Editor's note: Where does the time go?

In 1999, Porter started Stansberry Research at the kitchen table in his cheap, third-floor apartment in Baltimore. He published his first newsletters on a borrowed laptop computer.

Twenty years later, we've grown into one of the world's largest independent financial research publishers. We serve hundreds of thousands of customers in more than 175 countries.

But Porter didn't build the business all by himself. In today's Masters Series – adapted from the February 2, 2018 Digest – he explains that the groundwork for turning Stansberry Research into such a success was laid years earlier, while he was growing up in Florida...

How Porter Met Steve

By Porter Stansberry

I bet you knew a guy like this growing up...

The guy who was a little bit taller than everyone else. A little bit smarter. A little bit better looking.

Maybe he drove a really cool car, like a convertible '66 Mustang or a Porsche 911. He was definitely the guy who could do just about anything athletic – soccer, tennis, rowing, surfing, etc.

And he was the epitome of cool... Even though the most beautiful girls in school all loved him, it seemed like he didn't care. He'd cancel any date to go on a surf trip... or just to hang out and play guitar.

As Digest readers know, I do my best to explain what I'd most want to know if our roles were reversed...

Usually, that involves trying to show you things about finance and investing that no one else has an incentive to share with you. But that's not what I'm going to do today. Instead, I'm just going to introduce you to my friend Steve...

You see, he was "that guy" when I was growing up in Winter Park, Florida. Even though he went to a rival high school, we all knew him. There wasn't a better surfer, guitar player, or athlete in my hometown. Nobody was smarter or more well-liked, either.

Why does any of that stuff matter now? Because my friend went on to become the best investor in the world. I'm not exaggerating: There isn't a better investor anywhere in the world than Steve Sjuggerud.

Now, let me share the story of how I met him...

If you're going to trust someone with your investments, you should know where he comes from and what he's really all about.

This is that story.

When I was younger, I idolized my older brother...

Mills is three years older than me. He was movie-star handsome and the coolest guy I had ever met (still is). Mills has what I call an "inner scorecard." He judges the world and himself by a standard that he'll never discuss.

In fact, he says very little, ever. In college, we would go on three-day hiking trips through the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, on the Art Loeb Trail, up Cold Mountain and through Shining Rock National Wilderness. We'd spend three days of difficult hiking, climbing, and camping and he'd say maybe 100 words to me the entire weekend. It didn't bother me at all. I could always tell what he was thinking. I knew what was unspoken.

Mills' quiet charisma always drew others toward him, especially other leaders. One year, when Mills was about 15, he met Steve at summer camp. The way Sjug tells the story, when he first walked into their cabin, Mills was on the floor, asleep, with his head and shoulders in a closet.

Steve thought, "Whoa, that's different. This guy is so laid back, he just falls asleep putting stuff in the closet." That was Mills. They became friends. Of course, Mills never said a word about it. But Steve started showing up every weekend at our family's beach house. And that's how we met.

Left to right: Porter, Mills, and Steve more than 30 years ago.

As the little brother, I was used to my brother and his friends ignoring me...

But Steve was completely the opposite. He's a natural teacher. He loves to figure things out and show others how to do them. He taught me to surf. He taught me to skateboard. He taught me how to play the guitar. (Well, he tried really hard.) And he taught me all kinds of things about getting along with other people and how to talk to girls.

I didn't make it easy for him.

My brother is like Steve McQueen reincarnated... cool and incredibly competent at everything, especially cars. But I didn't get any of those genes. I was excruciatingly awkward and clumsy.

Once, on a surf trip to "Spanish House" (a beach break just north of Sebastian Inlet), we were camping out in my brother's '69 Volkswagen Westfalia. I was trying to make a clothesline for our wetsuits out of bungee cords. I had stretched them from the back of the bus to a nearby tree. I was trying to fasten the hook at the end of the last cord to the tree.

Steve's brand-new surfboard was resting against the bus, right next to where I had latched those bungee cords. Can you guess what happened next? As soon as I let go of the cord, it pulled through the branch and shot back toward the bus, putting a silver-dollar-sized hole right through Steve's new board. Steve just smiled and said, "Well, good thing I have a repair kit. Come here, Porter. Let me teach you how to fix a surfboard."

Our friendship grew, even after Sjug went to college. I have no idea why, but when Steve would come home, he would always swing by our house. He'd play the piano for my mom and take me surfing or skateboarding.

Even though Steve was only two years older than me, he graduated from high school three years before me...

He finished college before I got there. He was always way, way ahead of me in life. One summer, while I was still in college and working as a lifeguard at Walt Disney World, we all lived together at my brother's first house in the College Park neighborhood in Orlando.

My brother was the senior mechanical engineer at a manufacturing company. In the evenings, he was rebuilding an old 1970s BMW 2002. Sjug was managing a $500 million global mutual fund in Winter Park. In the evenings, he would go windsurfing on Lake Fairview. He was dating the most beautiful woman who had ever attended the University of Florida. She looked like a supermodel. They got married a few years later.

And then there was me... the lifeguard. In the evenings, I was driving the champagne float boat and fireworks cruise out of the Contemporary Marina on Bay Lake. (Still clumsy, the day I moved into my brother's house, I pulled the cord on the ceiling fan in my room to turn it on. It immediately fell on to the rock-hard terrazzo floor and smashed into a million pieces. Next time you see Sjug, ask him about the story... He loves to tell it.)

I finally finished college the following year...

I had studied economics and history, and I had always been an avid reader. But saying I didn't have a lot of job offers would be a pretty big understatement. The "management training" program at department-store chain JC Penney didn't seem like a good fit.

My plan was to drive a pickup truck through Mexico and down to Costa Rica to tend bar and surf every day. I was a few days away from leaving on that trip when Sjug called...

Hey Porter, listen, I know you have some plans to go down to Costa Rica, but why don't you wait a couple of weeks and come down here first. I'm not managing money anymore. I've started working at a research firm. I'm going on a trip to China and I need someone to sit at my desk and make sure that the phone gets answered and the faxes get returned. Who knows, you might like this kind of work...

My life was about to change forever.

That call came in July 1996, and Sjug was right...

I loved this kind of work. He taught me the real way markets work (and often don't work). He showed me the drama of the markets and how they're a giant game – a game you get to play against the smartest and most ambitious people in the world. Just as important, he let me sleep on a couch in his living room for about six months until I could get on my feet.

And although I didn't have Sjug's amazing natural talent (and still don't), I learned I could outwork everyone else in finance. I had always been a bookworm, so this stuff was easy for me. I started attending every conference I could. I worked every day from seven in the morning until seven at night... Then I went home and read for another four or five hours. Plus, every morning in the office, Sjug would spend an hour or two with me – day after day – teaching me the art of investing.

Can you imagine someone giving you such a gift? It happened to me.

Steve is still married to that beautiful girl he met in college...

They live on the beach in Florida, in the town where she grew up. They have two children. I live on a farm in Maryland with my family. Our lives are very busy and, unfortunately, I don't get to work (or surf) with Sjug as much as I'd like to anymore.

But nothing about our friendship has changed.

I took the time to tell you this story because I've never met anyone as generous with his incredible gifts as Steve...

Most people that smart and talented are quickly bored with "mortals." But not my friend Steve...

For more than 20 years, I've watched him take his time with others. He never argues, but if you want to learn from him, he's happy to teach.

I've seen him do it again and again for decades. There are probably several hundred people in the world who owe their most important skills and knowledge to Sjug.

You can get investment advice from a lot of different folks...

It seems like every day, a new "guru" is out there pitching a new system that's way better than the rest. These folks promise that you'll make 10 or 100 times your money. I hope that works out for you. But all of that kind of stuff tends to work out a lot better for the guy selling it to you.

That's not the kind of business we've ever been interested in. Instead, Sjug and I figured out something different. We discovered that if we simply did the hard work that all investors should do before they invest their capital, we'd find our way to plenty of subscribers.

We found that if we worked hard to serve them honestly and well, two good things would happen. First, we would get rewarded with a stable income that grew over time (thanks to renewal income and lifetime subscribers, not hype). And second, our hard work would translate into excellent results for our subscribers. They would win, too.

It worked. Within about five years of launching Stansberry Research, we had built the biggest and most successful independent advisory business in the world. It continues to grow...

But don't worry. It hasn't gone to our heads. We haven't let up. We both still work long hours. And we both still feel a massive sense of obligation to our subscribers, a group that includes our parents, closest friends, business partners, and most of our employees.

The next time you come across someone promising to make you 80 times your money on the "next bitcoin" or whatever, just ask yourself, "Would I rather have that advice, or the advice that Steve is giving to his mother?"

The answer should be obvious.

Regards,

Porter Stansberry

Editor's note: As part of our 20th anniversary celebration, we've put together something special for our subscribers... Several of the folks who built Stansberry Research – including Porter and Steve – recently gathered at our Baltimore headquarters for a rare "look behind the curtain" of the business. And more important, they made two huge announcements about our company and how you can enjoy our research. Watch their message right here.