehman Oppenheimer Prudential. Now he runs CAZ Investments, the largest GP Stakes investor on the planet, owns pieces of over 30 pro sports teams, and wrote a number one New York Times best seller with Tony Robbins. This is Christopher Zook.

Christopher Zook (0:24)

Every company, over $100 million.

85% of them are private. Only 15% of them are public. There's a reason why most multi-billionaires are involved in some fashion in sports.

Daniel (0:37)

Let's talk about the price of success for you.

Christopher Zook (0:40)

The price for sure has been...

Daniel (0:50)

You've done some extraordinary things in your life, and I can't wait to dive into your journey of how you got here, because back in 1991, I read that you watched a Tony Robbins video series, and you wrote down a vision. What did you write down on that vision?

Christopher Zook (1:10)

Well, thank you for having me, Daniel. I'm glad to be here. It really is a surreal event, because the fact that it was late at night, I came home from a long, long day. I was trying to eat some dinner, watching some TV, just to relax a little bit, and I look on TV, and I see this very large human being with big hair and big teeth.

And that was Tony Robbins. And I liked what I heard, and so I ordered his tape series. And so Lisa, my wife and I, we actually listened to this 30-day series on cassette tapes, for those that actually remember cassette tapes, they really did exist, cassette tapes. And one of the days during that 30-day process is you do a goal-setting workshop.

And during that goal-setting workshop, we set one, three, five, 10-year goals. And I set a 10-year goal to have a firm by the name of CAZ Investments by the time that 10 years was up. And that it would specifically, and to be very intentional about what you asked me in the question, it said to start a firm named CAZ Investments that is one of the leading alternative investment firms on the planet. That is what I wrote down, that's what I sought to do. And then basically for the next nine years and nine months, I did everything I could to prepare myself to achieve that objective.

Daniel (2:26)

So knowing that Tony is now your co-author, shareholder, partner, how does that feel?

Christopher Zook (2:35)

It's fantastic. It really is. I mean, you know, I've said this many, many places other than my faith, my wife, and there's nobody on the planet that's had more of an impact on my life than Tony Robbins. And so, you know, for him to be not only, you know, a partner, not only a co-author, but most importantly, a friend and somebody that I consider to be, you know, a valued part of my ecosystem and what makes me who I am. It's really just a, it's a surreal and fantastic feeling to see that happen over, you know, literally now a 34, 35 year period of time.

Daniel (3:09)

By the way, people always ask me if I'm related and it's not because of how I look.

I'm much shorter. However, I have the same last name. So they always say, and I also wrote a book they think the book I wrote is written by Tony Robbins because we have the same last name. So I always say that he's like my pretend uncle. Before you jumped and went onto your own and became an entrepreneur, you were at some of the big firms like Oppenheimer, Lehman, which fascinating story there, I imagine. What made you want to take the leap?

Christopher Zook (3:40)

Yeah, I was at Lehman a full decade and a half before the global financial crisis. So, you know, it was a very, very, very different situation when I was there from 91 to 94

When I chose to leave Oppenheimer to start the firm, it was really, it was all part of the plan. It was always by design. One of the advantages, and Tony teaches this all the time, of having a definitive deadline to the dream, if you will. That's a dream with a deadline, a goal. That's what it is. It's a dream of the deadline. By having the deadline, every step of the way was to prepare me for that. So it was really not like this, you know, oh, I wonder if now is the right time. It's like, well, I decided this is the right time, so therefore, I'm going to go do this.