The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 28 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Munger: Businesses are ruined by bloat, not excessive downsizing
“If you put it in reverse, you say name a business that has been ruined because it was over downsized. I cannot think of a single one, but if you asked me to name businesses that were half ruined or ruined by bloat, I could rattle off name after name after name…”
Berkshire operates with no HR, legal, IR, or PR departments
“We have no human relations department, no legal department, no investor relations, no public relations. We don't have any of that. We've got a bunch of all-stars out there running businesses. We just asked them to mail the money to Omaha.”
Berkshire refuses to sell businesses unless they drain cash endlessly
“And like one thing that they bring up over and over again is in their wholly owned businesses, unless it's going to completely drain a bunch of money, they're not going to sell them. Even if, you know, they can say, Oh, we're, we used to make 15%. Now we make …”
Munger: The secret of investing is finding places safe to not diversify
“The whole secret of investment is to find places where it's safe and wise to not diversify.”
Buffett: Most Public Company CEOs Waste a Third of Their Time
“I would guess that CEOs of most public companies waste a third of their time, at least on all kinds of things that really don't add a thing to the business. And in many cases, subtract. From the business.”
Munger: Berkshire's biggest historical mistakes are errors of omission
“So Munger says the mistakes that have been the most extreme in our history are mistakes of omission. They do not show up in our figures. They show up in our opportunity costs.”
Warren Buffett's shareholder letters are the greatest content marketing in history
“I've made the point multiple times that if you think of the greatest Content marketing in business history, I would argue is Warren Buffett's shareholder letters.”
Senra: Maintaining a fortress of cash provides massive opportunistic advantages
“Keep a fortress of cash. This is what John D. Rockefeller did. This is what Warren Buffett did. They kept fortresses of cash. It is a distinct advantage to have near at hand All the supplies you need.”
Munger's blueprint: buy wonderful businesses at fair prices over fair businesses at wonderful prices
“The blueprint he gave me was simple. Forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices, and instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices.”
Buffett's management tenets were first used by Henry Singleton at Teledyne
“Many of the distinctive tenants of Warren Buffett's unique approach to managing Berkshire Hathaway were first employed by Singleton at Teledyne. In fact, Singleton can be seen as a proto-Buffett, and there are uncanny similarities between the two.”
Berkshire Missed Google Despite Seeing GEICO's $10 Ad Clicks Work
“We were paying 10 dollars a click for something that had a marginal cost to Google of exactly zero. And we saw that the ads were working for us. We could see at Geico how well Google advertising worked, and we just sat there sucking our thumbs.”
Buffett: Good investment ideas are too scarce to be parsimonious with
“If we find an idea that we want to put five hundred million dollars in, we probably would be even happier if we could put three or four billion in. Good ideas are too scarce to be parsimonious with once you find them.”
Buffett and Munger's Public Teaching Created Their Proprietary Deal Flow
“And I actually think it's because there's the benefits of teaching, you know, it's not like they hoarded the knowledge that they, of their six or seven decade career. They wrote about their shareholders. They talked about the AGM. They, you know, people wrote …”
Buffett: Find .400 hitters and do not tell them how to swing
“Another thing, the important thing we do with managers generally is to find the 400 hitters and then not tell them how to swing.”
Senra: Berkshire Hathaway's wealth was driven by just 10 insights
“If you look at Berkshire Hathaway and all of its accumulated billions, the top 10 insights account for most of it. Most of the money came from 10 insights.”
Buffett gives immediate answers and non-negotiable acquisition prices
“Warren Buffett's approach to purchasing companies is very straightforward. He will give you an answer immediately if he has any interest, and he will immediately give you a non-negotiable price.”
David Senra: Warren Buffett's Shareholder Letters Are History's Best Content Marketing
“I think Berkshire's Warren Buffett shareholder letters may be the greatest example or the most successful example of content marketing in the history of business. The amount of opportunity, unique opportunity that flows to Buffett or that has flown, flowed to …”
Helzberg: Warren Buffett does not invest in turnaround opportunities
“Perhaps one of the key reasons Warren Buffett has been the world's most successful investor, he does not buy turnaround opportunities, something that Buffett spends a lot of time discussing over many years in his shareholder letters. He doesn't believe turnaro…”
Insurance float was central to both Teledyne's and Berkshire's growth
“Both Singleton and Buffett recognized the potential to invest insurance company float to create shareholder value. And for both companies, insurance was the largest and most important business.”
Munger: Les Schwab built a tire fortune through shrewd compensation systems
“If you want to read one book that will demonstrate really shrewd compensation systems and a whole chain of small businesses, read the autobiography of Les Schwab. Who has a bunch of these tire shops all over the Northwest. And he made a huge fortune in one of …”
Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary leaders are compensated solely on individual unit performance
“The individual businesses that Berkshire owns, the person running that business is only Incentivized and paid and rewarded are punished based on the performance of that individual business and not Berkshire as a whole.”
Berkshire's $1.3B Coca-Cola stake grew past $17B, yielding $528M annually
“Berkshire decides to put one point, let's, let's call it 1.3 billion dollars In Coke in 1988 over the last 27 years of that investment alone has grown to over seventeen billion, but that does not include all the dividends that I received in that time period in…”
Berkshire exited its Freddie Mac stake at a profit in 1999
“Seeing the dramatic increase in risk and the change in the attitude of Freddie Mac's management, Berkshire sold its much-loved investment at a profit in 1999.”
Senra: Berkshire businesses and headquarters share extreme cost-reduction culture
“The one thing that all of Berkshire's businesses have in common is that they are managed by people who are willing to go to great lengths to keep costs low. That goes for Berkshire's home office as well. It doesn't have a public relations department or an inve…”
Berkshire discovered See's Candies could raise prices 10% without losing customers
“When we bought C's Candies, we didn't know the power of a good brand. Over time, we just discovered that we could raise prices by 10% a year, and no one cared. Learning that changed Berkshire.”
Munger: Investors must learn to fold beloved positions when odds shift
“Charlie says, life is like a poker game, wherein you have to learn to quit. Sometimes when holding a much loved hand, you must learn to handle mistakes and new facts that change the odds.”