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What a 96-Year-Old Wall Street Legend Wishes Every Founder Knew — Morty Davis

• Joshua Wilson

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What a 96-Year-Old Wall Street Legend Wishes Every Founder Knew — Morty Davis

Morty Davis funded a startup whose founder chose his company over his marriage — and Morty called it immediately. That's what betting on the jockey really looks like.

In this episode, Joshua Wilson sits down with J. Morton "Morty" Davis, Chairman of D.H. Blair Investment Banking Corp. and one of Wall Street's most storied venture capitalists. Over a remarkable career, Morty helped more than 400 early-stage companies raise over $3 billion in capital — funding Nobel Prize winners, polio vaccine developers, and telecom pioneers from scratch. He started broke, dropped out at 14, clawed his way to Harvard Business School, and became a top broker out of 3,000 at Shields & Company before building D.H. Blair into a micro-cap IPO powerhouse. This conversation is equal parts capital markets history lesson and raw life philosophy — a rare window into how a self-made Wall Street legend actually thinks about founders, capital, risk, and what it takes to refuse to lose.

🎯 What We Cover:

  • How Morty funded over 400 early-stage companies and what that deal flow actually looked like
  • Why he bet on the jockey, not the business plan — and the specific traits he screened for
  • The cold-calling formula that made him the #2 broker out of 3,000 at Shields & Company
  • His path from high school dropout to Harvard MBA — and the obsessive study method that got him there
  • What Wall Street looks for in early-stage founders that most pitch decks completely miss
  • The "1 in 100" sales principle that shaped his entire approach to capital raising
  • How he built D.H. Blair into a full-service investment banking and venture capital firm
  • The story behind funding a telecom startup that eventually reached billion-dollar valuations — twice
  • Why Morty wrote Happiness Guaranteed or Your Misery Back — and the mindset shift that changed everything for him
  • Lessons from a lifetime in capital markets that no MBA program will ever teach you

🤝 Connect with Morty Davis: 🌐 D.H. Blair Investment Banking Corp. — dhblair.com

📩 Connect with Joshua Wilson: Have a question about investor relations, capital markets, or building your IR strategy? Reach out directly. 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ 🌐 https://www.theinvestorrelationspodcast.com/

🎙️ Follow The Investor Relations Podcast: 🌐 https://www.theinvestorrelationspodcast.com/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@TheInvestorRelationsPodcast

Disclaimer: Joshua Wilson is a licensed Florida real estate broker and holds FINRA Series 79 and Series 63 licensure. The content of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered legal, financial, or compliance advice. All views and opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policies or positions of any regulatory agency, organization, or employer. Listeners should consult their own legal counsel, compliance teams, or financial advisors to ensure adherence to applicable regulations, including SEC, FINRA, and other industry-specific requirements. This podcast does not constitute a solicitation or recommendation for any financial products or services.

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Joshua Wilson:

Good day, everybody, fellow dealmakers out there. I want to introduce you to a legend. Now, listen up to some of this history. We're talking about Mr. Morty here. Helped over 400 early-stage companies raise over $3 billion. Mr. Morty, welcome to the show.

Morty Davis:

Thank you.

Joshua Wilson:

Yes, sir. Alright, so, Morty, why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are?

Morty Davis:

I am?

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah! I wanna know exactly who you are, sir.

Morty Davis:

Quite a second now.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah, absolutely. I gotta check my biography. Is it working? Yeah. Alright, so why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are, and maybe some of your background story?

Morty Davis:

Well, huh. It's very, uplifting. Because I started as a very… poor… Person. My family's is very poor. And you couldn't be lower on a totem pole than I was. And I wound up, miraculously, at Harvard Business School, Top of my class. And started, working on Wall Street, and… Within 10 years. on Wall Street, from being totally broke. With a wife and 3 infant kids. I had made my first million dollars. So… It was remarkable. It shows anything could happen. If you work hard at it. And I did. I worked very hard. 24-7. And… Found a niche. That needed a covering. So, I funded… Startup companies, From scratch, that had little… I'll go on for them, except, Projection of what they plan to do. They were hardly off the ground. And I raised the original capital. And I did IPOs for them. And, fortunately, I made a lot of lucky… Decisions, of, good guys, hard-working guys. No radical guys like me. He'll refuse to lose… And then just went on. to be big winners and make me look like, I was bright.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

It's always your bet on the jockey. Man…

Joshua Wilson:

That's so true. Bet the Jockey. I used to have a media broadcast called Bet the Jockey, where we… where we did just that. We looked for people to, you know, work with and partner with. So, kind of from rags-to-riches kind of story, and what would you attribute that that shift from? Because I know it takes… for people to rise out of poverty, or from being broke and poor, there's a mindset shift that happens that, you know, before the dollars come. Did you experience that in your life?

Morty Davis:

Yeah, well, one of the reasons I worked so hard. is I wanted to distance myself. From that state that my parents lived in. Always… enough. Hand to mouth. Just about making… You know, the necessities available to us. So, it was that commitment That I didn't want to be… In that same, state of… Bing. So… I just work 24-7. Endlessly. And… Who's Who. It used to be a dominant, publication, And they interviewed Successful people and ask them What would you, you know, attribute your success? So, and I said, The harder you work, The luckier you get. And that's the secret of my success.

Joshua Wilson:

I just kept working and working and working.

Morty Davis:

And some things… Work out sometimes when you, when you work hard.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

And that was very, very, very secretive. It's just that I didn't want to be poor.

Joshua Wilson:

I get that. Now, it also helped that you had, you know, 3 young kids at home, so if you didn't work, they didn't eat. That is a good motivator. So running from… running from, I don't want to be poor, and from, you know, your place of origin, and wanting to make a name and a change for yourself, right? but also providing for that family. Talk to us about, you know. as you're going through this, this, you know, starting to work on Wall Street, and starting to find your niche with micro-cap IPOs, and taking, you know, starter companies public and helping them raise capital, kind of give an idea on what that looked like. You said you work 24-7, but You also had kids at home. How did you find balance? How did you find happiness? How did you help the wifey out?

Morty Davis:

Well, huh… And a part of life is luck. And my parents never will finish high school, so they didn't know anything about Harvard, or… or… college or in advance. My younger brother, who was more… consistent, because I dropped out of high school, when I was 14. Rebelling against the… Hmm. Yeshiva, the, the Hebrew school that I went to, where the rabbis were newly… the height of the Depression. I was born in 1929. And they weren't trained. There were really recently arrivals from Russia, Poland… Wherever. And so… They… they weren't very nice to us kids. I was 5 years old, I was getting… Eating up. There was no attention deficit. If you didn't… they didn't walk up to you and said… they said, where's the place? As his first stumbled, You were distracted for 2 seconds, They give you a… a frost… a slap in the face. The rest of the day. Their fingers were imprinted on you. on your face. So… I never had an attention deficit.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah, yeah.

Morty Davis:

And so, my brother, who was younger. Well, I wound up going to Brooklyn College for free. But he was a good student and never dropped out like I did. I dropped out when I was 14. Rebelling against everything, religion, and… The only thing that I… Left with a respect for learning and studying. And so once I stopped rebelling. I went back to night school of my own felicity. Is to be afraid to go to night school, because… I went to Central Girls High at 9… There's a lot of money. My daughters used to have friends over. And they will wonder if… Their father was a transvestite. My diploma said, Morty Davis. Central girls talk.

Joshua Wilson:

Huh.

Morty Davis:

I was ahead of my time.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. So your brother, was he older or younger than you?

Morty Davis:

Younger.

Joshua Wilson:

Okay, so he was the consistent one, good at school. You were the rebel, Mr. Morty.

Morty Davis:

He was the one. That's the first one in our family that went to college.

Joshua Wilson:

And he was in the course.

Morty Davis:

An economic course. Where the professor said the average graduate at Harvard Business School. You have to remember this back in the 30s. was earning… $25,000 a year. That was big, because people once asked if my friend and I… Walking along, and they said, would you settle for $5,000? That was there for life. And my friend immediately said, absolutely. And I said, well, you know, I don't know that I had a better idea. I didn't even know what it was. I said, I don't know, I'm not sure. Of $5,000 a year was… Phenomenal. And this professor said the average student would Was earning $25,000 a year. That's more impressive. Done… learning that the average student out of Harvard Business School graduating Partly makes… $25 million a year. Yeah. Those days, nobody made that kind of money. So once I found that out, and I heard that, I… Dedicated my… dedicated my life Make sure I… Before that, I never had a higher than… 65, which was the minimal Passing grade. Of course, of course. After that, I locked myself in. I didn't see my kids. All my infants, 3, 3 infants.

Joshua Wilson:

94 years old, the oldest. Yeah.

Morty Davis:

And I just sat in front of a wall, And… studied… the textbooks. From cover to cover, over, over and over again. And it teaches notes over and over again. Item for an item. That was a great secret, and… Getting good grades. And getting out of local college. Even though I never met a matriculator at first, because I had such low grade. I had to pay. to attend. Even though it was a free college. And I graduated. top of my class at Brooklyn College. All the local newspapers, That time, I lived on Staten Island. So, me and my three… Little girls and my wife. appeared on the front page of the Staten Island Advance, Which was, like, the… How old readership of… everybody in, Staten Island. And I was… in those days, we had a letter. Different newspapers in New York. So I appeared in every… newspaper. With my picture, and my three little… Babies, literally. And my wife. We had the New York Post, The, morning. Telecra… So many different… newspapers.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

Even the New York Times, which never… There's articles like that. Didn't publish pictures. But they run the… very… Impressive article. Brooklyn. college released those pictures as a PR… for Brooklyn College. To this day, I'm proud of those pictures.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. Do you have those pictures still, like, in a frame or a book or something? Yeah.

Morty Davis:

Love.

Joshua Wilson:

That's special, that's special. I love hearing people's stories and, people's stories of change, where they've changed their family tree, and where they make, you know, a hard decision to readjust. Oh, I think we're actually gonna see that, so if you guys are watching in on YouTube, take a look at this. Data 3 on our list in Record Brooklyn College class. Oh, look at that. Oh, man, what an honor. So, thank you, Mr. Morty, on the back, Leonard. Alright, so then we got into finding your niche, which was investing in startups. How does… how did that happen, going, you know, from wherever you grew up and whatever your background was, but dropping out of… actually, this is hilarious. Dropping out of school at 14, then going to an all-girls school and graduating, and then… Graduating top of your class. going to Harvard, and then getting into investing in startups, and then raising $3 billion for over 400 startups. So, like, that's a phenomenal story. How does that happen? Tell me about, like, the journey to get into investment banking and Wall Street work.

Morty Davis:

Well, once I decided to go back to school. Was what stuck with me from all the… Jewish learning, Hebrew learning, is a stress on Studying and learning. So, of my own volition, I returned. But it was a scary experience. Because during the daytime, Central Girls High was considered an outstanding school. But in the evening. I was the only one in my class, I think, that didn't have a juvenile records. Even the girls. How to… that would… Maybe 16, 15… had prostitution records. Oh, jeez. I was… they were, you know… Juvenile delinquent stuff. They were out of the… Jail pre-prison. shortly before… They came to that school. And all the, all the… Guys had shivs in their boots. Nobody had guns, because that… Nobody had money in those days.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

Nobody could afford a gun. That shifts in their boats. soft knives. And… I was actually afraid to go to school. It was called the, Bed-Stuy… Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn. Which was very dangerous. section of Brooklyn. So… I went for 4 years. At night. I didn't… Learned very much. I attended classes, pretty much. Four years. The only thing I learned… It took Spanish as a… as a… Option. And I didn't learn… Spanish. But every Christmas, I learned Nor should they pass. No, today I'm more… that's the… I'm 4 years, that's all I learned.

Joshua Wilson:

Silent night, or Holo Night. Yeah.

Morty Davis:

Spanish. Yeah. To this day, I don't remember.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. It's amazing how many little things we remember over the years, tiny memories that become a part of our joy later on. Alright, so talk to us about, you know, you went from walking around with You know, people who had records and shivs in their boots and prostitution records to… to Wall Street, Definitely.

Morty Davis:

Before I got a job on Wall Street, I had applied many times. the different jobs. And I never got accepted. I was so retarded. I used to wear black shoes with white socks. I remember. President of the company. interviewed me. I've never been to a restaurant in my life. Boom. pop, wall Street, restaurant, White's at the time. So, I don't know what to order. I looked at the menu, and I ordered… Tona fish. I'm… Post. The lettuce and tomato. When they brought it, I started to take her at a knife and a fork. I thought that was the right… Hanging in a fancy. And he made me aware. That it's alright to… Pick it up and ate it at a sandwich. As I retarded her back what I was. But I never cut… Got an offer. the work. I did get one offer. As a salesman, Even though my brother had been hired. when he graduated Brooklyn College, Whereas they, For the insurance department, for their estate planning. And I envied him, because… He was working in a warm office. I was a salesman door-to-door. Freezing everything of me. Every day, you know, winter, No, no. Hey, drinking. Heavy packages from one. As to another. the average woman Slamming the… Door in my face. I used to just say, Please open it up, and let me get my merchandise back. And I've never… I was so frightened about… Canvassing door-to-door. I took my wife along, sit in the car. And I went in, I'd never been in a one-family home.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

So, Brooklyn… Where I lived. You went into an entree hallway. Where the hall… where the bells were, And the mailboxes were… And then he rang the bell. And somebody would answer, and you'd say what you're there for. Why you… why you want to see them, or something? So, the first… One family house I walked into, I did not always, unlike… the houses in Brooklyn, no entry hall, so I open a door, the woman… came out and saw me in her living room. She said, what are you doing here? I'm calling the police. That's so scared. I… I went out, I left… Then I didn't realize. was the house we lived in in Brooklyn. We didn't use the front of the house as the entrance.

Joshua Wilson:

We went through the side.

Morty Davis:

Where we parked the cars. So I went around to the side thinking it's a different apartment. And I went in again and said. The apartment, and then she saw me there. She said, what are you doing here? I just threw you out of the front there. What are you… I'm calling the police. So I ran outside. Ran to the car with my wife in it, and took off. I figured I was gonna make a lot of progress. With the window card or not. Yeah, I… invading… people's houses. With, without an invite.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

I didn't know, so anyway… A lot of interesting experiences. That would, for most people, Not learning processes, but they know it. And I had no, no idea. So, I ran out to the car, and I took off. And I didn't stop. Who's that again in the other half? But, no. It was a horrible… work, because I was selling Different, every, every kind of product. Daughter, daughter. We're a dollar a down, and a dollar a week.

Joshua Wilson:

Right.

Morty Davis:

Initially, they slammed the doors. on me. Not to let me in. But every once in a while, they let me in, and for a dollar a week. They often bought some of the stuff that I was… Made available every kind of product. Clothing, for, everything. place on East Broadway in Manhattan. That cater to this… this kind of… Salesman. They call them customer pedals. We bought that product there. We've paid them. And then we delivered to these. Women… And collected a dollar a week. After making the sale of sale, every week that I stopped off to collect a dollar.

Joshua Wilson:

They said, nobody's home. Yep, yeah.

Morty Davis:

Very evasive.

Joshua Wilson:

So you had to do the sales and collect the money?

Morty Davis:

Yeah, I… This thing is making the sale, you know, getting declined. Yeah. Once I got the client, I could sell her, you know, clothing, underwear, bedspreads, All different kind of things, the living room. Even furniture. Couches, vacuum cleaners, everything.

Joshua Wilson:

And Morty, what would… what do you do when they didn't… they said, no one's home! And you're like, I hear you in the house. How did you collect the money? Give us some, collection advice.

Morty Davis:

I didn't collect it, I aggravated.

Joshua Wilson:

Okay, got it.

Morty Davis:

I went back week after week sometimes. I got a dollar sometimes, I didn't.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

I don't know when that froze my nuts off. I had an old car. And it was very cold. Walking around with packages. Until you got into somebody's house. Apartment or house. And in the summer, I sweated like a pink. Carrying vacuum cleaners and different things.

Joshua Wilson:

Oh, nice.

Morty Davis:

That, together with… Driving than old… Wreck of a car. That broke down all the time. I cursed a car, I cursed every… I cursed my life.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. No, I completely understand that. I went door-to-door selling as well. It is a hard job, because you get door slammed in your face, you get rejection constantly. It takes some stones, some chutzpah, right, to knock on some doors.

Morty Davis:

Look how successful you turned out to be. It's a good trend.

Joshua Wilson:

Catching up to you, Morty.

Morty Davis:

That's good training.

Joshua Wilson:

It is good training. It really is.

Morty Davis:

The School of Hard… the School of Hard Knocks.

Joshua Wilson:

School of Hard Knocks. Yeah, I think, you know, tough times take, you know, create tough… Tough men, tough workers, tough filmmakers, right? Alright, so Morty, I'm itching, man, I gotta know about this Wall Street.

Morty Davis:

Oh, once, once, once I got to work, then I… An office, and got accepted. For a normal job. When people hung up on me. It didn't bother me at all, because I was at least in a warm.

Joshua Wilson:

In a warm office, for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Morty Davis:

A significant upgrade.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah, that's good, man.

Morty Davis:

But I work day and night. was a guy I… Talked with as a top salesman, A broker and a firm. Shields and Company. a song by… very religious Catholics. And, the son of the owner. Litchfield. Every lunchtime. went down across the street from Wall Street, of Pine Street. We're Lord Catholic Church. And prayed. But they were very prominent in the field of… Sailing. Every Sunday, in the New York Times. They gave the results of the… Whatever they called it. race. What? The regatta? Regatta. The regatta.

Joshua Wilson:

Cool. And they were, they were always the.

Morty Davis:

the shields… Regatta was won by this one. But it was the… This field family.

Joshua Wilson:

Right.

Morty Davis:

Very religious, very prominent. there's… The daughter, one of the daughters. was married to Gary Cooper. Well, at that time, I don't have to know who he was. was a superstar of Hollywood.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah, super cool.

Morty Davis:

So… I had a lot of interesting experiences. On the way up.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah, well, talk to us. We've got time, talk to us about some of them.

Morty Davis:

On the way up from zero. To zero plus.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. Okay.

Morty Davis:

But anyway, this guy can… the guy… I… Interviewed. I managed to… Mid… The guy who was the most successful salesman. their organization. And I thought, what's the secret? In those days you were allowed to make. Cold calls. the people. They changed that. You have to know the people before you can call them. So… Yes, sir. Just get on the phone. And don't stop calling. Keep calling it. One in a hundred is waiting for you.

Joshua Wilson:

Hmm.

Morty Davis:

Every time I… somebody hung up on me. I said, okay, 99 more. And then it was true. And as it became a better Closer, better salesman. It closed 2 out of 100. You're a superstar, you're close 3 out of 100. But the positive was, if you made enough calls, you finally hit The one in a hundredth. That was vulnerable to your pitch. That, that was it. Very significant. Learning. Right. And once I learned that, I never stopped calling. I just stopped calling. When I called 11 o'clock at night, I'm a person who answered. Started to tell him about some great soup. Stock that's gonna go way up, and etc. He said, you could have a hell of a lot of nerve calling at this hour of the night. But that's when I followed it. Decided to go home.

Joshua Wilson:

I wonder…

Morty Davis:

Saturday night to work, I went in Sunday all day to work. Never stop. And I became… after one year, I became… The second most successful salesman in the whole organization.

Joshua Wilson:

Hmm. Even though…

Morty Davis:

when I was first hired, I was hired. I didn't want to be a salesman, I did that. I want to be in management.

Joshua Wilson:

A guy who's head of…

Morty Davis:

Price Waterhouse became the managing director of Shields. They came to interview me at Hobbit. And he said, we never had a Jewish… Pardon. Or we're doing a lot of… financing for successful Jewish Startups, entrepreneurs. And we're doing a lot of business on 7th Avenue. The comment industry with… What… what would… We have a lot of wealthy Jewish clients. So, we're gonna hire you as the first Jewish, potentially lower. Management. I'll, to manage an office. on the… Let's terrible. Nearly. How about this.

Joshua Wilson:

Wow.

Morty Davis:

So that was… Breakthrough. And, I wound up… becoming a manager. But the guys I was managing were all brokers. I was in the main office on Wall Street. Mmm… They got paid a commission. Every time they made a sale, they knew that they got 50% of the commission. That they were making some of the… No, it says $100,000 a year. Big money. And I'm their manager, They're bringing me all their headaches. Clients that didn't pay for the stock. clients that… Renneged honest payment. Oh, I handled all the headaches. that, all the… all the rewards, and I… I was the manager. I went down to the senior partner, And I said. I don't want to be a manager. Yeah, demote me. I wanna do what they're doing. But they liked the idea of getting… Another salesman. But I said, okay. I went on to become, you know, The first year, I became… Second. most productive. broker in a whole organization had a baby. 3,000 brokers.

Joshua Wilson:

Wow.

Morty Davis:

Just with that formulas. Never stopped calling, never kept calling. And I opened a lot of new accounts.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

Little, little ideas. Running across… Lucky breaks. Where you learn one or two things, and it makes a difference in your life.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. If you could attribute, right, so we have door knocking, where you had to knock on doors. Right? And then you had cold calling. 1 out of 100, they're gonna, they're gonna say yes to you, and if you're good, you might get 2, maybe 3, you're a rock star. Superstar, right? When it comes to, you know, that kind of drive. what would you attribute to your… your motivation to keep going, right? So you… you… you started making money, you became… got into management, but what… where do you think that internal drive to… to be the top, where does that come from?

Morty Davis:

Well, it was easy, because… The way you were incentivized They don't have to go and ask for a raise or get a… A review after 6 months on how you're doing. Every time I made a sale, I could figure out what the commission was, if it was $100. I got $50. And the company got $50.

Joshua Wilson:

Nice.

Morty Davis:

I was ringing a register every time I… I was making a contact. And a closing. That was the strongest motivation. You know, I was ringing the cash register every time I had even the most modest success.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

That was the first time in my life. I was being rewarded. Just for the work I was doing. I was… phenomenal.

Joshua Wilson:

How does… what…

Morty Davis:

What?

Joshua Wilson:

What changes going from… what changes in your life, in your mindset, in how you show up to the world, and in relationships, when you go from being poor, destitute, knocking, you know, knocking doors, to becoming very successful and wealthy. What changes?

Morty Davis:

Well, first of all, people don't realize that Wall Street is a very… Small community. Everybody knows everything. Listen knows this, it was true. Still is, if you're a superstar. They're recruiting you from every organization. So… I became well-known, people recruited me. I was offered a partnership with another firm. Goldman Sachs tried to interview me. I was too insecure to even go for the interview. Because I didn't think I was… of the caliper… Person that they wanted. But it changed my life, because… I got some kind of… Recognition. a bang… worthwhile. Before, I wasn't even… able to get an interview for a job with most studies. And then once I started to raise money. I was able to raise money. for companies. where I could get… Control of the largest number of shares. That voted in that company. to get, equity interests. and, you know, companies that were already outlay… Public. Public.

Joshua Wilson:

Okay.

Morty Davis:

That got my career into investment banking. And then I started raising money. for companies, because once I had clients, I told them, by this… You know, I love the company, I love the management. It's not selling at 10, I think. It'll deal better. 100… They usually… Hung up on my… I said, you know, let's buy 10,000 shares. Just to get rid of me, they said, huh? Alright, I hope you don't have the money. Buy a 10,000 shares. But buy me 200 shares.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

I made a… a clothing. And, one little success. Led to another success.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. I ended up being a…

Morty Davis:

top broker, I wound up… Able to do… investment banking, because I could raise money. The companies, instead of just… Buying stocks. And the companies that were already out there.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. What are some of the things you learned from, you know, so we got door knocking, which is one skill, we got cold calling another, but raising capital, asking people for money. is a, a different… it's like a level-up skill set. It's all sales.

Morty Davis:

Yeah.

Joshua Wilson:

for the world of investor relations, I'm an investment banker myself, real estate broker, but in the, you know, in the world of investment banking, it's very different than knocking on a door, you know, but kind of give us some ideas on Some… some things you learned along the way of… You know, being good at raising capital.

Morty Davis:

since I was already selling Shares and companies. that were trading. I could switch them to shares. That would be trading, and tell them an exciting story. That this guy who's running it. There's a killer, you know, he's got… he's hungry. is… You know, I put a bet on the jockey. I bet on guys that were neurotic, like me. And desperate to be successful. If a guy didn't… Some people came… gave me… brilliant business plans. I wouldn't see anybody Unless I had a… Well written. business plan. But some of them were smart enough to hire somebody. And do a great business plan. But when I met them in person. I said, there's no way this guy's gonna… Now, I'll tell you a story. Within one week. I interviewed… interviewed two different people. One of them was… on the company. A number of years. He was doing about $10 million in sales.

Joshua Wilson:

Making a million…

Morty Davis:

Half a million. It was in the half, but going nowhere. I said, what's wrong? You were doing good for a while. And then suddenly it started going. sideways, what happened. It says, oh, there's a story with that. My wife got so angry, I was working so hard. So she said, if you don't stop, I'm… I'm leaving you.

Joshua Wilson:

Whew.

Morty Davis:

Botted to… And what time on my marriage. And I saved my marriage here. But my records started to… go up and down. I didn't devote my total. Energy to that. That same week, another Kai came with me. Just with a business plan. But it tells me a story. He works day and night, 7 days a week. You work so hard, so hard. Saturday night, Sunday night. One Saturday night, his wife came up, Amazing. It says… And… Gotta cut this out. Either me or… or your business. I'm not staying with this kind of relationship. I… I divorced her.

Joshua Wilson:

Oh, Jesus!

Morty Davis:

That's… that's my kind of guy. Because my priorities. His marriage doesn't matter. I funded him, even though it was a total startup.

Joshua Wilson:

Wow.

Morty Davis:

It was Sherwin… show in Selickstone. And it started with nothing, just an idea. To do something in the… In the phone business. Matter of fact, I came back home and told my wife, This guy has an idea. or a phone, It says, he writes from us. A house… In Philadelphia, To somewhere in the middle of nowhere. And had a person at the other end. Answer the phone. And she said, that's terrific. But did he show you the demonstration? He says, no, so how do you know he really did? The truth. Said I believed him, you know. And it has some… stuff that doesn't replace Apple. What was an addendum, an important addendum? And his company… Which the… Billion dollar valuation.

Joshua Wilson:

Wow.

Morty Davis:

And then he started another company afterwards. It's likewise reached over a billion dollars. They was driven.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah, he was neurotic, right? He was all in, pot committed.

Morty Davis:

Unbelievable.

Joshua Wilson:

So, let me ask you, we've got a little bit of time left, at least for today, Morty. I love your stories, and I love spending time with you. It's really good to connect with you.

Morty Davis:

Let's do it again.

Joshua Wilson:

I think we should.

Morty Davis:

whenever Christopher's available, available.

Joshua Wilson:

Oh, he's still in the room, he's sending me messages right now. But there's another thing that I want to make sure that I share with the community here, is you wrote a book Called Happiness Guaranteed, or Your Misery Back. I want to know about your book. why you wrote it, kind of talk to us about that, because I think the community here would love to celebrate that with you.

Morty Davis:

Yeah, for those that have I'm watching this on the screen. There's a copy of the book.

Joshua Wilson:

Oh, you gotta hold it up, I can't see. Hold it up in front of the camera for us. Happiness guaranteed, or tell us what… what is this? How to be happy… what's a bottom say? No matter what. Alright.

Morty Davis:

And it says, how to be happy no matter what.

Joshua Wilson:

That's a tough time.

Morty Davis:

So… When I was young, I was depressed. A lot. And… I couldn't overcome that. Sense of depression always. One day, I picked up a… a book… by a famous Catholic minister. who had a church in Midtown Manhattan. And it was called The Power of Positive Thinking. And I read that book, And it… Bought me to think positively. no matter what, He said, if you think positive, Positive things happen. So I did that. And it changed my life. And then I also… Followed a great writer at the time. Dale Carnegie. wrote a book that I had read earlier. How to Win Friends and… and Influence People.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah, it's great.

Morty Davis:

He wrote a book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. So between those two books, Bishop Sheen… and Dale Carnegie, I changed my attitude. And I started to think positively. And as I thought positive, It really worked out.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

To think positively. Positive things happen.

Joshua Wilson:

I love that.

Morty Davis:

So then why didn't want to work for me? I said, I should try to help the rest of the world. Do the same thing. You know, learn to think positive, learn to… Stop worrying, stop… stop living. And I followed all of the… Famous. Brilliant writers over the philosophers over the years. of biblical scholars, From biblical wisdom. the Greeks, from Aristotle, and Plato, Plato, and Freud, and… And they all had such brilliant ideas. on how to… become happier. Out of control your mind. The whole idea is that you're in charge. We let unwind. Get a stamp. you know. If we go to a vacation, we have a miserable time. We'll never go back to that place. But with our troubles, For some reason, I might always dare to exist back. The difficulties we had, the unfortunate.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

Burns we had, the failures we had, So… That's… Absolutely. The worst thing you could do. Because it depresses you, makes it feel like a failure. So I wrote this book. And I kept gathering All of the wisdom of all this. Fabulous people over the centuries. Unbelievable, it was. Matter of fact, I wrote a 12… Yes, and I was still writing it. But I was still gathering Still more information. Yeah. And one time, my daughter, who's written 4 or 5 bucks. And it's very bright. She read it, and she said, Daddy, why don't you publish it? I read it, it's fabulous. And I said, well, there's a lot more I think I could get. attitude. And she says, publish it, it's fabulous. So then, I said, well, a couple more years. Anyway, she jumped on and started to help me finish it. That's why I made her co-author. And in 2 years, I finally did publish it. And I get so much… In a way of compliments. and appreciation… And… Everybody that's ever written to me. Tell me how beneficial it's been to them. Unbelievable. So much so, that I offer people now. They buy the book. But I get it as a gift. And they don't… Still, they benefited? Was it… Most verifiable. Gift or present that puts themselves? I will send them back. Not only that purchase price, But if they send me the purchase slip, I will send them back. Double what they paid. That in itself should make them happy. Because they got a good preface right away, and they can keep the book.

Joshua Wilson:

Alright. Hold on a second, I'm a deal guy.

Morty Davis:

I've never got… I've never gotten one. Thank you.

Joshua Wilson:

So I'm a deal guy, so I could go in and buy a thousand books right now.

Morty Davis:

That's the one thing I worry about.

Joshua Wilson:

I get a thousand books, you give me.

Morty Davis:

If you buy one book, not a thousand.

Joshua Wilson:

Okay.

Morty Davis:

Not even… not even 30. The double your money.

Joshua Wilson:

Keep 30 books, we sell the books.

Morty Davis:

And then…

Joshua Wilson:

I think we think a.

Morty Davis:

You're a businessman, right? You'll figure it out right away.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. Morty, what a pleasure. I'm gonna go buy your book right now. Can I buy it on Amazon? Where can people go to get it?

Morty Davis:

Amazon… Anywhere, I guess. I never checked the gun. Yeah. Most… mostly I get letters from people as gifts.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah.

Morty Davis:

And they got it as gifts from one guy as a… CEO of a major corporation. He says I send out thousands of books, of gifts every year. And if I get any kind of recognition. A week later, two weeks later, they send me a thank you note. The glyph. Gift. In this case, Months later, They're sending me thank you notes. How helpful it's been to them. One guy says he reads it all the time. And then he ran to us. television, and his wife and two kids were watching their favorite program, and he turned it off, and they start screaming at him. What are your dad? What are you doing? It's our favorite. He says, I'll record it. And he read them one page. And ever since then, They love it, they read a one-page… Together, as a family, all the time.

Joshua Wilson:

Who knows?

Morty Davis:

It was very flattering, and he said it turned out to be… The most popular book he ever sent.

Joshua Wilson:

I like that.

Morty Davis:

There's a gift, not book. Popular gift you ever sent? Months later, people are still selling. Whereas in other cases, Right after the first timer. They might send them a thank you note. I'd hardly ever follow on through any time during the year.

Joshua Wilson:

Well, Mr. Morty, I am buying the book right this minute. I'm so grateful for our time together. What we'll do is we'll include the link of the book in the show notes, so as people are listening in, they can click on and learn more about you, but also buy the book.

Morty Davis:

I'd love to have you back again. They're very brilliant, and bring Chris to first. As long as he's available, we could do it again.

Joshua Wilson:

Yeah. Well, you hang in right there one second. We're gonna stop recording, but let me say goodbye to all the people in the audience, and then you and I will catch up. So, fellow dealmakers, fellow investor relations professional, fellow, you know, enthusiasts of podcasts and learning, and lifelong learners, like Mr. Morty. I want you to do this. I want you to go check out the book, but send Mr. Morty a note. Let him know that you appreciate him investing his time and sharing his wisdom and his life story with you guys. And that's a… that's a personal ask from me to you. And if you like these kind of episodes, we encourage you to, you know, reach out to us. Let us know what kind of topics you want to discuss, and what kind of things you want to learn more about. All that information could be on the website and in these show notes. But until then, we'll talk to you all on the next episode. Cheers, everyone.

Morty Davis:

Thank you, Joshua.

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Joshua Wison

Host