Warren Buffett is really someone worth listening to. This is a short talk he gave to MBA students and then he answers questions for over an hour. I think he is speaking at the University of Florida in 1998.
Here is a great quote to remember as you invest (from part 2): “To make money they didn’t have and didn’t need, they risked what they did have and did need. And that’s foolish.” That goes for anyone I think. He was talking about the geniuses behind Long Term Capital Management (and the collapse about a decade ago – for those of you that think finance people risking serious harm to the economy for their personal gain is something new, it isn’t). You can read a good book about Long Term Capital Management’s fail: When Genius Failed.
Related: Warren Buffett’s Annual Report – Great Advice from Warren Buffett – Misuse of Statistics, Mania in Financial Markets – Investing Books
“take a job you love.”
Another that if you listen to him at all you already know invest he invests businesses he can understand with honest and able leadership and a “moat” around the business. He wants a business that is protected from competition by a barrier (moat).
“I don’t want to buy any stock where if they closed the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow, for 5 years, I won’t be happy owning it… your not buying a stock you are buying a part ownership in a business.”
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Its amazing how he starts off with values like integrity and the example he takes is really great. It drives home the point very nicely. I like to the part about time being the friend of the great business!
Despite losing an entire hour to oh-so-evil daylight saving time, I managed to get through all the submissions, ruthlessly whittling away at the total until I came up with the following list…
Both agree the health care system is far too expensive and needs to be fixed. And both agree the current reforms are far too small and seem to do little to address the core problems with incentives and entrenched interests…
Warren Buffet: “We will not have a double-dip recession at all. I see our businesses coming back almost across the board.”
[…] for the long term seems too easy to provide an advantage. But it does. Warren Buffett is very careful to pick people that are more concerned with providing value to customers over the long term than promoting themselves and seeking massive short term rewards for themselves. This simple act of […]