Transcript
Introduction
Warren Buffett first took control of Berkshire Hathaway, a small textile company in April of 1965. A share changed hands for around $18 at that time. 54 letters to shareholders later and that same share trades for $306,000, compounding investor capital at just under 20% per year. Buffett has said many times that he was wired a birth to allocate capital. By allocating resources to assets and endeavors that have the greatest potential for gain, Buffett has guided Berkshire to creating enormous value not only for shareholders, but for the managers, employees, and customers of its holdings.
The numbers and charts you see on the following pages tell the story of a compounding machine. The rest of the book tells of the people, companies, and philosophies that have driven it for five decades. That's also the part that I'm going to be focused on today. In addition to providing an outstanding case study on Berkshire's success, Buffett shows an incredible willingness to share his methods and act as a teacher to his many students.
All right. So that's from the introduction of the book that I read, which is, Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders. All of them, 54 years of unbelievably long shareholders. This is by far the largest book that I've ever read for the podcast so far, maybe 2x or 3x the size because it's almost 800 pages, but it's the size of a textbook. So we have no time to waste. Let's go ahead and jump into it.