You already know Charles Schwab. But you might not know his story -which is, in large part, the story of the financial revolution that has rolled through American life since 1972.

Yet there's more to Schwab than the tale of a broker who rode a boom. So dyslexic that he passed college English only by reading classics like Moby Dick in comic-book editions, Schwab bounced from one setback to another until his company finally took off in the late 1970s.

Along the way, he acquired some strong views on persistence, luck, money and life. In the first of Money Magazine's 35th-anniversary interviews, the 69-year-old icon sat down with senior writer Jason Zweig.

Q. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a business that could someday be as big as yours?

A. You know, I would never start there. You've got to start with your gut, with something you are really passionate about, for a good reason.

You won't get there by sitting in a closet and thinking, "Boy, I know the world must want this." You have to get some real-world experience that tells you what people want.

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