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photo by: Sylas May\/Journal-World<\/p>\n
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KU alumnus and donor David Booth stands with a display of his new book, “Stay Calm,” on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at the Lawrence Public Library.<\/p>\n
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He called his new book \u201cStay Calm,\u201d but what David Booth would like to call his next one is an idea that\u2019s just as important to him:<\/p>\n
\u201cStay Invested.\u201d <\/p>\n
That refers to Booth\u2019s advice to nervous investors \u2013 staying the course for the long term instead of panic-selling when the market dips. But it could just as well be about his relationship with Lawrence, a town where he sold popcorn and shoes as a youth and where a newly renovated football stadium now bears his name.<\/p>\n
Booth, the founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors who now lives in Austin, Texas, was back in Lawrence this week to launch the book at his alma mater \u2013 at the conference center built into David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, of course. <\/p>\n
The book is part memoir, part investment advice, and a little bit of life advice as well about what \u201ctrue wealth\u201d looks like. For Booth, giving back to places that shaped him is part of that true wealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn philanthropy, there are a number of things I look at, but payback is the start,\u201d he told the Journal-World on Friday. \u201cKU helped me so much; I want to be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the investment advice, Booth focuses on trusting the market over the long term rather than trying to predict and outsmart it. Part of his conviction comes from research that shows that people can\u2019t consistently pick winning investments. But part of it also comes from something basic about human nature, he told the Journal-World: \u201cMen and women want to make their lives better. When bad things happen to them, they figure out how to make things better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019ll be winners and losers, and I don\u2019t know who the winners will be,\u201d Booth said. \u201cBut here\u2019s what I believe: Human ingenuity, that\u2019s always what bails us out. And I don\u2019t see that ever disappearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
How to help?<\/p>\n
At Booth\u2019s book launch on Thursday, in a packed auditorium, a special guest had some different investment advice for the audience: <\/p>\n
Put Mario in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best investment plan I ever had was him making that shot, so I doubled my salary,\u201d Hall of Fame basketball coach Bill Self joked while sitting next to Mario Chalmers, famed for sinking that critical 3-pointer<\/a> in the 2008 championship game against Memphis.<\/p>\n But Self, like Booth, also had a lesson to share about trust.<\/p>\n \u201cI trust my guys,\u201d the Hall of Fame basketball coach said. But that wasn\u2019t always the case. He used to micromanage his players a lot more, he said. But eventually, he realized you can only control so much, and that \u201cgood players are harder to guard than good plays.\u201d<\/p>\n Another piece of wisdom \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s a good shot or a bad shot when it leaves your hand,\u201d not when it goes in the basket. That sounds a lot like some advice from a colleague that Booth repeats in his book: \u201cJudge yourself by the quality of your decisions, not by their outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n photo by: Chris Crum\/Contributed Photo<\/p>\n David Booth, Mario Chalmers and Bill Self take part in a panel discussion on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, at KU\u2019s conference center.<\/p>\n These lessons from Kansas sports don\u2019t just fit in because they rhyme with Booth\u2019s advice. They also fit because sports have been the focus of Booth\u2019s philanthropy at KU.<\/p>\n For starters, there were the original 1891 \u201cRules of Basket Ball\u201d penned by James Naismith, which Booth bought at auction in 2010<\/a> for $4.3 million and which went to the DeBruce Center<\/a> next to Allen Fieldhouse. Then, there were two donations connected to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium and the Gateway project, the latest a $300 million donation announced in 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n Why donate to athletics specifically? <\/p>\n \u201cKU had done so much for me; I wanted to do something,\u201d Booth told the crowd. \u201cAnd I looked around and said, \u2018How can I be of help?’\u201d The answer was athletics, he said, in part because it\u2019s hard to get state legislators to fund big sports facilities.<\/p>\n \u201cUniversities spend a whole bunch of money on athletics, and that support really has to come, I think, from the alums,\u201d he said, not the state.<\/p>\n In \u201cStay Calm,\u201d Booth writes about why Lawrence and KU are special to him. His parents, who grew up during the Great Depression, moved to Lawrence specifically to give their kids the chance to attend KU and get off to a good start in life. He mentions, too, the odd jobs he did in Lawrence as a youth: selling popcorn at football games, shelving books at the public library, selling shoes at Arensberg\u2019s<\/a> on Mass. Street.<\/p>\n When he comes to Lawrence now, he told the Journal-World, it\u2019s \u201cnot like living in a big city where you\u2019re kind of anonymous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is this feeling of community, that we kind of share something in common,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re either connected to the university directly or indirectly, you know?\u201d <\/p>\n And he told the crowd on Thursday that that feeling motivated him as much as just wanting to repay KU.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of it is payback,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I love this place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Buy the market\u2019<\/p>\n While Booth\u2019s time in Lawrence and at KU left an imprint on him, it was at the University of Chicago where he\u2019d be exposed to the then-cutting-edge economic ideas that he based his career around. <\/p>\n He arrived there in 1969, and there he encountered the \u201cefficient market hypothesis.\u201d This is a principle that implies, among other things, that unless you\u2019re doing illicit things like insider trading, you can\u2019t beat the market solely by analyzing information. In his book, Booth writes about studies done around this time that showed professional fund managers who actively picked their investments could not reliably outperform the market. <\/p>\n What Booth created after he left the University of Chicago was a firm that used index investing, a method based on that research. He recounts in his book the story of the early years of Dimensional Fund Advisors, which started in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn. And he writes about a 1983 New York Times article where it was listed as a successful \u201cboutique\u201d money management firm. <\/p>\n However, it was the only one in that article that was using index investing. The others were using the older style of money management, called \u201cactive management,\u201d which is where someone at the firm actually chooses the investments, rather than using an index or portfolio to \u201cbuy the market.\u201d<\/p>\n Booth told the Journal-World that this approach makes sense, because you\u2019re benefiting from all of the other bets and transactions that people are making. <\/p>\n \u201cIn some sense, the market\u2019s doing the work for you,\u201d he said. \u201cAll these sophisticated investors and buyers and sellers, they\u2019re out there setting prices. Any time an institutional investor sees prices deviate from what they think is a fair price, they jump all over it. So you as the individual investor can sit back and say, \u2018Let these guys duke it out! The net result is something really positive for me!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been working for 50 years on trying to explain that in a way that\u2019s intuitive to people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Some people have what he calls the \u201cMBA Syndrome.\u201d They\u2019ve gotten an impression of what a trader should be like, and they let their own successes go to their heads. And that doesn\u2019t change even when they see the research about individuals not being able to consistently beat the market.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, there are a few people who beat the market, but fewer than you expect by chance,\u201d he said. A rational person would look at this and say, \u201cOh, you can\u2019t separate skill from luck, because there are too few winners.\u201d<\/p>\n But for the patient with MBA Syndrome, \u201cthe darnedest thing happens.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople conclude, \u2018There\u2019s so few people who can beat the market; I know I can do it; that just shows how clever I am, because there\u2019s so few people like me who can beat the market!\u201d<\/p>\n On the other extreme, there are the anxious investors \u2013 the ones who are unnerved by the market\u2019s swings and want to get out when it dips. It\u2019s these investors he really wants to reach with his writing, and his simple message is to take the long view and trust the data.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of anxiety now, and that anxiety, uncontrolled, leads into pessimism,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if you look, we have good, high-quality, research-quality data of 100 years of stock and bond returns. Do you think the amount of anxiety now is greater than during the Great Depression? During World War II? During the Great Recession?<\/p>\n \u201cSo, first off, let\u2019s get a check on this \u2013 it\u2019s not all that unusual. Second thing is, there\u2019s not much correlation between people\u2019s anxiety and stock and bond returns, to me.\u201d<\/p>\n He gave an example from the first quarter of 2020, when the COVID pandemic hit and the stock market fell. Some people\u2019s instincts were, \u201cHoly cow, I\u2019ve got to get out!\u201d he said. But by the end of the year, the market had rebounded.<\/p>\n If you had $100 invested at the start of that year, Booth said, and got out when the market was down 20%, you\u2019d then have $80. But if you kept it in and the year ended 20% up from where it started, \u201cthat means the last nine months of the year, you went from $80 to $120! That\u2019s a 50% return!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no do-overs in the investment business,\u201d Booth said. \u201cThere\u2019s no mulligans, as they say in golf. If you missed out on that 50% run, you missed out on it. We think of stocks over the long haul as having about a 10% return, but you have to be there to be assured of getting it. And if you miss out on one of those 50% runs, there\u2019s a huge effect long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n One way to dispel doubt, Booth said, is to ask, \u201c\u2018Is there still a lot of trading going on?\u201d If there is, then \u201cthat\u2019s all you need to know,\u201d because that tells you that lots of buyers still expect that their transactions will give them a positive outcome.<\/p>\n Booth also wants investors to know that this doesn\u2019t work for individual stocks, but for the market as a whole. \u201cThe stock market is not going to zero,\u201d he said. \u201cIndividual stock prices can.\u201d<\/p>\n But he thinks there are many ways now to \u201cbuy the whole stock market\u201d that didn\u2019t exist back when his firm was getting started.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best evidence,\u201d he said, shows \u201cthat you get a fair deal. There will be ups and downs; nothing\u2019s perfect. But for people like my parents, who viewed themselves as outsiders and thought that insiders made all the money, that just is not true, because everybody can buy the market.\u201d<\/p>\n Execution counts<\/p>\n Just like he trusts in the market, Booth trusts in KU and Lawrence to keep growing. When asked what he appreciates about Lawrence that others might not notice, Booth said that \u201cit\u2019s a city that can change.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve lived in smaller cities in Kansas,\u201d said Booth \u2013 whose childhood home before the move was Garnett, current population about 3,200 \u2013 \u201cand you go back and it\u2019s still pretty much kind of the same stores and same people.\u201d <\/p>\n Not Lawrence, and especially not KU, which has started big developments like its Crossing and Gateway projects in just the past few years.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, gosh, this Gateway thing totally changed everything. For the better,\u201d Booth said. \u201cI think it\u2019s very exciting, and I just can\u2019t believe that they\u2019re going to pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n Was there a time when he needed convincing \u2013 back before the dream of a new stadium, when the Jayhawks were expected to win maybe one football game a year?<\/p>\n The answer has to do with optimism, which he devotes a whole chapter to in his book. It\u2019s titled \u201cWhy I\u2019ll Always Be Optimistic About the Future,\u201d but he also writes, \u201cI want to be clear that optimism isn\u2019t the same as blind faith or willful naivete.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m an optimist,\u201d Booth told the Journal-World. \u201cI think I\u2019m a realist.\u201d <\/p>\n His first donation to the football stadium in 2017 was a smaller commitment of $50 million spread across five years.<\/a> This was seven years before the Gateway idea,<\/a> which will include a hotel, retail development and student housing around the stadium. Back in 2017, the renovation was expected to cost $300 million in total.<\/p>\n Booth admits that this donation did take some faith.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first one, because KU had had 10 years of rough football results, everybody needed to chip in, so that was kind of blind faith,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was blind optimism, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n After that, it was up to KU to show it could deliver.<\/p>\n \u201cThe critical ingredient there was an element of trust \u2013 let\u2019s call it trust in execution,\u201d Booth said. \u201cAs we say around our firm, ideas are cheap; execution is what really counts. It\u2019s nice to have great ideas, but if you don\u2019t trust that people can execute on them, they don\u2019t go anywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current structure, Chancellor (Doug) Girod, Travis Goff as athletic director, Dan Martin as head of Endowment, that\u2019s a strong group. And over time they earned the trust \u2013 my trust, anyway \u2013 and that\u2019s why I ended up doing a second contribution, because they showed they were trustworthy and they can execute.\u201d<\/p>\n That second contribution would be touted as one of the largest in the history of college sports.<\/p>\n It was the $300 million donation announced in August 2025, right after the Lawrence City Commission approved a variety of financial incentives<\/a> for the Gateway, and right before the first home game was played in the renovated David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium against Fresno State.<\/a> The Jayhawks hadn\u2019t gone to a bowl game in 2024, but the previous two years they\u2019d had back-to-back bowl appearances, including their Guaranteed Rate Bowl victory in 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n Seventy-five million of Booth\u2019s gift is for the second phase of the Gateway. The rest of the $300 million is to help KU deal with \u201ccontinued changes in NCAA and conference dynamics\u201d and the recent implementation of revenue sharing with athletes.<\/p>\n Booth said the Gateway has been a massive project, and one that people might not realize the difficulty of. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s huge! It\u2019s city, state funding, alumni support, a heck of a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n When it\u2019s all finished, there should be a \u201cripple effect\u201d that lifts the whole city, he thinks. He\u2019s already seeing that in the new convention space. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a conference center comparable to the one they put in anywhere near here,\u201d he said, and he heard the book launch was the first time the space had hosted a capacity crowd.<\/p>\n It\u2019s seeing this that gives him confidence that bigger things are ahead for KU.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see the way it\u2019s emerged and the quality of leadership and ability to execute, and all of a sudden I think it\u2019s kind of an informed optimism,\u201d Booth said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what gives you hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
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photo by: Sylas May\/Journal-World
KU alumnus and donor David Booth stands with a display…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[357561,223,88,357562,357563,30344],"class_list":["post-844795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-as-ku-donor-david-booth-launches-new-book","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-he-talks-about-staying-invested-in-the-market-and-in-lawrenceku-football","tag-he-talks-about-staying-invested-in-the-market-and-in-lawrenceku-men","tag-ku"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}