Alice Schroeder Talks Buffett, Focus, and the Meaning of Life || Q&A Transcript (2018)
"[Warren] considers the best argument to be a good example," said Schroeder, "and that’s what he means Berkshire Hathaway to be."
On April 10, 2018, Alice Schroeder — author of The Snowball — spoke at the University of Mary Washington about the many lessons she learned from Warren Buffett after years and years of careful study.
What makes this particular talk so interesting, though, are her unique insights into Buffett’s personality and mindset. It’s less about the biographical details of his life — and more an exploration of how the Oracle of Omaha thinks. Enjoy!
Alice Schroeder: Warren Buffett likes to say that when he gets up in the morning and goes to work, he feels like Michelangelo going to paint the Sistine Chapel.1 And, of course, his Sistine Chapel is Berkshire Hathaway, the company that he has spent decades building. Which, on the one hand, is the standard by which he invests and, on the other hand, is the way that he thinks a business should be run.
As he said to me one time, he considers the best argument to be a good example — and that’s what he means Berkshire Hathaway to be.
But, at the same time, you’ve probably seen Warren on television, you’ve probably read interviews, you’ve probably heard him speak, attended his shareholder meetings, or read some of his letters — and he likes to describe how he did it. He always does that in very simple and straightforward terms. It always seems like something that you ought to be able to emulate — and yet nobody ever has.
In all of this time, with all of the teaching and coaching and explaining that Warren Buffett has done, there has never been anyone who has been able to replicate his achievement of creating a company of $300 billion by putting together a conglomerate — or investing and compounding at the rate that he’s done by buying value investments.
So that begs a question: If it seems so simple and straightforward and he can explain it, then why hasn’t anyone else done it? And who is this person?