Director’s Definition
A director who gets $150,000 per year from a company and needs the money is not independent.
Easily Learned Principles
It never ceases to amaze me to see how much territory can be grasped if one merely masters and consistently...
Eggs in One Basket
Investors can have 90% of their wealth in a single company, if it is the right company.
Reading and Thinking
We both, Warren Buffett and I, insist on a lot of time being available almost every day to just sit...
Extreme Objectivity
The life of Darwin demonstrates how a turtle may outrun a hare, aided by extreme objectivity.
IQ Humility
If you think your IQ is 160 but it’s 150, you’re a disaster. It’s much better to have a 130...
Deserved Trust
The highest form that civilization can reach is a seamless web of deserved trust — not much procedure, just totally...
Good Ideas Are Hard to Find
Our cash is speaking for itself. If we had a lot of wonderful ideas, we wouldn’t have so much cash.
Good vs. Bad Investment Ideas
Benjamin Graham used to say, “It’s not the bad investment ideas that fail; it’s the good ideas that get pushed...
Self-serving Bias
Another thing that does one in, of course, is the self-serving bias to which we’re all subject.
Margin of Safety
In engineering, people have a big margin of safety. But in the financial world, people don’t give a damn about...
Learn Vicariously
The more hard lessons you can learn vicariously rather than through your own hard experience, the better.
Costco vs. Rockefeller Foundation
I believe Costco does more for civilization than the Rockefeller Foundation. I think it’s a better place.
Dealing with Temporary Unpopularity
If your new behavior gives you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group, then to hell with them.
What’s Your Problem?
Let me know what your problem is, and I will try to make it more difficult for you.
Being a Good Investor
Understanding how to be a good investor makes you a better business manager and vice versa.
Make the Market Your Servant
The idea of a margin of safety, a Graham precept, will never be obsolete. The idea of making the market...
Having a Passionate Interest
You need to have a passionate interest in why things are happening. That cast of mind, kept over long periods,...
Success in this World
I think track records are very important. If you start early trying to have a perfect one in some simple...
Modern Portfolio Theory
Beta and modern portfolio theory and the like — none of it makes any sense to me.
No Big Advantages
We don’t have big advantages — no special competence — so we spend almost no time on it.
Envy Drives the World
I’ve heard Warren say a half a dozen times, “It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy.”
Formal vs. Self-education
Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune.
Find Joy in Everything
Find joy in everything you choose to do. It’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.
Buying Lots of Things
We tend to buy things — a lot of things — where we don’t know exactly what will happen, but...
Difficulty in Investing
Why should it be easy to do something that, if done well, two or three times, will make your family...
Numerical Fluency
Without numerical fluency, in the part of life most of us inhabit, you are like a one-legged man in an...
Swapping Old Tools for New
When a better tool or idea or approach comes along, what could be better than to swap it for your...
Cranky Businesses
A lot of the businesses we buy at Berkshire Hathaway are kind of cranky and old-fashioned like us.
How to Succeed in Investing
You need patience, discipline, and an ability to take losses and adversity without going crazy.
Success in Life
A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, a bad...
Sex Without Love
Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences go it’s pretty damn good.
Closet Indexing
[With] closet indexing you’re paying a manager a fortune and he has 85% of his assets invested parallel to the...
The Downside of Litigation
Litigation is notoriously time-consuming, inefficient, costly and unpredictable.
Using Checklists
I’m a great believer in solving hard problems by using a checklist. You need to get all the likely and...
The Queen of Soft Sciences
Economics is in many respects the queen of the soft sciences. It’s expected to be better than the rest. It’s...
What Counts?
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
A Lot of People Angry
In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and is widely regarded...
