Last summer I attended the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder's Meeting. While I'm still figuring out most of what was said, I thought it'd be neat to share some quotes I jotted down from the weekend.
On Barriers to Entry
When you have no barriers to entry, the value of growth is 0. - Bruce Greenwald.
On Investing
$10K in US stocks in 1942 would be worth $51M today. 300lbs of gold in 1942 is still 300lbs of gold today. - Warren Buffett
Warren stresses the importance of investing in productive assets—assets with the ability to generate income—and holding for the long term. He argues that intelligent value investors look for local monopolies, which makes sense, given that the value of company growth in competitive industries is 0, right?
On Standard of Living
GDP per person increased six-fold from 1942 to now. We are living better than John D. Rockefeller Jr, the richest guy in the world in 1950. - WB
What a time to be alive.
On Preventing Mistakes
An ounce of prevention isn’t worth a pound of cure, it’s worth a tonne of cure. - Charlie Munger
On Buying Companies and Remaining Hands-off
The CEO of one of our companies... I’ve talked to him maybe three times in the last ten years. And he’s done quite well. He may have done even better if I hadn’t talked to him those three times - WB
This point surprised me. In venture capital, it's extremely common to have investors sit on the boards of their portfolio companies. Many private equity firms also provide operational support, in addition to the obvious influx of capital. Perhaps this speaks to Warren's high degree of business acumen and conviction—when you do enough research and pick the right companies, they will almost certainly outperform with limited investor intervention.
On Looking for a Better Strategy
As long as the existing system continues to work as well as it has, why would we change? - WB
On Bureaucracy
We don’t do unnecessary things at Berkshire. And there are many things at big companies that are unnecessary. I think decisions get made better if you eliminate the bureaucracy. I think bureaucracy is sort of like a cancer. - WB
For starters, they don't have a social media team.
On Building a Successful Business
Surprise and delight your customers. There's nothing like that in business. If you delight your customers, you’re a long way home. - WB
On learning
If you’re going to live for a long time, you have to keep learning. What you formerly knew is not enough. - CM
A huge thank you to the Himalaya Capital team for supporting my trip.