Turn Every Page

In what now feels like a poignant parting message as CEO, Warren Buffett reminded us to embrace the unglamorous work that others avoid and always remain curious.

Berkshire Hathaway’s 2025 AGM will forever be remembered for Warren Buffett’s bombshell retirement announcement at the very end.

But he had another message that day, too. A powerful, recurring theme — that the best investors “turn every page” in search of new opportunities — that he repeatedly hammered home throughout the Q&A session.

Buffett returned to this idea time and again, weaving the simple lesson into stories from his past — as well as some of Berkshire’s most promising recent investments. In what now feels like a poignant parting message as CEO, he reminded us to embrace the unglamorous work that others avoid and always remain curious.

“Turning every page is one important ingredient to bring to the investment field,” said Buffett. “Very few people do turn every page — and the ones who turn every page aren’t going to tell you what they’re finding. You’ve got to do a little of it yourself.”

During the Q&A, he highlighted three different times that he lived out this lesson — and how it not only transformed his portfolio, but also his life.

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Sogo Shosha

Charlie Munger once likened Berkshire Hathaway’s investment in the five leading Japanese trading companies to “God opening a chest and just pouring [in] money”. And Warren Buffett just so happened to discover this divine opportunity in a way that hearkens back to his earliest days in the money game.

As a young investor, Buffett scoured Moody’s manuals in search of unrecognized value. Very few people have the patience and perseverance to grind through page after page of numbers and charts, sifting through piles of unremarkable mediocrity (or worse) with no promise of unearthing any treasure.

And, while that isn’t as big a part of his current investment process, he hasn’t entirely given up the habit, either. “I was just going through a little handbook that probably had 2,000-3,000 Japanese companies in it,” he said. “There were these five trading companies — they have a special name (sogo shosha) for them in Japan — selling at ridiculously low prices. So I spent about a year acquiring them.”

Buffett has periodically added to the position ever since — and also revealed in his latest annual letter that Berkshire now has permission to exceed 10% ownership in all five companies. That will likely happen “over time”.

It really feels like a fitting capstone to Buffett’s career — just swap out those Moody’s manuals for the Japan Company Handbook and voila. Not so much a story of financial acumen as a testament to disciplined curiosity.

“I never dreamt of [finding these companies] when I picked up that thick [book],” said Buffett. “It’s amazing what you can find when you just turn the page.”

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Rockwood’s Cocoa Beans

When asked a bizarre question about Portillo’s Hot Dogs — a company not under the Berkshire Hathaway umbrella — Warren Buffett deftly pivoted into a profound lesson on leaving no stone unturned.

Back in 1954, a significant change to the federal tax code created a unique arbitrage opportunity — which a young Buffett seized with both hands. While working for Graham-Newman in New York, he came across Rockwood & Co., a Brooklyn-based chocolate maker sitting on millions of pounds of cocoa beans.

The price of cocoa had surged due to a shortage and Jay Pritzker, who controlled Rockwood, cooked up a plan to sell off this inventory in a very tax-advantageous way. By exiting one of its business lines, Rockwood could distribute its cocoa inventory tax-free, thanks to an “arcane provision” of the new tax code. The chocolatier offered to repurchase its own stock in exchange for cocoa beans — 80 pounds for one share.

“They called a meeting to split off one of the chocolate businesses in a way that enabled them to recognize the gain on these cocoa beans without paying roughly 50% federal taxes on the gain,” said Buffett. “I went to the meeting and nobody was there.”

And, because Buffett bothered to show up, he received an education on the new tax code from Pritzker himself. The two men huddled over coffee and Pritzker walked Buffett through the entire plan. “I could have gone to graduate school for years and never learned as much as [Jay] did,” he said.

Sensing an opportunity, Buffett bought Rockwood shares, sold them back to the company for cocoa beans, and cashed in on the shortage-driven market. “The profits were good and my only expense was subway tokens,” he wrote in 1988. (It worked out pretty well for Rockwood, too, as its stock went from $15 to $100 around this time.)

By showing up to an obscure meeting in a “crummy” building, Buffett obtained knowledge and connections that altered his trajectory. (Not to mention forging a relationship with the Pritzker family that helped Berkshire acquire Marmon more than fifty years later.)

Opportunities often hide in the details — waiting for those curious and persistent enough to seek them out.

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GEICO

Of course, the greatest example of Warren Buffett “turning every page” dates back to a bold, impulsive decision made in January 1951. The young college student hopped a train from New York to Washington, D.C., driven by curiosity about GEICO. When Buffett had learned that his teacher — and idol — Ben Graham served as chairman for the auto insurer, he set off at once to learn more about the company.

One problem: The office was closed that day. “It turned out they didn’t work on Saturdays in Washington,” said Buffett. “I pounded on the door until, finally, a janitor let me in. I said to the janitor, ‘Is there anybody I can talk to here except you?’ He didn’t take it personally. He said, ‘Well, there’s one guy up on the sixth floor.”

That guy just so happened to be Lorimer Davidson, vice president of the company.

What followed was a four-hour masterclass on the insurance industry and GEICO’s innovative business model — a conversation that Buffett credits as a turning point in his career and the start of his lifelong love affair with insurance.

“You get a few breaks in life in terms of people you meet who just change your life dramatically,” he said. “To get a chance to talk to Lorimer Davidson on a Saturday afternoon, you just listen carefully. That comes in the category of ‘turn every page’. You just get lucky in life — and you want to take advantage of your luck.”

Buffett calls it luck, but I think that sells his drive and initiative much too short. Most people would have turned back at a locked door or slunk away when the janitor answered — or not even gotten on the train in the first place. Instead, Buffett’s moxie unlocked a business education and relationship that still impacts Berkshire today.

“Who knows what was behind that door?” asked Buffett. “But, in ten minutes, I found a man who was going to be just wonderfully helpful to me.”

I don’t know about you, but when a company catches my eye, I don’t hop a train to another state and bang on locked doors until someone answers.

Still, the theme of Buffett’s final AGM is one that we all can apply to our own lives and careers: the world is full of opportunities for those willing to seek them out. The greatest treasures often lie just beyond the next page — waiting for whoever is bold enough to find them. Turn every page.