0:00

You're listening to TIP. On

0:03

today's episode, my co-host Kyle Grieve and I give

0:05

a recap of the 2024 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders

0:08

meeting and share our favorite clips from

0:11

the Q&A session with Warren Buffett, Greg

0:13

Abel, and Ajit Jain. As

0:15

always, we had an incredible time in Omaha

0:17

and really enjoyed networking with a ton of

0:19

people from the TIP audience. During

0:22

this episode, we'll cover what we did

0:24

in Omaha, the tribute Berkshire did for

0:26

Charlie Munger, and our four favorite clips

0:28

from the Q&A session which cover how

0:30

Warren would spend one more day with

0:32

Charlie Munger, how Berkshire's managers communicate with

0:34

Warren, Greg, and Ajit, the

0:36

future of capital allocation at Berkshire, and

0:38

how Buffett would invest if he were

0:40

managing a smaller pool of capital. I

0:42

hope you enjoy it. You

0:48

are listening to the Investors Podcast. Since

0:51

2014, we studied the financial markets and

0:53

read the books that influenced self-made billionaires

0:55

the most. We keep you

0:57

informed and prepared for the unexpected. Now

1:00

for your hosts, Clay Fink

1:03

and Kyle Grieve. Hey

1:13

everyone, welcome to the Investors Podcast. I'm

1:15

your host, Clay Fink. And today, I'm

1:18

joined by my co-host, Kyle Grieve. Kyle

1:21

and I just got back from Omaha for

1:23

the Berkshire weekend. As always, we had an

1:25

amazing time. So TIP, every year we put

1:27

out an episode where we really just give

1:30

a recap of the weekend and share some

1:32

of our biggest takeaways. I know a lot

1:34

of audience members really enjoy it. So

1:37

look forward to doing that yet again this

1:39

year. Kyle was kind enough to

1:41

join me to take some time out of

1:43

his day after just getting back from Omaha

1:45

to Vancouver, and I really appreciate him joining

1:47

me. So to give a bit

1:49

of an outline for this episode, we'll be breaking it

1:51

up into three parts to give you a sense of

1:53

where we're going here. So part one,

1:55

we're just going to talk about the weekend more broadly, what

1:58

Kyle and I did, and what we liked about it. about

2:00

the weekend in Omaha. Part two, we'll be

2:02

talking about the legacy of Charlie Munger and

2:04

the tribute that Berkshire gave for him. And

2:06

then part three, we're going to be pulling

2:09

some of the most interesting clips from the

2:11

Q&A session with Buffett, Greg Gable, and Ajit

2:13

Jain from the meeting, and then

2:16

sharing some of our thoughts around that. So this

2:18

was actually my fifth time attending the Berkshire meeting.

2:20

And it seems like it just gets better and

2:22

better every year. It was my

2:24

third time attending as a member of the team

2:26

here at TIP. So Kyle, I'm

2:28

curious for you. This was your very first

2:30

time visiting Omaha. So I'm curious to get

2:32

your thoughts on the overall weekend. Yeah.

2:36

So like you pointed out, this is my first time.

2:38

So I didn't really know what to expect, but I

2:41

had so much fun. I guess I shouldn't

2:43

be surprised because of the event we did

2:45

in New York being around so many investors.

2:47

But this was just like that, but multiply

2:49

that by a couple of thousand. So it

2:51

was an incredible experience. I mean, there were

2:53

so many interesting things we did. So for

2:55

TIP, we had a couple of community events,

2:57

which we'll be going over later. I got

2:59

a chance to meet some super, super interesting

3:01

people, whether that was through like Monique Fabry's

3:03

event, Markel Group. There were some super, super

3:05

cool guests that there. And they were talking

3:07

about a variety of incredible subjects. Got to

3:09

see, obviously, my investing role models.

3:11

Like I just said, Monique Fabry, Warren Buffett, although

3:13

I wish I could have talked to Warren, but

3:15

I understand that I can't do that. And then

3:17

the fact that the meeting takes place wasn't

3:20

even necessarily my favorite part. Yeah, I

3:22

really did enjoy the annual meeting, but

3:24

my favorite part was definitely just the

3:27

events surrounding it and just kind of

3:29

the general feeling in Omaha

3:31

around it where everyone's just there to

3:33

learn, have some fun and kind of meld

3:35

the two and then also network with other

3:37

people and learn more interesting investing concepts from

3:39

super interesting people. But the problem with that

3:42

obviously was during the Berkshire

3:44

Hathaway annual meeting, people were trying

3:46

to be quiet, right? Because you have Warren Buffett talking, you

3:48

don't want to disrupt other people learning from them. And especially

3:50

where I was seated, didn't have the best seats because it

3:52

was hard to get good ones. We were in the back

3:54

and the audio wasn't that good. So we just had to

3:56

keep it on the hush. So the events

3:58

around it were probably the highlights. for me.

4:00

And then yeah, I mean, the event still, I

4:02

had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed going

4:04

down to the event center at the bottom floor

4:06

there and seeing all the cool products that Berkshire

4:08

has. So yeah, I mean, it was

4:11

an incredible experience. And I'm looking forward to going back

4:13

again. You hit the

4:15

nail on the head on the Berkshire event. It's fun

4:17

to go, but fun to see Warren fun to get

4:19

in line bright and early with community members

4:21

and such. But just a lot of the

4:23

questions are not that great. They don't vet

4:25

the questions. So I think people really appreciate

4:27

us putting together this episode and kind of

4:29

pulling our favorite ones so they don't have

4:31

to go through all the questions themselves. And

4:34

you're also right that there's just so

4:36

many fun things going on during the

4:38

Berkshire weekend. A lot of people ask

4:40

us what events we recommend and there's

4:42

just so many events happening. I can

4:44

share the couple that I go to,

4:46

but there's just so many different things

4:48

happening and people have to decide between

4:50

events because a lot of them are happening at

4:53

the exact same time. I think Monish and Guy each

4:55

had the event essentially at

4:57

the same time. And Omaha isn't

4:59

always like this. I used to live in

5:01

Omaha and I can tell you that it's

5:03

not one of the most exciting places to

5:05

live, but during the Berkshire weekend, there's a

5:08

lot happening. And this year was actually the

5:10

first time I attended Monish's talk and I

5:12

really enjoyed that. He actually shared some insights

5:14

that I've never heard from him before. Insights

5:16

related to intrinsic value and finding

5:19

wonderful businesses to invest in and

5:21

I absolutely love that discussion. And

5:23

as an added bonus, you and I got to meet them, shake

5:26

hands with them and grab a photo with them. So that was

5:28

definitely fun too. And as I

5:30

said earlier, it just feels like each year

5:32

you go, it just gets more and more

5:34

fun. This is my fifth year and I

5:37

think it just gets better because your relationships

5:39

really compound, your network compounds and you get

5:41

to know people better and better and you

5:43

learn really how to make the most out

5:46

of the weekend. So some of the highlights

5:48

for me were definitely meeting and listening to

5:50

Monish Pabrai at the University of Nebraska Omaha.

5:52

I believe he does a talk every

5:54

year. Hopefully he'll keep doing that and

5:56

it's absolutely free. And then I organized

5:58

our Berkshire Yosemite So we

6:01

had eight wonderful attendees from the

6:03

audience join and do various

6:05

things with me throughout the weekend And we

6:07

ended up connecting with many of the guests

6:09

we've had on the show We had the

6:11

Saturday night dinner with William Green, Guy Spear

6:13

and many of the guests we've had on

6:16

the show So that was just really for

6:18

me and unforgettable experience. And then of course

6:20

people really enjoy Going to

6:22

the CHI Center seeing Buffett and being a

6:24

part of history But I

6:26

think what really makes Omaha memorable is

6:29

the events that are around

6:31

the Berkshire Meeting which you

6:33

alluded to and I'm also terribly biased

6:35

because TIP hosts a number of the events

6:37

throughout the weekend We are

6:39

socials for the TIP mastermind community that you

6:42

hosted Kyle and then I hosted the Berkshire

6:44

Summit Which was a smaller event I put

6:46

on for eight members of the audience So

6:48

you have the two socials for the TIP

6:50

mastermind community. What were some of your takeaways

6:52

from that event? Yeah,

6:54

the socials were honestly they were my favorite events.

6:56

They were it was so good because We

6:59

have this community of people where we do everything online,

7:02

right? And we do get to meet up twice a

7:04

year and this was one of the Opportunities and it

7:06

was just so much better to meet them in person

7:08

and really get to know them and ask tons of

7:10

questions and see Them face to face So I got

7:13

to speak to pretty much all the members in the

7:15

group whether that might be an individual setting or in

7:17

group setting And so I really got to

7:19

learn about each and every one of them, you

7:21

know Their backgrounds what they do for work what

7:23

they like to invest in and so that was

7:25

super powerful Just meeting them in person and getting

7:27

to see how they really are, you know outside

7:30

of being on the internet So just

7:32

a couple cool things that I got from that was

7:34

my relationships with some some of the members of our

7:36

closer you know a lot of these people I consider

7:38

my friends and would love to hang out with and

7:40

we sometimes we branch off and hang out with just

7:42

in smaller groups during Berkshire for instance went to lunch

7:44

with some of the Community members and

7:46

had a blast learn more about their individual backgrounds

7:48

Which is really cool because part of the reason

7:50

I like to hear so much is that I

7:52

can Happen to them to learn more about different

7:54

industries where I'm not really exposed to and then

7:56

all of our members are vetted Right and they're

7:58

all really high quality people So they brought

8:00

some friends, family, their spouses, and got to

8:03

meet them. And they were also obviously very

8:05

high quality people. So that was really fun.

8:07

Interacting with their guests as well. One of

8:10

our members, for instance, is a small cap

8:12

global fund manager. I had a blast learning

8:14

from her. We were in line for Berkshire

8:17

and she was just telling me all about all

8:19

of her experiences, traveling around the world, looking at

8:21

all these small caps, going to India, Singapore, China,

8:24

everywhere. So I learned so much from her and

8:26

listening to her talk about that. And then the

8:28

thing that was cool, she brought her husband who

8:30

used to be an investment banker and mergers and

8:32

acquisitions. And he had all sorts of really cool

8:34

things to add. And obviously, I love M&A. So

8:37

it was super interesting learning for both of them.

8:39

And then the really cool part about the weekend

8:41

was also just learning from members where this was

8:44

their first time being part of the community and

8:46

getting to learn how the event changed being part

8:48

of the community versus prior years. So a lot

8:50

of the people that were there had gone, for

8:52

instance, like last year and basically just went to

8:55

the annual meeting. And that was basically the entire

8:57

trip. They didn't really get to socialize with other

8:59

people or go to all these other events. So

9:01

it was really fun enabling people

9:03

to socialize with each other, build these

9:05

really cool connections, find like-minded people and

9:08

bring them together so that they had a much much

9:10

better experience. And I know for a fact, because they

9:12

told me that like this time has been so much

9:14

better than last time because I got to meet a

9:16

bunch of cool people. I found out about all these

9:18

cool events, going for lunch, going for dinner. So I

9:20

was just really happy that we were able to provide

9:23

so much value to our community members. The

9:26

point you made there is really so, so

9:28

important because it just resonates with me. The

9:30

first two meetings I went to, I

9:33

was just pretty much a lone wolf. I

9:35

just happened to live in Omaha, knew that

9:37

the Berkshire meeting was happened, knew a buffet

9:39

had made for himself and being naturally an

9:41

introvert and being much younger at the time.

9:43

The last thing I really want to do

9:45

is go into a crowd and walk up

9:47

to some random person I don't know and

9:49

just spark up a conversation. So having that

9:51

community, it's not only you're attending the Berkshire

9:53

meeting, but you also have a connected online,

9:55

connected through the forums and on calls and

9:57

such and seeing them comment on the forum

9:59

and everything. And having

10:01

that sort of network to tap into

10:03

is really invaluable and can help open

10:05

you up to really fully experience and

10:07

enjoy what Omaha can offer during the

10:09

Berkshire weekend. And I agree too

10:12

that it's just really fulfilling to help provide

10:14

that to people because I've just been in

10:16

their shoes and it's not easy to go

10:18

up to an event where you don't know

10:20

anyone. It's just sort of awkward and

10:22

it's like your natural instinct is just sort of going

10:24

to a shell. At least it is for me as

10:26

an introvert. I don't know. You're extroverted than me,

10:28

Kyle, so I can't speak for you. But when

10:31

you sort of encourage people to go, assure

10:33

them that wonderful people are going to be

10:35

there that really want to network. It really

10:38

makes it easier to book the trip, make

10:40

the leap, and just go. And plus

10:42

for members of our mastermind community,

10:45

essentially all of them have hopped on calls with

10:47

you and I, one-on-one calls. So we have relationships

10:49

with them and it just makes it much easier.

10:52

And you already have a sense of who's going

10:54

to be at the events because we have that

10:56

forum and the Zoom calls. So

10:58

next I wanted to transition to Part

11:00

2 here to talk about Charlie Munger.

11:04

Everyone was really looking forward to the tribute

11:06

that Berkshire was going to do. So Thursday

11:08

night and Friday, a lot of people were

11:10

talking about the movie they were going to

11:12

be playing. So Berkshire always plays

11:14

a movie at the event, usually

11:16

at 8.30am. But in

11:18

prior years, it was never released to the

11:21

public and Berkshire had announced that this was

11:23

the first year they were going to live

11:25

stream it and make it public because it

11:27

featured a tribute to Charlie Munger. And Buffett

11:29

actually mentioned this was like a logistical nightmare

11:31

in terms of the copyright and infringement and

11:33

all that jazz because they played all these

11:36

sorts of videos and how to get permission

11:38

from countless counterparties there.

11:40

But the tribute was around 30 minutes

11:42

long and it really showcased the

11:45

very special relationship that Warren and

11:47

Charlie had, which lasted 65 years.

11:51

I had talked with a number of people

11:53

after the meeting how some people sort of envy

11:55

the relationship that they have in the 65

11:57

years of... just

12:00

having a partner and having a best friend and

12:02

just sort of lifting each other up for that

12:04

long. It just has led to tremendous amounts of

12:06

compounding, not just financially. So the two met when

12:08

Buffett was 29 and Munger was 35. And I

12:10

really love the story of how they

12:14

met. So Buffett was chatting with a potential

12:16

investor in the early partnership

12:18

days. He only had $500,000 in the

12:21

partnership, which is just tiny compared to

12:23

what it eventually led to. Buffett

12:25

was telling the guy all about his

12:27

strategy and how he plans to put

12:29

the money to work. And the guy

12:31

really wasn't listening at all. But he

12:33

ended up giving Buffett $100,000 and

12:37

Buffett was just sort of confused. He just asked him,

12:39

I don't even think you were listening to me. Why

12:41

did you give me $100,000? And all he said was,

12:43

you reminded me of Charlie Munger, who Buffett

12:46

had no idea who that was at the

12:48

time, but he liked the sound of that.

12:50

And the family ended up being a like

12:53

Charlie Munger sort of second family that he

12:55

was really close to. And the two eventually

12:58

got introduced and they hit it off from

13:00

the very beginning. And one of my very

13:02

favorite clips from that tribute was Munger talking

13:04

about how people look at Berkshire and they

13:06

think that Buffett and Munger found some trick.

13:09

And the way Munger put it is

13:12

that the simple trick was just avoiding

13:14

standard stupidities. And it really just became

13:17

a place where rationality just totally became

13:19

prevalent. One of

13:21

the highlights for me of that long 30

13:23

minute clip was Becky Quick chatting with Charlie

13:26

Munger. I think it was pretty recently, just

13:28

about how Charlie had been around for nearly

13:30

a century of human history. And Charlie had

13:32

a really cool insight there where he pointed

13:35

out that not only had he been around

13:37

for the last 100 years, but he was

13:39

born into a previous century where the world

13:41

was really being pulled forward in terms of

13:44

transportation, communication, economics, modern biology and medicine. I

13:47

think Charlie really knew how lucky

13:49

that he was to be born at the

13:51

time he was when innovation was rapidly increasing

13:53

the output of the entire world. And so

13:56

I think he was able to really see

13:58

that for himself all this insight. innovation

14:00

was happening in his early years and that he

14:02

was able to really take advantage of that throughout

14:04

his entire life. So the Highlight

14:06

Reel also just had some really good one-liners

14:08

that were highly amusing and insightful. So

14:11

one of my favorites was, quote, those of you

14:13

who are about to enter business school or are

14:15

already there, I recommend you learn to do it

14:17

our way. But at least until you're out of

14:19

school, you have to pretend to do it their

14:21

way, unquote. So this clip was from 2011. It's

14:24

a classic mongerism and granted, it's

14:26

almost 15 years old. So

14:29

I don't think his stance would have changed

14:31

that much since he said that. So Warren

14:33

also had another really good insight into Charlie

14:35

that he described the difference between

14:37

how he and Charlie thought. So Warren

14:40

discussed how when he was thinking about

14:42

just things in general, he just wanted to know if something

14:44

works. Did it work or did it not work? And

14:47

that was kind of it. But in contrast

14:49

with Charlie, Charlie wanted to know how things

14:51

worked. So Warren mentioned that Charlie picked this

14:54

trade out from Benjamin Franklin and that learning

14:56

how the world work was just a massive

14:58

driving force to the success of Charlie Munger.

15:00

And I know it's obviously one of the

15:03

biggest strengths that Charlie has if you listen

15:05

to the show for any period of time.

15:07

We talk about mental models and multidisciplinary thinking

15:10

and we all got it from Charlie Munger.

15:12

He's the one who really popularized it. And

15:14

realistically talking though, I don't think necessarily thinking

15:16

that way is for everyone and like

15:19

Warren said, I think Warren I think is a

15:21

brilliant person but he doesn't really necessarily think that

15:23

way. He's more just, does it work? Yes, no.

15:26

I think Warren obviously is a pretty broad thinker, maybe

15:28

not as broad as Charlie but he made the point

15:30

that his thinking is more narrow. So yeah,

15:33

that was my main point. And I just

15:35

think that Charlie showed specifically in terms of

15:37

thinking at this level how important that it

15:39

could be to master it, to build not

15:41

just wealth but also your wisdom as well.

15:45

I also thought it was really funny

15:47

how Buffett when he originally bought Berkshire

15:49

in the 60s, it was a textile

15:51

mill back then and Munger told him

15:53

he was making a massive mistake, which

15:55

it was and it just points to

15:57

the brilliance and recognizing that even

15:59

the greatest and investor in the world was

16:01

making. Munger is just calling him out on

16:04

a big mistake. And that was a big bet for

16:06

Buffett at the time. And instead of sitting back and

16:09

let Buffett deal with that sort of mess,

16:11

he ended up partnering with him and

16:14

helping him improve upon what he had. And

16:17

not only that, I think what's even more

16:19

amazing is that he had the humility to

16:21

essentially let Buffett be

16:23

seen as the head honcho and Munger

16:25

be the sidekick to Buffett's

16:27

running the show. The

16:30

success of Berkshire to a large extent

16:32

is a result of Charlie's brilliance. And

16:34

I also loved how Munger talked about

16:36

how the Berkshire meeting has developed over

16:39

the years. Initially, it had

16:41

like 30 attendees and just grew and grew

16:43

over the years. And nowadays, Munger referred to

16:45

it as a celebration, which I thought was

16:47

a really cool way of putting it. He

16:50

said that a celebration is part of making a

16:52

group of people work well together. And I just

16:55

really loved that. I think the

16:57

best companies have these celebrations of

17:00

looking back at what's brought them to

17:02

today and celebrate sort of the people

17:04

you surround yourselves with because it's the living

17:07

in the moment, living in the present that really

17:09

just makes life sort of special in a way.

17:11

And having these celebrations helps make life more

17:14

fun. And what good is doing

17:16

well in life if you never take the time

17:18

to reflect on what you've achieved and when you

17:20

go to the CHI center and see 40,000 people.

17:23

I looked up and every seat was

17:25

taken. So 40,000 people attending that celebration

17:28

and think about what that says about

17:30

that company's culture. All these

17:32

people, many of them travel thousands of miles

17:34

to Omaha, of all places in the

17:36

world. It really just points to how special of a

17:38

celebration this is. And you can really get a sense

17:40

of how so many of us

17:43

are just sort of clinging to what Berkshire

17:45

was and what we had with Munger

17:47

and what we still have left with

17:49

Buffett because we know eventually that the

17:51

celebration won't be the same someday.

17:54

We don't know what year that's going to be.

17:56

And there's a lot of talk throughout the weekend

17:58

on if people still come after. Buffett

18:00

eventually passes but a lot

18:03

of people are just sort of clinging to that celebration that

18:05

we still have today. I

18:07

completely agree with you that Berkshire Hathaway annual

18:09

meeting is more of a celebration than anything

18:12

else like Charlie alluded to. But the thing

18:14

that's interesting is it celebrates Berkshire Hathaway in

18:16

a variety of ways. The history of the

18:18

business, its shareholders, the quality

18:21

of the business, its superb corporate governance

18:23

and just rational thinking that Charlie and

18:25

Warren were so well known

18:27

for. I'm sure there's obviously many other aspects that you could

18:29

be added that are well celebrated but these are the ones

18:32

that have stood out the most to me. I want to

18:34

pivot just to how Warren

18:36

brought this point up about Charlie

18:38

being the architect of Berkshire. I

18:41

thought Warren perfectly articulated how Munger was

18:43

the architect of the Berkshire Hathaway that

18:45

we now see today, not the one

18:47

that he criticized him on originally. Warren

18:50

Buffett, when he was talking about Charlie

18:52

Munger, he did not refer to himself

18:55

as an architect of Berkshire Hathaway. Instead,

18:57

he basically lumped himself in as a

18:59

carpenter. So he just briefly said carpenters

19:01

are needed to execute the architect's grand

19:04

vision but they don't actually create the

19:06

blueprint of the final product themselves. Charlie

19:08

was the one who did that. I

19:10

think just the way Warren said this just goes to

19:12

show you how modest he is and how

19:15

good obviously Warren is at giving

19:17

credit to other people while highly

19:19

underestimating his own impact. I

19:22

think it also points to the importance of

19:24

expanding your knowledge into other

19:26

areas like Charlie did. Warren

19:29

said he was more narrow in his

19:31

focus whereas Charlie is seen studying

19:33

all these different disciplines that aren't even close

19:35

to related to investing. So

19:38

next, I wanted to transition here to part three

19:41

of our episode where we're going to be

19:43

pulling clips and then the

19:45

clips that Kyle and I found to be

19:47

most interesting in sharing here. So as always,

19:49

the first thing that stood out to me

19:51

was Buffett was really as sharp as ever.

19:54

It's honestly hard to believe that he's 93

19:56

years old and he's spending eight or nine

19:59

hours on it. on stage answering

20:01

questions, conducting business. This

20:03

is my fifth shareholder meeting I've attended. And

20:05

I remember at least a time or two

20:07

in previous years where you could really see

20:09

his age showing through, but I think this

20:11

year I was, I was really impressed with

20:13

his energy and the depth of his answers

20:16

throughout the day. So before we get to

20:18

the Q and A session, they cover the

20:20

most recent quarter and some of the things

20:22

that happened. And I think the biggest thing

20:24

worth mentioning here was Berkshire trimmed their position

20:26

in Apple. He trimmed it by 13%, which

20:28

might not sound like a lot, but it

20:31

was 116 million shares worth $21 billion. And

20:36

I'm not exactly sure what price that

20:38

may have been. I calculated the 21

20:40

billion based on around 185, but

20:42

there were some points in the quarter where it was below that. And

20:45

I think this is worth taking note here because

20:47

Berkshire's cash pile was 180 billion.

20:50

You know, that's just a massive cash tranche.

20:52

So it's not like he really needed

20:54

the cash. You know, he has plenty

20:57

of extra cash. So I think it

20:59

points to where they're seeing the valuation

21:01

for Apple, how they're viewing sort of

21:03

the current market conditions. And I think

21:05

Buffett really likes the 5% yield he's

21:07

getting out a lot of his cash.

21:09

So for the first clip, it's often

21:11

said that people get attracted to Buffett

21:13

and Munger for the investing side and

21:15

to try and make money. I know

21:17

that was definitely me. And then many

21:19

stick around for the other aspects.

21:21

So the topics really related to life

21:24

and how we can live a

21:26

good and meaningful life. And

21:28

I wanted to start with a question that it's

21:30

funny. It seems like on all these

21:33

episodes we do, there's always at least one question

21:35

from a child because they ask the questions that

21:37

adults don't want to ask. So

21:39

that's the one we're starting with today. So

21:41

I'll just go ahead and play the clip here and we'll

21:43

share our thoughts after. Hi,

21:46

my name is Ang and you're Nickus. And

21:49

I'm wondering if you had one more day

21:51

with Charlie, what would you do with him?

21:57

Yeah. Well,

22:04

it's kind of interesting because in effect I did have

22:07

one more day. I mean it wasn't a full

22:09

day or anything but we

22:11

always lived in a way where

22:13

we were happy with what we

22:15

were doing every day. I mean

22:17

Charlie liked learning. He

22:19

liked, as I mentioned

22:22

in the movie, he liked a wide variety

22:24

of things. So he was much broader than

22:26

I was but I didn't have any great

22:28

desire to be as broad as he was

22:30

and he didn't have any great desire to

22:32

be as narrow as I was. But we

22:34

had a lot of fun doing

22:36

anything and we

22:39

played golf together, we played tennis together,

22:41

we did everything together. And

22:43

this you may find kind of interesting.

22:46

We had as much fun, perhaps even

22:48

more to some extent, with things that

22:50

failed because then we really had to

22:52

work and work our way out

22:54

of them. And in a sense

22:57

there's more fun having somebody that's

22:59

your partner and digging your way

23:01

out of a foxhole than there

23:04

is just sitting there and watching

23:07

an idea that you got ten years ago

23:09

just continually produce more and more profit. So

23:12

it wasn't, you know,

23:15

he really fooled me though. He

23:18

went to 99.9 years. I

23:21

mean if you'd picked two guys,

23:24

you know, he never, he

23:26

publicly said he never did a day

23:29

of exercise except where it was required when he

23:31

was in the Army. So he never did

23:33

a day of voluntary exercise. He

23:35

never thought about what he ate. You

23:38

know, we started every day

23:40

and Charlie had, he

23:42

was interested in more things than I

23:44

was, but we never

23:46

had any doubts about

23:49

the other person, period. And

23:52

so if I'd had another day with him, we'd probably

23:54

have done the same thing. We were doing the earlier

23:56

days, but when, and we wouldn't have wanted another, we

23:58

only had one day. There's

24:01

a great advantage in not knowing what day

24:03

you're going to die. And

24:08

Charlie always said, you know, just

24:10

tell me where I'm going to

24:12

die so I'll never go there. Well,

24:17

it's the truth is, you know,

24:21

he went everywhere with his mind

24:23

and therefore he was

24:25

not only interested in the

24:28

world at 99, but

24:30

the world was interested in him. It's

24:33

remarkable. You know, I went, I

24:36

told him toward that in the last

24:38

few years. I'd never seen anybody that

24:41

was peaking, you know, at

24:43

99 and where the world wanted to come

24:50

and see him. I mean, they actually wanted

24:52

to go out to 351 North Ewan Street

24:55

and whether it was, well

24:57

I could name a whole bunch of names, but

24:59

I'll start with the Long Musker, but been on

25:01

the list and they all wanted

25:03

to meet Charlie and Charlie was happy to

25:06

talk with him and the

25:09

only person I could think

25:11

of otherwise was the Dalai Lama. I don't

25:14

know that they had a lot else in common, but

25:19

it was, he lived his life the way he wanted

25:21

to and he

25:23

got to say when he wanted to say he, like

25:26

I, loved having a podium

25:30

and again, I can't

25:32

remember any time that

25:34

he was mad at me or I was mad at him,

25:36

it just didn't happen and calling him

25:38

was fun back when long

25:41

distance rates were high and we didn't

25:43

talk as often as the

25:45

years, in recent years as

25:48

we used to be on daily for long

25:50

periods and we did keep learning and we

25:52

liked learning together, but you know, we tended

25:54

to be a little smarter because, well, as

25:57

the years went on, we had a lot

25:59

of fun. went by because we had mistakes

26:01

and we had other things that we

26:03

learned something and the fact that

26:05

he and I were on the same wavelength in

26:07

that respect meant that the world was still a

26:10

very interesting place to us when he got to

26:12

be 99 and I got to be 93. So

26:16

I don't have appropriate answer for you there

26:18

but I can tell you the ingredients that

26:20

we'd go into. Sometimes

26:23

people would say to me or

26:25

Charlie at one of these meetings, you know, if you could only

26:27

have lunch with one

26:30

person that lived over the last

26:32

2000 or so years, you know, who would you want

26:34

to have it with? Charlie

26:36

says, I've already met all of them, you know, because he

26:39

read all the books. I mean, he eliminated

26:41

all the trouble of going to restaurants to

26:43

meet him or anything like that. He

26:47

just went through a book and he

26:49

met Ben Franklin and he really, it

26:52

was remarkable. He said

26:54

he had no one else to meet because he'd

26:56

read all their stuff and he liked Ben Franklin's

26:58

stuff better than he liked mine but with Ben

27:00

Franklin he just had to read about it and

27:02

didn't have to go have lunch with him or

27:04

anything of the sort. It's an

27:06

interesting question. What you should probably ask

27:08

yourself is that who do you feel that

27:11

you'd want to start spending the last

27:13

day of your life with and then

27:16

figure out a way to start

27:18

meeting him tomorrow

27:21

and meet him as often as you

27:23

can. That's why I waited the last

27:25

day and go and

27:28

bother with the others. Thanks

27:49

for watching. defining

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30:40

back to the show. I

30:42

really enjoyed this question from the

30:44

kid and Warren's answer. I thought,

30:46

yeah, I mean like Clay said,

30:48

kids can just ask questions that

30:51

adults won't say. I remember when he asked

30:53

that the whole audience was like, oh, it's

30:55

so cute. So I think that Charlie obviously

30:57

liked learning a wide variety of things and

30:59

he was more broad than Warren like we've

31:01

kind of discussed already. But I

31:04

just think that this also shows that you

31:06

can succeed in both being a broad thinker

31:08

like Charlie or a more narrow thinker like

31:10

Warren. So a couple of just other points

31:12

that he made that really stood out to

31:15

me was how Warren talked about how they

31:17

had fun doing like anything. So you know,

31:19

Warren and Charlie both stressed the importance of

31:21

doing business with people that you like. So

31:24

I think that if Warren and Charlie hadn't had

31:26

so much fun together, their business relationship probably wouldn't

31:28

have played out the way it did. But we're

31:30

lucky that it did. Another thing that

31:32

Warren's talked about was their failures and how they

31:34

had more fun with their failures than they did

31:37

with their successes. So this part just

31:39

really stood out to me. It's super easy for

31:41

anyone to just relive their successes and pat themselves

31:43

on the back. And there's nothing

31:45

wrong with doing that a certain period of time.

31:47

But the problem with it is that the biggest

31:49

life lessons that we can learn aren't really from

31:52

our successes. It's learned through our

31:54

failures and making sure that we

31:56

don't continue making them into the future. And

31:58

so I think Charlie... was he said

32:01

any year that goes by is wasted if

32:03

you don't destroy one of your most cherished

32:05

beliefs. And so, you know,

32:07

Charlie was a master at self-reflection and

32:09

he was actively trying to get better

32:11

by removing mistakes and thinking processes that

32:13

he really cherished and that was how

32:16

he thought. So another thing that really

32:18

stood out to me there was how Warren pointed

32:20

out that Charlie was peaking at 99,

32:22

which is completely unheard of.

32:24

So I would say that Charlie would probably

32:26

agree with me that he was probably lucky

32:28

to live as long as he did and

32:31

stay as sharp as he did. Just if

32:33

you're looking at the average person

32:35

his age, a lot of them go through

32:37

all sorts of drop-offs and mental acuity that

32:39

he never went through. So in

32:41

terms of longevity, I don't know how many lessons we

32:43

could take because Buffett did mention that Charlie basically didn't

32:46

exercise other than what he was forced to do I

32:48

think when he was in the military and that he

32:50

also ate whatever he wanted. So, you know, I don't

32:52

know how many lessons we can get from there. But

32:54

regarding Warren talking about Charlie and his love of the

32:57

podium, I thought that this was

32:59

also really powerful because obviously while they're

33:01

both kind of humble, I

33:03

think they both really enjoy the spotlight specifically

33:05

because they get to share their knowledge and

33:07

wisdom with the world just in the hopes

33:09

that someone will find it useful. And obviously,

33:11

I think they know probably a lot of

33:13

people find it useful. But Warren mentioned that

33:15

Charlie wanted to be useful to society. That

33:17

was just one of his biggest goals in

33:19

life. And I think having the podium was

33:21

just a really good way just for the

33:23

two of them to be as useful to

33:25

society as they could possibly be. So the

33:27

last one here, I really enjoyed Warren's point

33:29

here about finding who you want to spend

33:32

your last day of life with and then

33:34

figuring out just how to meet that person as

33:36

soon as possible and then maximize your time you

33:38

want to spend with them. I think if we

33:40

all attempted to do this, we would probably have

33:42

much higher quality and meaningful relationships with people that

33:44

we can grow with. Yeah,

33:47

if there was one takeaway in

33:49

Charlie living to age 99 and being as

33:51

sharp as he did, I think

33:53

Monish mentioned that he was like placing a

33:56

trade like the Friday before he passed. Placing

33:58

trades was just insane. I think

34:01

the biggest takeaway for me from

34:03

that is truly enjoying what you

34:05

do. So we always

34:07

talked about on the show how financial independence

34:10

was something super, super important to him. And

34:13

to be able to live your days really however

34:15

you want, you have to be financially independent.

34:17

So he got that somewhere around age 30, early

34:19

30, something like that. And that was an inspiration

34:21

from Benjamin Franklin. And then really just lived and

34:24

structured the rest of his life exactly how he

34:26

wanted it to be and just got to do

34:28

exactly what he wanted to do. And I'm not

34:30

quite convinced that drinking Coca-Cola and eating peanut

34:32

bread all day is going to help with Kyle

34:35

and I's longevity. So to

34:37

your point on relationships and

34:41

thinking back of how you want to spend

34:43

the last day of your life and then

34:45

spending more day with those people, this is

34:47

something I personally really struggle with. So over

34:49

the past couple of years, I've met just

34:51

some amazing like-minded people that I honestly

34:53

just want to spend more time with.

34:55

But my problem is that none of

34:58

them live within 100 miles of where

35:00

I live. Many

35:02

are thousands of miles away. And it's

35:04

interesting because we're talking about Warren and

35:07

Charlie. Charlie didn't live in Omaha. He

35:09

lived in California, I believe, and

35:11

they're very far away from each other. And

35:13

I'd be interested to know how often they

35:15

saw each other in person and how often

35:17

they interacted on the phone because I doubt

35:19

they did many Zoom calls. I don't know

35:22

if you have any comments there you want to add. Yeah,

35:25

I see your point. I mean, I guess,

35:27

at least with Charlie, he kind of looked

35:30

at Benjamin Franklin, of course, was one of

35:32

his biggest mentors who he never got to

35:34

meet in person and got to learn all

35:36

these things. And I'm sure if he could

35:38

have spent time with him, he probably would have. But looking

35:41

Back, it would have been really hard to spend

35:43

time with those types of people just because maybe

35:45

they're in a different state or a different country

35:47

or whatever. But I Think that probably having relationships

35:50

with people, whether it's, I Guess you kind of

35:52

got to take what you can get. If it's

35:54

just on the phone or over Zoom calls, that's

35:56

great. And I Think if you have a really

35:59

good relationship and... It blossoms from their you

36:01

open up other opportunities hopefully to meet them in

36:03

person. I mean I'm I'm kind of same as

36:05

you. I struggle with the same thing so I'm

36:07

just gonna. I'm just thinking of ideas for how

36:09

how that kid that work out in the future.

36:12

Yeah. Another interesting insight as sort of

36:14

came to recently is especially for men.

36:16

I'd say gov women are much more

36:18

naturally able to. He has stay connected

36:20

in build relationships are as men it's

36:23

much more difficult where you know you

36:25

might be connected with someone just a

36:27

few times a year with someone I

36:29

you consider really good friend. And while

36:31

the conclusions I sorta came to his,

36:33

it's really how thaws you're working together

36:35

toward some sort of goal if you

36:37

look at what types of men have

36:40

the closest relationships. I think oftentimes people

36:42

in the military. Have like the

36:44

closest bonds that just last a lifetime

36:46

because whether they went through some sort

36:48

of training together and whether they went

36:50

overseas and actually went out to battle

36:52

and stuff like that like going out

36:54

and having some sort as goal you're

36:56

working towards together and working together in

36:59

achieving that. And that's why you see

37:01

many people within companies become really good

37:03

friends. or I oftentimes sports teams is

37:05

another example where people really builders close

37:07

bond. So that's ties. And well again

37:09

with Morning Charlie, were sixty five years

37:11

of doing business together. Is just

37:13

amazing feat Salt or turn to the

37:16

next question here in relation to Berkshires

37:18

operations in the managers that run the

37:20

underlying businesses. So for decades people have

37:23

asked about who's gonna be passed the

37:25

towards after Buff and Monger and no

37:27

longer running the business and this question

37:29

gets to how. They. Handle communicating

37:32

with the businesses that our

37:34

civil then. Add a second type

37:36

here. At this

37:38

person comes from acts are

37:40

mare seat and Hamburg Germany.

37:43

What Assange for? Berkshares operating Cel

37:45

since Greg. Able and it's

37:47

eating Became Vice Chairman for example.

37:50

Can and do the operating Cel

37:52

still reach out to Warren Buffett

37:54

directly. or

37:56

less the answer might surprise you

37:59

but face They

38:01

overwhelmingly, the operating

38:03

executives, well, I prefer

38:06

to talk to a jig. And

38:12

that's understandable because I don't

38:14

really do much and I don't operate at the same

38:16

level of efficiency that I would have 30 years ago

38:19

or 40 years ago. I

38:21

don't know the managers as well as I

38:23

would have when we were smaller and when

38:25

I could get more accomplished in a day

38:27

than I can now. And when

38:30

you've got somebody like Greg in the jig, why

38:33

subtle for me, basically. So

38:36

it's worked out extremely

38:38

well. And I

38:40

almost can't imagine anything working

38:43

better because Greg

38:46

in a year accomplishes, I

38:49

mean, he sees more of

38:51

them, understands more about their problems, can

38:54

give them suggestions. He's got incredible

38:57

amounts of energy and

39:00

nobody has more wisdom than a jig

39:02

about insurance. And they've

39:05

got access in insurance to

39:07

him. Now, they

39:09

had it before we stuck some of those titles

39:11

on insurance with Greg.

39:15

He much expanded things when he became

39:17

the vice chairman in charge of everything

39:20

except insurance. So he is, as you

39:24

polled our managers, fall

39:26

under his jurisdiction, which would be a

39:28

lot of them. They would

39:31

much prefer, unless like

39:34

a few, they weren't paying as much attention to

39:36

their business and I wouldn't do anything about it,

39:38

but Greg would. And

39:40

they still like it when he does it. He can

39:42

deliver news very well to people who, you

39:48

know, there'll be some people if you have, if

39:51

you have 20 children and you're very rich, you'll

39:53

have some that will be Go

39:55

getters anyway and you'll have some

39:57

that won't. And We are very

39:59

proud. A rich. and

40:02

the way up minute a

40:04

history of been very tough

40:06

on people would posted and

40:08

we that somebody would do

40:10

that. Greg. Wasn't

40:12

something other than Charlie and I wouldn't have? Ah,

40:14

not because we didn't know it should be nothing

40:17

but because we were doing so or of. The

40:20

just wasn't as episode with we

40:22

Didn't we wouldn't make the effort

40:25

we did was change our lives

40:27

that why Plus we slowed down

40:29

and various ways physically up as

40:31

itself. So I would say that

40:33

the number of calls I guess

40:35

for manager says is essentially in

40:38

the awfully close to zero and

40:40

Greg is handling rules and. Allan

40:42

Poe animal point of our does

40:44

it but without the right person

40:46

I think about and with the

40:48

Ge said he does less physical

40:50

moving and and the insurance people

40:52

are more used to working with

40:54

the juice obviously over the years

40:56

so I wouldn't say the same.

40:58

The title be the same as

41:00

much though because he was in

41:02

charge of insurers and he was

41:04

at the ads. In

41:08

got of a business school

41:10

months and way better answers.

41:12

Discover new but that's why

41:15

we daughter for sure raised

41:17

his hand. If

41:19

like another comments. From. My

41:21

perspective, the transition is worked out very,

41:24

very well, but I think the credits

41:26

really goes to how Warren has handled

41:28

the situation. And what

41:30

I mean by that is after the

41:32

transition was announced, And. A lot

41:34

of the authors in manages used to be. They.

41:37

Were used to calling war and directly on some issue

41:39

of the other. Windex. With

41:41

off the defend in when they would

41:44

continue to do so water would very

41:46

skillfully in his in his manner handle

41:48

them. Such. That he would

41:50

not answer what they were looking for

41:52

but at the same time made them

41:54

feel good and told them that he

41:56

said have enjoyed hearing from them and

41:58

filthy says it. That it is relatively

42:01

soon as a transition to face people

42:03

got the messages they've got, the message

42:05

xiv and the city's responsive to it

42:07

and it's a non issue as size

42:09

today's consent. Zero from

42:12

way I. Feel

42:16

a thing I would out his

42:18

we do have an exceptional said

42:20

A managers across both each non

42:22

insurance am insurance and yes more

42:25

made it incredibly stupid. Soda days

42:27

in a was very easy transition

42:29

says feature deeply about Berkshire. The

42:31

care deeply about the colts are

42:33

amazed. Very much wanted it to

42:35

be a success and we're fortunate

42:37

to have been those managers and

42:39

Insurance and non Insurance So. So.

42:42

I would for Greg his argument is

42:44

it as they really wanted more interaction

42:46

and and seven some cases and and

42:49

then I gave him the i'm an

42:51

editor at just as Everything I want

42:53

for your home or whatever man the

42:55

ah for Agis. I don't know as

42:58

there are one way or another there

43:00

are more than twenty four hours in

43:02

those days ago and I just on

43:04

our he covers the ground he does

43:07

but he knows more about the humble

43:09

When does the same ceiling and terms

43:11

of judging the attractiveness. Of businesses are

43:13

making cover for service members sort of them.

43:15

Bob. He's willing to work.

43:17

I'm in, I'm in on know and

43:19

I couldn't get as much done anyway.

43:22

what I did do a couple of

43:24

hours from May to get our small

43:26

it. I just don't read as much

43:28

as some says that he says but

43:30

it's is working very well and send

43:32

the a spice and the gap on

43:34

the me and with the working extremely

43:36

mobile access and and uninformed most the

43:38

the isn't actually we can we can

43:40

bring something up some some answering machine

43:42

that will bring up some around here

43:44

are some my hands. As

43:48

the cell anyway. that's much less than you do.

43:50

Our numbers are school, but that's the way

43:52

we do it or Berkshire. To

43:55

his state, me here oxidized surprise me

43:57

as many as the subsidiaries now contact.

44:00

Pretty. Much exclusively Greg able energy

44:02

Jane so. I mean, he,

44:04

he may have made that makes sense, right?

44:06

As he said that they basically because they're

44:08

younger, they can just get a lot more

44:10

done on a daily or weekly or monthly

44:12

basis. And Warren can. Now I felt like

44:14

war and so some vulnerability here. But you

44:16

know, Warren is transparent. That's who he is.

44:18

So I think he's fully aware that his

44:20

body slowing down. He's probably not running the

44:22

early as efficiently as he was when he

44:24

was powers thirty years old or whatever. Or.

44:27

Even seven years old just going back to

44:29

the call that he may I mean he

44:31

caught a well known obviously for bringing the

44:33

subsidiaries on and kind of interacting with a

44:35

lot of the Ceos, but he pretty much

44:37

said that is pretty much zero now. So

44:39

yeah, Gregg in a jeter taking most of

44:41

that, but Warren pointed out that the changes

44:43

in titles that happen after he's gone. Are.

44:45

Going to really make much of a difference

44:48

in the transition of can pretty much already

44:50

happened. so I just commented and said the

44:52

transition is gone seamlessly. Greg able also pointed

44:54

out that the managers at the subsidy or

44:56

level have also made the transition really easy.

44:59

I think that they probably will know that

45:01

worn was trying to transition towards Greg energy

45:03

and they've just made the transition really easy

45:05

to think. This kind of goes to show

45:07

just how good of a business Berkshire is

45:10

and of more poor me how our Warren

45:12

has managed it. So he basically said this

45:14

business up, He's created the infrastructure, With Sally's

45:16

help of course are for the business

45:19

to continue succeeding operationally. That are

45:21

very high level. once is no longer involved. At.

45:23

His and I just want to point out i think

45:25

this is a really rare treat the forward thinking but.

45:28

Yeah. It makes sense because you know if you

45:30

follow war and we value trusts a lot and

45:32

I think he wants his shareholders to trust them.

45:34

so he's basically built this business about. Even when

45:37

he's gone I think it's shareholders will still trust

45:39

and that is built this company that's going to

45:41

last for many decades. After his gun. At

45:44

the meeting drag able mention that

45:46

sometimes managers and will call buffet

45:48

any to swan directly tell them

45:50

they answer. And. I I didn't

45:52

really resonate with that out with the Ip

45:55

here in asking stay questions and he's like

45:57

well, what do you think So think for

45:59

yourself. Something that's very important.

46:02

I. Also wonder if there's any other

46:04

company that major company that has

46:06

a Ceo that's ninety plus years

46:08

old? The like that in itself

46:10

is just incredibly impressive. A under

46:12

and safety billion plus market cap

46:14

with a ninety three year old

46:16

Ceo. I think some people sort

46:18

of are overlooked is how amazing

46:20

that is. And. Team and Risk

46:22

has been at Talk About Server really

46:24

a long time. so. He. Always

46:26

gonna be prepared. I pass the

46:28

torch whenever it's time to do

46:30

so, and even with him largely

46:33

removed from the operations, berserk growth

46:35

still seems to keep chugging along

46:37

at a really nice pace. I

46:39

given their size and despite the

46:41

massive task pile they have. So.

46:43

I think the size and while to clip

46:45

number three were gonna play here. This one

46:48

covers who's gonna be the primary capital allocator.

46:50

Once. But it passes the torch. And.

46:53

Add this one might have been as surprised

46:55

as some people is an interesting question I

46:57

thought that I the audience would also enjoys.

46:59

While. At their

47:01

next lesson comes from slavin. As

47:05

well, mister able be in charge of

47:07

the portfolio of common stock that Mister

47:09

Buffett has been managing or will difference

47:12

and be exercised by Mr. Khan's and

47:14

to wrestler as investing could be defined

47:16

as the discipline of relatives from Lexington

47:19

major tap my own case indices and

47:21

such as large acquisitions be separated from

47:23

the comments that selection process. Yeah

47:26

I would say. That. Decision actually

47:28

will be. Made what I'm

47:31

not around and I may try and come

47:33

back on saddam effect of different ways with.

47:36

Us about shirt a wiki born and

47:39

they will get that job that solves

47:41

that job. I'll never know the answer

47:43

whether get covered by. I feel very

47:45

comfortable about the fact that it will

47:47

be made by aboard. That

47:50

of that flows of brainpower they've got

47:52

a dedication to have to an. Unusual.

47:55

institutions as else there that they

47:57

will figure things out but I

48:00

would say that if I were

48:02

on that board and

48:04

were making the decision, I would

48:06

probably knowing Greg,

48:09

I would just leave the

48:12

capital allocation to Greg.

48:15

And he understands

48:18

businesses extremely well

48:20

and if you understand businesses,

48:23

you understand common stocks. I

48:27

mean if you really know how business works, you

48:30

are an investment manager with how

48:32

much you manage maybe just your

48:34

own funds or maybe other people.

48:36

And if you really are primarily

48:38

interested in getting assets under management, which

48:40

is where the money is, you know,

48:42

you don't really have to understand that

48:45

sort of thing but that's not the

48:47

case with Ted or Todd obviously. But

48:49

I think the responsibility ought to be

48:52

entirely with Greg. The

48:54

responsibility has been with me and I farmed

48:56

out some of it and I used to

48:58

think differently about how that would be handled

49:01

but I think the responsibility

49:03

should be that of the CEO

49:05

and whatever that CEO decides may

49:07

be helpful in effectuating

49:09

that responsibility. You know,

49:12

that's up to the Amber Heard

49:14

side at the time they're running the

49:16

money but so I would say

49:18

that my thinking on that has developed to

49:21

some extent as the sums have grown so

49:23

large at Berkshire and we do not

49:25

want to try and have 200 people

49:28

around that are managing a billion. H-E-S

49:30

just doesn't work and I think that

49:32

when you're handling the sums that we

49:35

will have, you've got to think

49:37

very strategically about how to do

49:39

very big things and I think Greg

49:42

is capable of doing that. I think I've

49:44

missed a lot of stuff in the past

49:46

so I'm actually wiser about doing

49:48

that now but

49:51

I would do it better this time around than 2008 and 2009 if

49:54

something akin to that happened but

49:58

it won't be exactly like that. 2008

50:01

or 2009, you can be sure of that. But

50:03

you also can say that there will be times

50:05

when having huge sums available extremely

50:07

quickly, maybe it'll be once every five

50:09

years, maybe it'll probably be more like

50:11

once every 10 years or something. But

50:13

the way the world gets more sophisticated,

50:17

complicated, and intertwined,

50:20

more can go wrong. And there's

50:23

no sense going through

50:25

here, exploring the possibilities of the different things

50:27

that could happen. But you would do want

50:29

to be able to act when it happens.

50:31

And I think the chief executive is

50:34

simply somebody that can weigh buying

50:36

businesses, buying stocks, doing all kinds of

50:38

things that might come up at

50:40

a time when nobody else is willing to

50:42

move. It wasn't that people didn't have money

50:45

in 2008, it's that they

50:47

were paralyzed. And we did

50:50

have the advantage of having

50:52

some capital and a

50:54

willingness then, the need and a willingness

50:56

even to act. And the government

50:58

that in effect looked at us as an

51:01

asset instead of a liability.

51:03

And I think that all of

51:06

those qualities will be even

51:08

more important as our

51:10

capital pile goes. And so I think

51:13

Greg may have even more fun than I

51:15

had in a period when extraordinary

51:18

things were happening. And we were

51:20

the logical place to go. You

51:22

never know whether it'll be next week, next

51:25

year, next decade, but you won't be

51:27

in all of me. It won't be

51:29

a century from now, that is for

51:31

sure. And the more

51:34

intertwined and sophisticated

51:36

the world financial situation gets, the

51:38

more vulnerable it gets in a certain

51:40

sense. It solves a lot

51:42

of small problems, but it leaves it more

51:44

vulnerable for large problems. Greg, does that bother

51:46

you at all or not? Without

51:51

directly answering the question, I think there's

51:54

one important thing is I think as

51:56

we go through any transition, it's important

51:58

to know that the capital... allocation

52:00

principles that Berkshire lives by

52:02

today will continue to survive

52:04

one and I think that's what the

52:06

thing I'd want to communicate that will

52:09

we have our operating businesses insurance not

52:11

insurance we're gonna cap that will provide

52:13

them the capital necessary to be successful

52:15

and grow if it's appropriate at

52:17

the same time we're expecting return

52:19

of capital from them when they have excess

52:21

cash and then as we've discussed

52:24

or you've touched on always looking at

52:26

potentially new businesses as a whole or

52:28

in a piece and as you've always

52:30

highlighted and I fully agree it's we'll always

52:32

look at equities as we're investing in a

52:35

business either 1% or 100% but we're looking

52:37

at the business we're

52:40

looking at the economic prospects of

52:42

that business and how sustainable it

52:44

is and what it will look

52:46

like 10 years from now and is

52:49

our the capital we originally

52:51

put in at exponential

52:53

risk or where's that risk

52:55

set that profile and then of course

52:57

and then we'll obviously have our continue

53:00

to always put excess cash in the

53:02

safest investment there is in in US

53:04

Treasuries knowing we want to maintain that

53:06

fortress of a balance sheet for two

53:08

reasons one to act but also to

53:11

always protect our shareholders if we have

53:13

a we want to maintain the position

53:15

Berkshire is in now realistically

53:18

for the to insured to

53:20

insured in Jersey well when

53:22

he says that it makes me wish

53:25

I'd stayed around to be number two

53:27

instead of number one in this process

53:29

over the years it it doesn't get

53:31

more fun than what we're doing and

53:33

we're better positioned than ever before we're

53:36

not positioned no our return extraordinary returns

53:42

as I know I would I would hope

53:44

we could be slightly better but nobody's going

53:46

to be dramatically better in some you know

53:49

over the next century it gets very hard that that's

53:52

very hard to predict who the winner will

53:54

be and and if you look back if

53:56

we didn't a few meetings ago was the

53:59

top 20 companies in

54:01

the world at 10-year intervals, you

54:03

realize the game isn't quite as easy

54:05

as it looks. But getting

54:07

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54:12

just don't get talked out of doing

54:14

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54:16

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view as be. All.

58:05

right? Back. To the show. So.

58:08

This is one of the cliffs I

58:10

thought was really interesting. We all view

58:12

Buffett and sort of this grandfather really

58:15

super kind way by running. A

58:17

company of this size requires some extraordinarily

58:19

difficult decisions to be made, including who's

58:21

gonna it takes the major responsibility of

58:24

capital allocation and and in who doesn't.

58:26

So he also alluded to having a

58:28

lot of task to deploy during a

58:30

downturn earlier in the meeting Buffett, He

58:32

was also ask why he has over

58:35

a hundred and eighty billion dollars in

58:37

cash and really, what are you waiting

58:39

for? You know there's a lotta money

58:41

he could have deployed at ten years

58:44

ago and seen substantial gains and. A.

58:46

Number Positions and essentially said

58:48

that. Cash right now is

58:50

really attractive relative to other opportunities available,

58:53

and even when you look at share

58:55

buybacks, Berkshire is pretty limited in how

58:57

much they can pull that lever of

59:00

share buybacks because of liquidity issues. Now,

59:02

me being the price two months and

59:04

I personally move wouldn't be surprised. If.

59:07

We eventually see a special dividends maybe

59:09

within the next few years unless they're

59:11

able to put together a massive deal.

59:14

That. Allows them to allocate tens of

59:16

billions of dollars and even if they do

59:18

that arm is still my not move the

59:21

needle. And twenty twenty three, they generated thirty

59:23

seven billion in operating earnings. Yeah, The.

59:25

Stat that sorry just. Blew. My

59:27

mind at the meeting as. They. Put

59:29

that on. A In terms of daily

59:32

earnings, they're getting a hundred million dollars

59:34

per day that have to figure out

59:36

how to allocate it. So capital as

59:38

is constantly flowing and faster than they're

59:40

able to deploy it and I think

59:42

eventually it's hard to see them not

59:44

needing to distribute that out as a

59:46

special dividend and buffet also made the

59:49

common in the meeting died. In the

59:51

future, they plan to continue implementing share

59:53

buybacks, so maybe they are just waiting

59:55

to potentially do major sherry purchases, just

59:57

waiting on the right time. And

59:59

then. The always you are you want to be

1:00:02

prepared if a major downturn where do occur

1:00:04

as well. So. I think

1:00:06

you're right here about having you know a special

1:00:08

dividend at some point the future or B C

1:00:10

they have to keep a large chunk of cash

1:00:12

on hand for their insurance business but I think

1:00:14

at this point it's ah it's a lot of

1:00:16

excess cash that yard to the naked eye I

1:00:18

guess he said and doing much but I think

1:00:20

he just put and to short term bonds and

1:00:22

I guess he feel like that's a good enough

1:00:24

grade return for my now self. Yeah I still

1:00:26

agree with you though. I mean I think at

1:00:28

some point it gonna have to let go some

1:00:30

of that and the let shareholders do whatever they

1:00:32

want with it. So the other part the he

1:00:34

discussed in that clip was. About complication.

1:00:37

Specifically. About how that's gonna

1:00:40

be or who get take that that

1:00:42

over once weren't gone. So the thing

1:00:44

is is war in his. Ya.

1:00:46

He the best kept Lol A Gator I think

1:00:48

that's really ever lived at least since public markets

1:00:50

have been around and it was really good that

1:00:53

to hear Warren think that Greg is gonna be

1:00:55

a suitable replacement in that you know I think

1:00:57

it seem from the way Greg talks that he

1:00:59

spied and grooming him for this position for live

1:01:01

Here time because Gregg said all the things that

1:01:03

that you want to hear kind of and very

1:01:06

similar to Buffett. but the problem is you know

1:01:08

Greg started out as an accountant in and has

1:01:10

a history and energy What she's done brilliantly don't

1:01:12

get me wrong but yeah oh he's not and

1:01:14

investing marvel that Warren Buffett was. The since he's

1:01:17

been a little boy. So yeah, Gregg can

1:01:19

say things that echoes war sentiment that I

1:01:21

think he'll probably hundred percent keep trying to

1:01:23

do. what worn does after is gone, and

1:01:25

same thing with dealing with risk, But you

1:01:27

know, I think he probably the best person

1:01:29

for the job at that point. But you

1:01:31

just can't replace Warren Buffett. This is this.

1:01:34

Like you can't replace the Charlie Munger Assist

1:01:36

the he get close, but there's going to

1:01:38

be some uncertainty there for sure. Went once

1:01:40

he goes. So yeah, So.

1:01:42

I feel like tiles been waiting for

1:01:44

me to play this question here. Someone

1:01:46

as Buffett how he went Embarrassed: If

1:01:48

you're managing a smaller amount of capital

1:01:50

which is the exact position that Kyle

1:01:52

and myself are in today except we

1:01:54

don't have the privilege of being able

1:01:56

to invest full time like Buffet Dead,

1:01:58

so will go ahead. The final club

1:02:00

here and then I'll get cause lots. Zero

1:02:04

good afternoon Mr. Buffett Myth or

1:02:06

I'm able my name is Syrup

1:02:08

of whoa. A resident of New

1:02:10

Zealand but originally from Thailand isn't

1:02:12

my first time in America and

1:02:14

for some attending the meeting that

1:02:16

any with photographs by was all

1:02:19

worth it though because I can

1:02:21

now personally thank you Mister Buffett

1:02:23

and on a Charlie Munger will

1:02:25

he stay with us? Spoken icing

1:02:27

such a wonderful event and most

1:02:29

importantly for being so same exceptional

1:02:31

role models and sorry you wisdom.

1:02:33

With us all these years. So thank you.

1:02:41

So here's my question for you

1:02:43

Miss above so seen of twenty

1:02:45

eighteen you mentions that you care

1:02:47

and t you could make a

1:02:50

fifty percent anna return even how

1:02:52

to start again we the under

1:02:54

one million dollars. A question is

1:02:56

if tomorrow he woke up in

1:02:58

the body of your body odor

1:03:00

care about. That

1:03:02

size and your name was now

1:03:05

born holocaust. You have some money

1:03:07

to invest on a full time

1:03:09

basis. What? miss? It all matters.

1:03:11

Would you use to achieve

1:03:14

that? Return would involve flipping

1:03:16

through twenty thousand pages of

1:03:18

Moody's Manual or similar publication.

1:03:20

Or. Findings: The appeal to bicycle but

1:03:23

or would it be hunting for great

1:03:25

companies? Had a fair price as Mister

1:03:27

Monk awards or would it be a

1:03:29

combination of both with Opportunity cost serving

1:03:32

as the final arbiter or which method

1:03:34

to use given that you're investing, Opportunity

1:03:36

has now brought in significantly. Thank you

1:03:39

Op on top. Good course number to

1:03:41

get another yeah. The.

1:03:43

Answer would be in my

1:03:46

particular guys. That would

1:03:48

be going to the twenty thousand

1:03:50

pages as says we were talking

1:03:52

about railroads. now i went

1:03:54

through the mood is transportation manual a couple

1:03:57

of times that was has been under two

1:03:59

thousand pages or probably 1500 pages

1:04:01

and I found all kinds of interesting things

1:04:04

when I was 50

1:04:06

or 20 or 21 and I don't

1:04:09

imagine there's anybody here that knows about

1:04:11

the Green Bay and Western Railroad Company

1:04:13

but there were hundreds and hundreds of

1:04:15

railroad companies and I like to read

1:04:17

about every one of them. The Green

1:04:19

Bay and Western in those days

1:04:21

everybody had a nickname for for railroads I

1:04:24

mean that was that was just what northern

1:04:26

Pacific was the Nipper and you know the

1:04:28

Phoebe Snow was one of them in the

1:04:30

east that used to go up the Cornell

1:04:34

and the Green Bay and Western

1:04:36

was known as grab baggage

1:04:38

and walk and GB&W

1:04:42

and they had a bond that was

1:04:44

actually the common stock and they had

1:04:46

a common stock that was actually a

1:04:48

bond and you know that that could

1:04:50

lead to unusual things but they wouldn't

1:04:52

lead unusual things that would work for

1:04:54

you when many millions of dollars but

1:04:56

if you collected a whole bunch of

1:04:58

those which I

1:05:00

set out to do and actually that's what impressed

1:05:02

Charlie when I first met him because I knew

1:05:04

all the details of all these little companies on the

1:05:07

West Coast that he thought I would never have heard of but

1:05:09

I knew about the Los Angeles

1:05:11

Athletic Club or whatever it might be

1:05:13

and he thought he was the only

1:05:15

one to knew about that and that

1:05:17

became an instant point of connection. So

1:05:19

to answer your question I would I

1:05:21

don't know what the equivalent movies manuals

1:05:23

or anything would be now but I

1:05:26

would try and know everything about everything

1:05:28

small and I would find something

1:05:30

and with a million dollars you could earn

1:05:32

50% a year but you have

1:05:34

to be in love with the subject you

1:05:36

can't just be in love with the money you know

1:05:39

essentially like you know people find other

1:05:43

things in other fields because they just love

1:05:45

looking for it and a biologist looks for

1:05:48

something because they want to find something

1:05:50

they and

1:05:52

that's building I don't know the human brain

1:05:54

works that much and I don't think anybody

1:05:56

understands too well how the human brain works

1:05:59

but they're different. people just find it

1:06:01

exciting to expand their knowledge in

1:06:03

a given area. And we kind

1:06:05

of break bridge players. I know

1:06:07

great chess players actually, this far

1:06:10

off came to Omaha and met

1:06:12

Mrs. B. I've

1:06:14

had the luck of meeting a

1:06:16

lot of people that are unbelievably

1:06:19

smart in their own arena and

1:06:21

do some unbelievably dumb things in

1:06:23

other areas. So all I know

1:06:25

is the human brain is complicated,

1:06:28

but it's best when

1:06:30

you find out what your brain is really

1:06:32

suited for. And then you just pound

1:06:34

the hell out from that point. And that's what I

1:06:36

would be doing if I had a

1:06:39

small amount of money and I wanted to make 50%

1:06:41

a year. But I

1:06:43

also wanted to just play the game. And

1:06:45

I can't do it if you really, if

1:06:47

you don't find the game of interest, whether

1:06:49

it's bridge or whatever it may be, chess

1:06:52

or this case finding securities that are undervalued.

1:06:54

But it sounds to me like you're on

1:06:56

the right track. I mean, anybody that will

1:06:58

come all the way to this annual meeting

1:07:00

has got something in their mind other than

1:07:03

bridge or chess. So I'm glad you came

1:07:05

and come again next year. So

1:07:08

Warren made it crystal clear that if

1:07:10

he could, he would basically review a

1:07:12

modern version of a Moody's manual for

1:07:14

ideas. And this is a really interesting

1:07:16

way of looking at investing. Essentially, the

1:07:18

person who turns over the most rocks

1:07:21

is going to be the person who wins.

1:07:23

And this is exactly what Warren was doing

1:07:25

when he was a lot younger. He was

1:07:27

opening up that Moody's manual, starting at the

1:07:29

A's and going all the way down through

1:07:31

the Z's. And he pointed out in that

1:07:34

clip that Charlie was super impressed because Charlie

1:07:36

would try to mention some obscure business all

1:07:38

the way in California when Warren was in

1:07:40

Omaha thinking there would be no chance that

1:07:42

he would know it. And Warren was like,

1:07:44

yeah, I know all about that one. And

1:07:46

so that was kind of a big reason

1:07:48

why they were able to bond. And I

1:07:50

think that at the stage of Buffett's career,

1:07:52

looking at all these small cap companies, that

1:07:54

was basically his edge, that that was the

1:07:56

edge that he knew. So I just,

1:07:59

I thought... I thought it was really interesting because

1:08:01

his primary piece of advice was basically try

1:08:03

to know something about everything but small. So

1:08:05

he was pointing out that I thought he

1:08:07

was talking about at least smaller market cap

1:08:09

businesses and try to just turn over as

1:08:11

many of them as you can to try

1:08:13

to understand them. A little bits and

1:08:15

pieces of as many as you can. So the other thing

1:08:17

that he pointed out that I thought was really powerful was

1:08:19

that you have to have a love and a passion for

1:08:21

it. If you're going to go through

1:08:24

a Moody's manual, start at the A's and go to the

1:08:26

Z's, you're going to have to love what you're doing because

1:08:28

you're going to go and you're going to flip through

1:08:30

probably hundreds of pages or tens, whatever, hundreds of

1:08:32

pages where you don't find anything that's interesting. So

1:08:34

if you don't truly love... His point was that

1:08:37

if you don't love the art of investing, if

1:08:39

you just love the money part of it, you're

1:08:41

probably not going to succeed because let's

1:08:44

just use the same example of someone who just is in it

1:08:46

for the money. Well, if you flip open that Moody's manual, you're

1:08:48

not going to make it to the Z's and therefore you're probably

1:08:50

just not going to be as successful as Warren was. And

1:08:54

if you're doing it for the money, you have

1:08:56

to recognize that if you look at your

1:08:58

hourly rate over the first six months

1:09:00

or year, it's probably going to be terrible. It's

1:09:03

an investment in it, that knowledge compounds

1:09:05

and it's oftentimes the big payouts aren't going

1:09:07

to come for five or 10 years and

1:09:10

you have to recognize that your knowledge compounds

1:09:12

and that's why the passion is so important.

1:09:14

I'm definitely reminded of one of Charlie

1:09:17

Munger's friends, Lee Liu, who's always at

1:09:19

the Berkshire meeting, people are always finding

1:09:21

him and taking pictures with him. I

1:09:24

think about the approach Lee Liu took

1:09:26

to investing is very similar to what

1:09:29

Buffett did in the early days of

1:09:31

the Moody's manuals. In the early days,

1:09:33

Lee Liu, he was just obsessed, like

1:09:35

totally obsessed with stock

1:09:38

investing, especially looking at some smaller names and

1:09:40

he would pull up the value line. I

1:09:42

would consider that probably the modern day version

1:09:44

of Moody's and he would just analyze every

1:09:47

single company and for the ones he would

1:09:49

find interesting, he would essentially turn into an

1:09:52

investigative journalist and figuring out everything he

1:09:54

could about the company and its management

1:09:56

team and reading literally everything, like that's

1:09:58

not even an understatement. And it's

1:10:00

a reminder that achieving high returns in the

1:10:03

scheme of investing isn't easy, at least relative

1:10:05

to the index. And I always

1:10:07

think back to you mentioned the point

1:10:09

of Munger essentially ignoring what the schools

1:10:11

teach him. And if you were an

1:10:13

investor and you looked at every single

1:10:15

small company and seriously considered where that

1:10:18

company was heading and what the value

1:10:20

of it was, it's pretty crazy to

1:10:22

think you could come to the conclusion

1:10:24

that markets are efficient after doing that.

1:10:26

And really, you and I, we could just pull up Buffett's track

1:10:28

record and look at some of the deals he did. And

1:10:31

yeah, it's just totally ridiculous.

1:10:33

And he also alluded to playing a

1:10:36

game that you're suited to win. There

1:10:38

are many games within the game of investing.

1:10:41

And some are much easier, some are much

1:10:43

more difficult than others, depending on who you

1:10:45

are. So if you're apt

1:10:47

to looking at every single company on value

1:10:49

line and knowing a company extremely

1:10:52

well from top to bottom, then you're

1:10:54

eventually going to find something that's really

1:10:56

interesting, pretty compelling that the majority of

1:10:58

people just aren't even going to know

1:11:00

exists or even look at. So if

1:11:02

you couldn't really care less about reading

1:11:05

financial statements, scanning through value line, then

1:11:07

an index fund or two is probably

1:11:09

going to suit you pretty well. And

1:11:12

I guess another approach, if you want to

1:11:14

take the sort of Peter Lynch approach of

1:11:16

sticking with companies that are simple to understand,

1:11:18

you have real life experiences with, then I

1:11:20

think that's absolutely fine too. Because you see many

1:11:23

of these big name investors, they own companies that

1:11:25

you and I know very well. We

1:11:27

just did the episode on Lululemon. And that's

1:11:29

one great example, I think, of a company people

1:11:31

know well, that has high

1:11:34

returns on capital and delivers

1:11:36

strong growth to shareholders. And you just

1:11:38

have to play the game that you

1:11:40

feel you're most equipped to win and

1:11:42

fits your sort of situation the best.

1:11:44

And I think another really important point,

1:11:46

Morgan Housl points out in the psychology

1:11:49

of money that the most important thing

1:11:51

is not the level of returns you

1:11:53

get. An index fund

1:11:55

return of 8% Is

1:11:57

absolutely fine. In

1:12:00

a long, long devotee of your return.

1:12:02

So when you're able to invest for

1:12:04

ten, twenty thirty forty years, that's when

1:12:07

you get the amazing results. A In

1:12:09

the end, due to the power of

1:12:11

compounding. I. Really resonated

1:12:13

there with your point about playing games that

1:12:16

we are suited to win. So this is

1:12:18

something that I've really been thinking a lot

1:12:20

lately, but tullamore from a wider view so

1:12:22

he just feels like when people are newer

1:12:24

to investing and they want to go on

1:12:27

and y C N B C or read

1:12:29

the news, it kind of bombarded with Tv

1:12:31

personalities are there was talk about like the

1:12:33

biggest names in the the industry think Amazon

1:12:35

and Vidya, Tesla et cetera. So I think

1:12:38

that a lot of these investors can have

1:12:40

his bias where. They. Believe that they

1:12:42

need to basically invest in these really big companies

1:12:44

and or succeeded investing. But obviously you know I've

1:12:46

researched some Audible Buffett, especially this early days and

1:12:49

also it's creators that I'm in investing Doric. But

1:12:51

as I can assure you that you do not

1:12:53

need to invest in those types of businesses to

1:12:55

succeed if they interest you, if they don't into

1:12:57

sued and you don't need to have been to

1:13:00

sooth totally caught, you can do that. But the

1:13:02

point is, as you know. When. Buffett

1:13:04

first started he with by micro kept

1:13:06

that pretty much no one would or

1:13:08

heard of. Granted are if Amazon is

1:13:10

existed back when he started. I guarantee

1:13:13

you he pie wouldn't have even considered

1:13:15

buying and putting in his portfolio, but

1:13:17

he was getting incredibly high rates of

1:13:19

return. Like ridiculous rates of return and

1:13:21

be he was just. Looking. At

1:13:24

all sorts of different opportunities obvious He

1:13:26

settled to where he is now and

1:13:28

on these color quality com pounding businesses.

1:13:30

But he was looking at Cigar Box

1:13:32

which is famous for learning from Benjamin

1:13:34

Graham. please looking at merger arbitrage, looking

1:13:36

at businesses that maybe there was a

1:13:38

deal to buy them out It is

1:13:40

a specific date that would be higher

1:13:42

than the current purchase price and he

1:13:45

he did see a wildly successful on

1:13:47

these. but the point is I wore

1:13:49

and strategy is really evolved over time

1:13:51

and a big factor of other evolution.

1:13:53

Is is that his capital base grew.

1:13:56

At. Incredibly high level. so maybe he

1:13:58

he obviously had all these other. Little

1:14:00

smaller strategy that use way back when but

1:14:02

he couldn't use the new the now it

1:14:04

it wouldn't work. he's buying a nano cap

1:14:06

for you know, a decimal of a decimal

1:14:08

of a decimal of a percentage of of

1:14:10

pressures. Catches does not gonna do anything so

1:14:12

there's no point in spending time on it.

1:14:14

So I just think the way he invests

1:14:16

the way he would have invested a million

1:14:18

dollars is obviously not how he would invest

1:14:21

the hundred billion dollars. And to just the

1:14:23

point being that think a lot of our

1:14:25

listeners are probably not the best barely investing

1:14:27

billions dollars so you don't have to follow

1:14:29

all these really. Big name investors are people

1:14:31

we see on Tv so Ill obviously I

1:14:33

love emulating and copying and cloning people who

1:14:35

are really successful for think it's a really

1:14:37

good way to do things but I think

1:14:39

it's really important that if you are cloning

1:14:42

someone try to make sure that they're playing

1:14:44

more likely com mention with playing games that

1:14:46

you can win find people that are playing

1:14:48

games that you're playing you don't want to

1:14:50

play someone elses game and if you are

1:14:52

playing someone elses game he really running a

1:14:54

risk. That. Year playing game that you're

1:14:56

both not suited to win and that you're

1:14:58

not can enjoy. So just think about that

1:15:01

when you're thinking of following someone into a

1:15:03

trait. Yeah. People

1:15:05

see Buffett as the spine whole type

1:15:07

invest but we go back. There are

1:15:09

a number of companies he's bought and

1:15:11

sold within six months and you don't

1:15:13

know why bodied on Hawaii zone as

1:15:15

the just because he did by doesn't

1:15:17

mean he's gonna hold of for the

1:15:19

next ten years and I saw a

1:15:21

funny comment does. Also pretty interesting from

1:15:23

Twitter their hominid that buffet had essentially

1:15:25

conquered the game at investing so he

1:15:27

did about every bank one can do.

1:15:30

And. Now. He has to figure out

1:15:32

how to deploy one hundred and eighty billion dollars in cash,

1:15:34

and no one on the management team can figure. How

1:15:36

to effectively do that? And. White.

1:15:39

Or gray problem to have and I

1:15:41

also wanted to share one more idea

1:15:43

that I thought was quite interesting. Shortly

1:15:45

after that previous question was play this

1:15:48

is Later in the afternoon Buffet was

1:15:50

asked about what they learned from the

1:15:52

pilot deal really wide sort app and

1:15:54

was there's a dispute in the purchase

1:15:56

they're making and I found it interesting

1:15:59

that Buffet. Totally without hesitation.

1:16:01

Right after the question was asked he

1:16:03

shared why he had learned from the

1:16:05

deal. In a reminded me of why

1:16:07

William Green. Had. Said at the dinner

1:16:09

we had. On Saturday night we're

1:16:11

talking about see I P and how

1:16:13

we've adopted as principle of radical transparency.

1:16:16

So whatever is happening with the company

1:16:18

Stig is just totally transparent to everyone

1:16:20

on the team so we can all

1:16:22

see the financials. We can all see.

1:16:24

you know how much free casilla the

1:16:26

company's making? How each business he is

1:16:28

doing where he wants to take the

1:16:30

company is. Yeah yeah, scum. anything here

1:16:32

is totally up and back in. There's

1:16:34

really nothing to hide. And essentially

1:16:37

what Williams said at the dinner

1:16:39

was that being honest, And truthful.

1:16:42

Is a superpower. And. When William

1:16:44

says something like that, it really makes me

1:16:46

pause and really to sit back and and

1:16:48

think about it. I. Think Berkshire Israeli

1:16:50

Another example of that being on

1:16:53

as being truth, more trustworthy, transparent

1:16:55

I think is is really taken

1:16:57

them so so far and there

1:16:59

They recognize that their reputation israeli

1:17:01

everything in it's is amazing to

1:17:03

me. How well that has

1:17:06

actually worked for them? You know it,

1:17:08

it is something insane You can it

1:17:10

sounds can buy like actually saying it

1:17:12

works in practice really helps nail at

1:17:14

home I think so. This also reminds

1:17:17

me of the episode stag release with

1:17:19

motifs and they talk about have been.

1:17:22

Truthful and trustworthy. It's really a long

1:17:24

term game so is in a short

1:17:26

run. It really pays you nothing so

1:17:28

it's hard do behave in this manner

1:17:30

by over the long run. It really

1:17:32

just makes all the difference and it's

1:17:34

also a guy. Opportunities for Buffett Sue.

1:17:37

Lead. By example, when he's on stage. So

1:17:39

if you work at Berkshire and you see

1:17:41

Buffett act in this manner, then. You.

1:17:44

Want to do the same and increases culture

1:17:46

within the company? A discrete a positive feedback

1:17:48

loop for everybody and it's also just filters

1:17:50

out like a lot of the people that

1:17:52

sort of don't operate in that manner. so

1:17:54

it's sort of in. A flywheel

1:17:56

that they can trade internally. say? Anyways, those

1:17:59

is one morning. If I thought was quite

1:18:01

interesting, that ties in well for T I

1:18:03

P in Berkshire as well. I

1:18:05

really think you nailed it with. Some have

1:18:08

analyzed between T I P M Birch to

1:18:10

their regarding transparency so I found it very

1:18:12

refreshing. basically to see Stig run the business

1:18:15

is way and you can see the characteristics

1:18:17

of transparency is very apparent in in all

1:18:19

the team members and obviously knowing the transparency

1:18:21

that. Bricks. Or as he was happy to

1:18:24

see to seek that never really worked in the business.

1:18:26

That was as has parrot as T I P so

1:18:28

I've even noticed. That. To my own

1:18:30

transparency has extended to other areas of life outside

1:18:32

of Worth though. For instance, where our duty to

1:18:34

to my coach left, i left to go to

1:18:36

another school. When I went to the school he

1:18:38

was trying to sell me on okay join up

1:18:40

for the next twelve months. And. I'm like

1:18:42

I'll do the month a month thing by like

1:18:44

full transparency when my coach opens his new school

1:18:46

like I'm out the next day. Adieux. Some coaches

1:18:49

would not be cool with that. The way to

1:18:51

be loyal to their school. which is fine. that's

1:18:53

great, but I just want to be transparent and

1:18:55

not create some sort of weird situation where I

1:18:57

just up and disappearing one day. I want to

1:18:59

just be that guy. Wanted him to understand that

1:19:01

are. Yeah. That's the way we're going to happen. And

1:19:03

I think it's something that's really hard

1:19:05

to do. But. I. Think

1:19:08

most people who are genuine and I think

1:19:10

a lot of people to sort of appreciate

1:19:12

the transparency he has. Some people can get

1:19:14

really upset and get upset at you but

1:19:16

that's also sort of of of filtering mechanism

1:19:18

for like you're sheltering them have your life.

1:19:20

You know if they're going to get upset

1:19:22

about you being honest then why do you

1:19:24

want them in your life anyways? Yeah.

1:19:27

That's a great insight. absolutely. And yeah I been.

1:19:29

I just I try to be honest with my

1:19:31

entire life and a here. If you don't appreciate

1:19:33

that than probably don't have room for you. and

1:19:35

I think it will be right about that. The

1:19:38

also mentions our stig just

1:19:40

recently. Interviewed money so I I

1:19:42

thought that was have a really good interview

1:19:44

side. A few really good insights our honestly

1:19:46

yeah exactly. It's similar to the ones that

1:19:49

you were speaking about so what am I

1:19:51

in sites that I got was at. Reliability

1:19:53

is also one of the most important traits

1:19:55

and beats really better to be honest reliable

1:19:57

than dishonest and unreliable. And I think that.

1:20:00

Nice Really spoke about how important reliability was

1:20:02

for Charlie Munger throughout his entire life and

1:20:04

then kind of just piggybacking a what you

1:20:06

were talking about with trust about it being

1:20:08

a long term gain. You know trust can

1:20:10

take decades to pay off. so he almost

1:20:12

people that are just kind of short term

1:20:14

oriented, they're just looking for sort godson. In

1:20:16

that case that there has been valued fast

1:20:18

as much because they just want results tomorrow.

1:20:20

they don't care about results. A decade from

1:20:22

our. Whatever. So they tend to be

1:20:24

a little bit more shallow and in short sighted

1:20:27

in the way they they do things. So I

1:20:29

just think that this also just fits very well

1:20:31

with your point about out as temperatures been over

1:20:33

the years. I mean be not only obvious eat,

1:20:36

it is a celebration so they do stick by.

1:20:38

The winds were like he just pointed out about

1:20:40

that deal that kind of went south. They point

1:20:42

out the losses and they're not trying to hide

1:20:45

from the fact that may a specific business or

1:20:47

a unit is underperforming me. See, I'm talking about

1:20:49

assurance and sometimes is good, sometimes baddies very forthcoming

1:20:51

in France. Parable: what's happening in the business. Which

1:20:54

I really appreciate. I and then also another

1:20:56

thing that's really interesting as they don't change

1:20:58

their bench marker the performance metric the try

1:21:00

to make themselves look at a every single

1:21:02

year he got year are be a book

1:21:04

value it whether a goes up higher or

1:21:06

lower than the recipe for one hundred it's

1:21:08

always there is always suing operating operating earnings

1:21:10

and be not switching and so he bit

1:21:12

our one year because that looks good but

1:21:14

earnings doesn't in so just that alone and

1:21:16

a doing that over decades. I mean that

1:21:18

that's super impressive and it's you're not trying

1:21:20

to warp the truth, it's just this is

1:21:22

the reality of the. Business. Let.

1:21:24

Me explain to you. What's. Going on.

1:21:26

And if it's good for, if it's a good

1:21:28

fit for you than come on board As if

1:21:30

it's not a good fit than go find something

1:21:32

else with Zola. Cool! So Warden Sar leave always

1:21:35

been in same plane as Long Game, so I

1:21:37

think it just makes sense that they both have

1:21:39

this high degree of trust with all their shareholders

1:21:41

because they knew they were going to play this

1:21:43

long term game and in or succeed, That's. That's.

1:21:46

What they hadn't wanted to do So I

1:21:48

think the trust factor is just a huge

1:21:50

reason why that bit. They also have some

1:21:52

equality shareholders right? I mean you look allies

1:21:55

businesses. They have super high levels of of

1:21:57

volume and and like you are talking with

1:21:59

them. When did he not? And

1:24:00

then we're also going to be hosting

1:24:02

social events for our TIP mastermind community.

1:24:04

This is our paid community for high

1:24:06

net worth individuals, entrepreneurs, as well as

1:24:08

equity analysts and portfolio managers who are

1:24:10

listeners of the show. So Kyla and

1:24:12

I have talked about this a number

1:24:14

of times on the show. The most

1:24:16

recent one was the Lulu Lemon episode

1:24:18

that just went out. So if you're

1:24:20

interested in hopping on the wait list

1:24:22

to join the community, you can go

1:24:24

to theinvestorspodcast.com/mastermind. And then I had mentioned

1:24:27

I put together the Berkshire Summit this

1:24:29

year with the help of the TIP

1:24:31

team. And we're also considering hosting something

1:24:33

similar to this next year. We're

1:24:35

still in the works of planning what exactly we

1:24:38

plan on doing and kind of gauge interest from

1:24:40

people. So you can really think of the Berkshire

1:24:42

Summit as sort of VIP access to hang out

1:24:44

with TIP hosts, hang out with the guests, and

1:24:47

really just have an amazing weekend that

1:24:49

we can put together for you. This

1:24:51

year's summit, we had guests like

1:24:53

William Green, Guy Spear, Christopher Tsai,

1:24:55

Gautam Bade, Joseph Szczepasznick, and Daniel

1:24:57

Zeng. It's a higher ticket event.

1:25:00

If you're interested for 2025, you can

1:25:02

shoot me an email at clay at theinvestorspodcast.com.

1:25:05

And you'll be the first to hear from

1:25:07

us if we end up putting something like

1:25:09

this together. And since we plan on doing

1:25:12

a number of different things, I sort of

1:25:14

hesitate when you do multiple things because it

1:25:16

just confuses people with what you're doing.

1:25:19

Kyle and I can only be at one

1:25:21

place at a time. So it sort of makes things difficult

1:25:23

and there's only a few days in the weekend that we

1:25:25

can do things. So we sort of hope

1:25:28

to have an event for all types of people in

1:25:30

the audience and based on what you're looking to

1:25:32

get out of the weekend with us. So I'm

1:25:34

totally biased, but I think all three events just

1:25:36

sound like an amazingly fun time. And I hope

1:25:38

many of you in the audience will come join

1:25:40

us again in Omaha in 2025. It

1:25:44

really is a lot of fun and I've

1:25:46

really enjoyed getting to know a ton of

1:25:48

members in the audience and learning a lot

1:25:50

along the way. So that wraps up today's

1:25:52

episode. Mark your calendars for usually the first

1:25:54

weekend of May during the year. So May

1:25:56

2025 and the earlier you get

1:25:58

the stuff booked to the best. usually

1:26:01

it's good to book out the flights and

1:26:05

advance and the later you book the mail.

1:26:09

Thanks for joining me today. It was great seeing

1:26:11

you in Omaha and we'll see you again in

1:26:13

New York City this fall for the Mastermind community.

1:26:15

I'm really looking forward to it. My

1:26:18

pleasure and I look forward to that as well. Thank

1:26:21

you for listening to TIP. out

1:26:23

on episodes. This shows the end-to-end

1:26:25

purposes only. Also, check out the links in the description below. We'll be back with

1:26:27

more videos from you soon. See you next time.