When I began investing, I was starting from a knowledge base of zero.

One of the first books I read was The Motley Fool's Rule Breakers, Rule Makers. In it, Motley Fool co-founder Tom Gardner laid out specific criteria for crowning a company a "Rule Maker." That is, a large, mature, consumer-facing company that's king of its market space, and an investment that can be confidently and profitably held for years with only quarterly check-ins.

His step-by-step process for analyzing a business was an easily understandable way for a beginner like me to quickly get up to speed, but its back-to-basics methodology will benefit even advanced investors. Today we're going to run organic supermarket chain Whole Foods (Nasdaq: WFM ) through Tom's merciless gauntlet and see if it has what it takes to make the Rule-Maker grade.

Full disclosure: I own shares of WFM, and intend to be more-- but only after there's a significant pullback in the stock price.