I’ve met Warren Buffett. I’ve spent a tiny bit of time with the man in social settings. I’ve heard him sing to a small room.
It is very fun to have a conversation with Warren Buffett but let us be very clear on one thing: He is not your sweetheart uncle who just happens to be kinda savvy.
Warren Buffett is an Apex Predator. He has shark eyes. He sizes everything up, all the time, including you. If he thinks you’re worth talking to…if you can be taught or show him something fresh… He’s all-in. Once he senses someone is out of their depth or without value he’s gone, probably calculating the correct depreciation rate of the passing catering truck.
Ruthlessness in no way diminishes his greatness. We are right to worship this man. Just not for the reasons we think. Buffett can use his bare hand to rip the beating heart out of a banker’s chest and hold it in the air before the guy even hits the ground. Warren Buffett is a Worlock.
Worlocks are less avuncular and sweet than how Buffett comes across but, really, do you want to study a financial man-witch or the old guy in Up?
In 2008 Buffett was the voice of reason in the storm. He took huge stakes in GE and Goldman Sachs and sort of implied… Strongly… That Americans should jump in alongside him:
Of course, Buffett wasn’t actually buying shares like the unwashed masses. When the public sucked up a Goldman Secondary at $123 Warren was cutting a deal that would get Berkshire paid about $2 billion in dividends before Goldman bought him out early at a huge premium.
Buffett hammered Goldman in exchange for an endorsement that walked Americans into a crap investment and emerged from the crisis as the closest thing to a hero left standing in finance. Because he’s Warren Buffett and no one else is.
Since Warren didn’t break down the accounting in his must-read letter I did so for him, in graphical form.
