Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 I was born in 1944, a child of Dr. Spock, a child of the Cold War. My parents were cold too, but devoted to their kids and their education. In 1954, we moved to San Francisco, where my father had sensed the necessity for a better education.

#2 I graduated from Duke without honors in 1962. I was about to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, so I enlisted as an officer in the Navy flight program at Pensacola, Florida. After training on propeller-driven T-28s, the Admiral cut me from his team.

#3 The book Beat the Dealer was formative in my career at PIMCO. It taught me how to count cards and how to make large bets, which I used to win money playing blackjack in Las Vegas.

#4 I owe my mother for getting me the job at Pacific Mutual. She read an advertisement in the LA Times one Sunday morning, and said, Bill, would this interest you. It did, even though it was for a security analyst, because at the time I had no job offers.