Lessons from Omaha with Video

My Observations from the Oracles of Omaha

I've attended the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting for over a decade. Here is what I learned this year:

1/ When asked about the future of value investing, Buffett answered, "Value investing will be fine; people will continue to do dumb things." I agree; I came to the same conclusion when I wrote Active Value Investing almost two decades ago.

2/ Buffett also said, "People are trying to outsmart each other in arenas that you don't have to play in." This is a good reminder that you don't get extra points in the market for the degree of difficulty of analysis.

3/ Buffett opined that "if your kids are reading your will for the first time after you have died, this is a mistake that you won't be able to correct." He will not sign a will unless he shares the contents of it with his kids and gets their feedback.

4/ Buffett said, "If you want to know how to live your life, write your obituary and then reverse engineer it so that you can live up to it.

5/ Buffett said: “If you want your kids to have certain values, it's important that you live those values and talk about it.” This applies not just to parenting but being a boss. If I don’t practice what I preach, my employees will not take me seriously.

6/ Munger’s advice for a good life: “Spend less than you earn, avoid toxic people, toxic activities, keep learning all your life, defer gratification because you prefer it that way, and if you do it all this way you will succeed. If not, you will need a lot of unusual luck.”

7/ Buffett’s quote that stuck with me was “I don't know anyone who is kind to die without friends.  I know plenty of people with money to die without friends".  Having money only attracts friends who value you for your money. Kindness, however, has an everlasting purchasing power.

8/ My favorite line from Munger was: “Practicing law today is like a pie-eating contest, where if you succeed, you get to eat more pie.”

What is the main lesson you learned this past weekend? Comment below and share. I would love to hear from you all. ⬇️

Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO at IMA, a value investing firm in Denver. He has written two books on investing, which were published by John Wiley & Sons and have been translated into eight languages. Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life (Harriman House, 2022) is his first non-investing book. You can get unpublished bonus chapters by forwarding your purchase receipt to bonus@soulinthegame.net.

Please read the following important disclosure here.