Andre Durand

Warren & Charlie – They broke the mold

I had the pleasure of seeing Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway speak at their annual shareholder meeting this weekend. I am not a shareholder, so I was there by the grace of Gunnar Peterson, a Ping advisor, and a shareholder of Berkshire.

I feel lucky to have seen Warren & Charlie in action. It’s not just Warren, it’s Warren and Charlie. The are a team. They don’t make them like this anymore. The cast from which these two were created has been broken.

No amount of IQ will replace practical wisdom

What was perhaps the most inspirational was to witness how central a theme was their operational guidelines rooted in the wisdom of practical experience and their personal virtues such as patience, loyalty, trust and the long-term view of value creation.

It was also reinforcing to me to see how far from these timeless virtues our immediate gratification driven society has unfortunately traveled.

Too many just don’t get it

Time and time again, the audience queried Warren and Charlie on their views of ‘trading’ stocks, to which, they repeated that their simple formula for wealth creation was in finding undervalued companies with good management and defensible businesses and then investing in them for the long haul.

Breaking from the pack

Having grown up in the immediate gratification generation, this sort of thinking is not my upbringing, however, upon reflection, I believe I was born in the wrong generation, because I identify much more with their prescription of long-term value creation.

Deepening resolve – taking the long-view

My takeaways from this weekend have no doubt deepened my resolve in areas related to how I would like to participate in society as an individual and business leader. In short, I intend to do the following:

Too much IQ – sell a few points

Warren and Charlie had some harsh words for those that over complicate things. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve become increasingly critical of the sort of wizardry, and fancy mathematics that are being applied to our markets as people try to condense future returns into today’s consumption. I believe these tricks and gimmicks have had the effect of derailing our society and our markets from a steady, sustainable growth path onto a roller coaster of booms and corrective busts.

Lose the fractional jets

Just before leaving, I toured Netjets, the fractional jet ownership program that Berkshire invested in. Who doesn’t like seeing jets? They are incredible machines. But nothing but ego can come close to justifying such an expense. So with that, I do have a one recommendation for Warren. Dump Netjets siting a temporary lapse of insanity and buy Dunkin Donuts, it’s more your style. Even in bad cycles, people still need coffee and a good donut.