Warren Buffett Q&A Transcript || Brazil Conference with Jorge Paulo Lemann (2017)
"The perfect product is something that costs a penny and sells for a dollar and is habit-forming."
In April 2017, Warren Buffett joined 3G Capital co-founder Jorge Paulo Lemann on stage at the Brazil Conference for an hourlong discussion on leadership, investing, and the two men’s burgeoning partnership. It’s a fascinating time capsule from back before the Kraft Heinz merger hit choppy waters — when Berkshire Hathaway’s new alliance with 3G still looked like it might pay big dividends in the future.
Note: To keep the focus on Buffett and Lemann, I occasionally summarize the questions and commentary from moderator Nitin Nohria and the students in attendance. All of Buffett and Lemann’s remarks are provided in full.
Moderator: I had the great privilege to see Warren and Charlie regale a room full of people at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting. You could just tell that these were the dearest of friends, they had been business partners for all of their lives, and they could finish each other’s sentences. And I’ve seen Jorge Paulo Lemann with Beto and Marcel.1 Your company is called 3G and you’re called by everybody else “The Three Musketeers”. These are remarkable friendships that have endured and that have allowed you to build great businesses. And now, late in your lives, the two of you have decided to team up and do things together.
Warren Buffett: Where did that “late in your life” come from? (Laughs)
Moderator: There’s a lot of life left in both of you! (Laughs) How did the two of you decide to form this partnership and start working with each other?
Buffett: We met [when] I was on the board of Gillette. I’m not sure exactly what year it was. We liked each other, but we didn’t get much of a chance to talk at these meetings. They were fairly well-scripted in terms of time. I consider it one of the larger mistakes in my life that we didn’t really team up as partners until considerably later. He and I are on the same wavelength.
We were out in Colorado — four years ago or thereabouts — and as we went to go to the plane to leave, Jorge Paulo brought up Heinz. I said, “Sounds good to me!” and a little later he sent one page of financial terms and one page of governance terms.2 Just as would have been the case if I was doing something with my partner Charlie Munger. Basically, I didn’t have to change a word.
Who you have as partners in life — and you start, in most cases, with your spouses — it’s a lot more fun and it actually is a lot more profitable to have wonderful partners. But the most important thing is it’s just a lot more fun in life. We’ve had a good time — we’ll always have a good time together — and that applies with my partner Charlie and it applies with my partner Jorge Paulo.
Jorge Paulo Lemann: I met Warren at the Gillette board. Many of you have heard this story, but it’s significant so I will repeat it again. At that point I was selling the bank3 and he was asking me if I was happy that I was selling the bank and I said I was happy.
Then he asked me why I was happy — and I said, well, because I really didn’t want to be somebody running a Goldman Sachs. I’d much rather be like him. He said, “Why’s that?” and I said, “You have better control of your time, you have a better sense of humor, and you’re much richer.” (Laughs)
So he said, “I’m going to show you how rich I am.” I didn’t know exactly what he would do, but he brought out this little agenda and he leafed through it and there was nothing written in it. He said, “Look at how rich I am! I don’t have much to do. I only do what I like and I only do it with my friends. So I’m very, very rich.”
My wife complains to this day, “How come you don’t have so much time as Warren?” (Laughs)
Buffett: The two things you can’t buy are time and love. And they’re two of the most important things, obviously, in the world.