10 Lessons From Warren Buffett's Annual Letter

[00:00:00] Welcome to Two Quants and a Financial Planner, where we bridge the worlds of investing in financial planning to help investors achieve their long-term goals. Join Matt Zeigler, Jack Forehand and me, Justin Carbonneau, as we cover a wide range of investing and planning topics that impact all of us and discuss how we can apply them in the real world to achieve the best outcomes in our financial lives.

[00:00:30] All right guys, what we decided to do for today was each of us was to read a letter from Warren Buffett, which was published earlier in the year. Buffett publishes an annual shareholder letter and what we decide to do is kind of each take it separately go through it and see what lessons and what sort of things stood out to us when reading the letter.

[00:00:58] I think they say if you read Buffett's annual shareholder letter along with the Howard Mark Memo's and maybe Jamie Dimons or maybe Jeff Bezos's former, he used to write annual letters.

[00:01:12] You know, you could kind of that's all you kind of needed in investing to become a knowledgeable good long-term investor.

[00:01:20] Obviously, along with Matt Zeigler's work on epsilon theory. You got to put that in there too. Oh, that's right. Clearly, clearly. We will.

[00:01:28] Without saying no, I didn't have to I didn't need to jump in there. We'll at least get your middle school fashion choices together. That's about this mess if I can give you.

[00:01:36] But you know the one thing with Buffett is and it's interesting. I recently somebody recommended Frank Launze's book. It's called Words at Work.

[00:01:46] It's a book about communicating and you know, how to write effectively basically. And the one thing with Buffett's letters and I don't know if this sort of jumped out of you or not, but like the writing is so clear.

[00:02:00] And you know, I feel like anyone with any type of knowledge in the market whether they're not very knowledgeable or super knowledgeable.

[00:02:10] It's just such a crystal clear message. I think that comes across in his writing style.

[00:02:16] And I think for a long time he had, I think it was Carol Lumus who edited those letters. She was a former editor at Fortune, I believe. And she might even still do that. So I think he has like some help there. But it's just an awesome very simple easy to read letter.

[00:02:34] So certainly encourage these are all on Berkshire Hathaway site. You can go there. The site looks like it was designed like in like 1999. It's very simple, but underneath on the homepage you can link off to letters. And so you know we just wanted to work through this year's letter and what lessons we can learn from it.

[00:02:51] So just to start, I mean one of the things that most investors know is that Buffett's long time friend and very important colleague and someone that as he coined was the architect of Berkshire Hathaway Charlie Munger passed away. And at the very beginning of the letter in classic Buffett form, he wrote you know a very simple but powerful like one one page.

[00:03:18] One page reflecting on, you know what Charlie contributed to Buffett and you know maybe we can just start theirs to what you guys thought about that.

[00:03:27] Yeah, you know, first of all it was beautiful and like he in one page, he really got across like the essence of Munger and like that that's really, really hard to do and everybody was waiting for him to say something or write something about Munger and like he waited to the perfect time and he wrote the perfect thing.

[00:03:40] So like I thought that was really good, but I actually want to read part of it because it was excellent. It says in reality, Charlie was the architect of the present Berkshire and I acted as the general contractor to carry out the day to the construction of his vision and his vision, which is important.

[00:03:53] Charlie never sought to take credit for his role as creator, but instead let me take the bowes and receive the accolades in a way his relationship with me was part older brother, part loving father, even when he knew he was right, he gave me the reins and when I blendered he never, ever, never reminded me of my mistake in the physical world, great buildings are linked to their architect.

[00:04:08] Well, those that had poured the concrete are installed the windows are soon forgotten Berkshire has become a great company.

[00:04:13] Though I've long been in charge of the construction crew Charlie should forever be credited with being the architect so like that was really amazing and then like one of the big lessons I took from this is the idea of well there's really two things one is this idea of humility like Charlie did all this behind the scenes and never wanted the credit for it.

[00:04:29] Warren after the fact is saying Charlie deserves the credit like both of them are showing extreme humility and crediting the other one for what happened here you know that's that so uncommon in this world, especially investing I mean there's so many egos and investing like everybody wants to say this is me and like I thought that was really awesome like both of them were giving each other credit for obviously something that they both played a huge role in.

[00:04:51] There's this thing that Warren Buffet does and it's structural and probably beyond the notes that we're going to go over today one thing that I just think is I love pointing out because it's the it's the.

[00:05:06] The grandson and then son of English teachers and newspaper editors the structuring in these letters is so powerful and talk about an architect Warren Buffet isn't architect in these letters in the way you put some together.

[00:05:21] That opening sentiment number one had to be one of the hardest things the guys ever written.

[00:05:26] Like he just lost his business partner in one of his best friends like everybody's expecting this the pressure to write this and get this right I can't even fathom like this feels like writing in obituary for your spouse almost it's just an incredibly touching and moving thing to see but.

[00:05:44] Beyond that in a pure structural standpoint a thing that Buffet always does at the onset of pretty much every every letter is and I think about this in terms of of status.

[00:05:59] You come into the Berkshire letter and Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger are demigods they are way up on the mountain looking down at you and you're opening this letter to see.

[00:06:13] What the value investing gods are about to bestow upon you and Buffet knows it in every single letter so what he does is the front of every letter is he deliberately is going to take this status see size going to take this thing is a you open this letter and I'm up here and you're down here and I am going to force myself down.

[00:06:36] And this thing with Charlie it brings you down where you get it you're on his level and it's beautiful.

[00:06:42] And Justin whether or not this segues into your next point or not the next thing he does and he always does it it's either a mistake they made or something else that went wrong he wants to take you down even further and elevate up any introduces it's a sister right who's birdie.

[00:06:58] Yes so we introduce as a sister to us and the idea here is he's now taking us from here and him up there he told us about Charlie which made us feel like a human

[00:07:10] and now he starts to praise his sister and he's taken that status thing and he's totally brought us in and less in two pages he is completely brought us into the world he is now Uncle Warren talking to us again and he's completely disarmed us to see what he's going to stay because he's no longer on that mountain.

[00:07:28] It is so well executed over and over again for years John Grisham would be proud of a bodywork like this.

[00:07:37] That is an excellent point and thank you for that's something I've never really thought of but you know you really hit the nail on the head with that.

[00:07:51] The and I think the idea of you know we have Larry Cunningham on the podcast in the past and we actually had him on after after monger passed away.

[00:08:02] But this idea of like quality shareholders and the shareholders that are you know and Buffett highlights us in the letter these shareholders that are with the company for in some cases decades.

[00:08:15] I think this type of style of communication and coming down to that level is one of the very important reasons why Berkshire has such a high quality shareholder class is because people feel like

[00:08:30] you know yeah I'm investing with Uncle Warren here and by the way he's delivered great returns but you know I'm sort of at his level where he's at my level.

[00:08:40] It's it's so important that he frames that and I love the connection to the shareholder base because I think it connects both to the shareholder base and the investments that end up on his table or on his lap in front of him wherever you want to think about it.

[00:08:54] On the shareholder base how many things do we read especially professional work as asset allocators like we read stuff all the time from people where it's I have the answer on high my model is telling us what to do.

[00:09:10] And it's you feel the status imbalance of that form of writing every time you read this and when he goes through the numbers in this annual report of how many shareholders they have and the people he's toured of and whatever else.

[00:09:22] It's always it's always so normalizing and that also means in times like the financial crisis that's how you get the the Berkshire half away Uncle Warren uncle Charlie seal of approval on stuff.

[00:09:35] The American populace the investor base understands something differently because he never lets you leave him up here even though he's earned his spot up here he's always going to tip that.

[00:09:45] So powerful in accumulating shareholders and investment opportunities and one of the things you learn investing is important of store importance of stories and if you take this idea of a high quality shareholder like there's probably no better way to get that across then let's tell the story of my sister.

[00:10:01] You know that is like the perfect way like he's putting the picture of the high quality shareholder as like a through line.

[00:10:07] Through the almost a whole thing of saying this is the kind of shareholder we have at Berkshire which is also kind of saying to me as a shareholder this is the kind of shareholder you should be like if you're a shareholder of Berkshire so I thought that was a brilliant way to do it.

[00:10:18] Yeah with the name a specific example exists all like marketing stuff but it's like it's there when you name it you frame it here it is here's birdie here's my sister came from the same parent she's not a CPA she's not a rock star investor she comes to the annual conference like all the stuff is there it's

[00:10:37] If you look through and again it was almost I'm like sob laughing reading this thing because it's like Charlie is architect and yet I'm looking at this gaffled thing that he's hung get another brilliant annual letter on it's just fantastic.

[00:10:51] And even the name like birdie like evokes like grandma like you know been been the shareholder forever like I don't know too many people named birdie you know my age so like the whole thing is like perfect yes you're gonna choke on your where there's original it's incredible.

[00:11:04] The other thing that he does a really good job of he didn't do it as much in this letter but he did it a little bit is I think he wants to or there are like some shisters out there that you need to be careful

[00:11:20] of doing business with and Berkshire wants to be the company or Fuffett wants to be the guy that is so far away from the Wall Street marketing high

[00:11:33] the type of product that you know Wall Street pedals pedals around that he kind of creates this like it's almost like good against evil and Berkshire is a good and the evil is all the different things out there that investors can kind of fall victim to

[00:11:54] that's another thing I think that he does quite well in these.

[00:11:58] And he does a great job with Omaha like in reference to that like he spent the whole period of time like talking about how great Omaha is and it gets it the whole idea of being outside of Wall Street being outside of all that stuff like and what a benefit it's been um he wrote that part really well as well I think yeah keep keep these things in mind he's opening the letter with Omaha Charlie all the years and birdie that's the opening rest assured

[00:12:24] as sure as the hero appears at the beginning of the movie like it's coming back in the grand finale.

[00:12:30] So so I think there are some more tactical I guess lessons that we can kind of pull from this and and the first thing that kind of jumped out and we'll just kind of work through these points that I have whatever points you guys have but

[00:12:46] you know he he does spend time at the beginning talking about the difference between net income and earnings and operating earnings and this is particularly important for a company like Berkshire hathaway because

[00:12:58] with all the public stock that they own the net income number takes into consideration the

[00:13:05] unrealized capital gains or losses of of that stock. And so it's just pretty much a useless number.

[00:13:12] He kind of points this out and says you know it's the operating earnings you want to you want to not worry about those unrealized gains and losses and you want to focus on

[00:13:21] you know the dividends that came in plus obviously the the profit generation of all Berkshire

[00:13:28] holding companies at the at the at the private level. So you know that's just something I think one thing for investors to

[00:13:35] realize is that in a lot of time a lot of cases when you hear net income numbers on CNBC or maybe an oppressed release, you know those can be very noisy and a lot of times you got to clean those out.

[00:13:47] Yeah I think that's really important this whole idea of looking behind the numbers with any company and you know most times when people are saying what Buffett saying like don't pay attention to bottom line earnings pay attention to this number.

[00:13:56] Most of the time you're dealing with we work or something you're dealing with like community adjusted EBITDA or something but in this case he's 100% right.

[00:14:03] You know whatever his public holdings are doing in any given quarter has nothing to do with what's going on in the business so you need to take that out if you're going to understand what's truly going on behind the scenes and you know that's the case with with tons and tons of businesses is like you need to figure out what the actual relevant metrics are and they need to pay attention to those and don't get lost in some of this other stuff that can be peripheral of that.

[00:14:22] And what are the Ella what are the relevant metrics that work for the thing you're doing that's part of the brilliance of that idea Justin right is

[00:14:33] these are the numbers that are not only important to the company but these are the important numbers to the company and back to Berkshire.

[00:14:39] And just refocusing on that is such a strong message so the other

[00:14:45] The other thing and this is this isn't all the letters and we talk about this all the time so we probably don't need to spend too much time on it but you know investing really is about always

[00:14:55] successful investing I believe at least is always about taking a long term view and you know he gives the example of how you know he bought I think his first I don't know his first investment in 1942 when the Dow Jones was

[00:15:09] At 100 and you know it's now at

[00:15:12] 38,000 and you know buffet really does and not only in this letter but in a lot of letters you know he really does praise America and just to quote him from the letter he says

[00:15:23] America has been a terrific country for investors all they needed to do was sit quietly quietly listening to no one so the point is is a lot of times in investing you know

[00:15:32] You make an investment in good companies and good stocks in index you sit there patiently you write it out and that's really

[00:15:41] A great way to compound wealth, you know over all five or ten year periods is always gonna work out no but over you know very long period of time

[00:15:48] You know the odds are certainly in your favor that you're gonna do well by investing in stocks

[00:15:53] Yeah, and I also like this idea that he he picked up on he was talking about coke and amics

[00:15:56] And the same idea about like buying wonderful companies and holding for the long term

[00:16:00] He he talked about that a lot like the benefits of staying with those things

[00:16:03] Through all the ups and downs and you know that can be very hard for people not just the downs

[00:16:07] But the ups like for people like us that are value investors, you know

[00:16:10] You own these great businesses. You're like oh it's getting too expensive

[00:16:12] You know I got to cut getting too expensive

[00:16:14] I got to remove it from the portfolio unlike you're almost always

[00:16:17] You know if you've got these good high quality companies that are gonna stay the course for the long term

[00:16:21] I mean you're almost always wrong when you do that and so I think that's one of the things he's done really really well

[00:16:25] And you know the interesting to see like how Apple plays out from this perspective like

[00:16:29] I mean some people are questioning Apple a little bit right now

[00:16:31] But it's a huge portion of his portfolio. It's a good quality company

[00:16:34] It'll be interesting to see what he does with this like as he moves forward

[00:16:38] The look through on these that I always have not the overuse the look through term first test but it's

[00:16:45] So many times he packages it back to what are things that Americans need

[00:16:49] And that's that's such a focal point

[00:16:51] Insolving for Americans first versus somewhere else and that that specific amx and coke point that you just brought up

[00:16:58] That one hit me hard reading this in and I know we set it a million times

[00:17:02] But it's just sometimes you read it and you're like yeah, this is interesting because he's

[00:17:07] Framing up. I can stick with this

[00:17:09] I don't have to worry about the trim or the adjuster whatever the else through a lot of these things so much

[00:17:14] Just because

[00:17:15] I have faith Americans will continue to use these products and services in some way

[00:17:21] To our mutual benefit shareholders Americans etc

[00:17:25] That's that's a really powerful way to tether that mindset to what you're actually doing

[00:17:32] I love this he wrote this about a coconut amx. He said the lesson from coconut amx

[00:17:35] When you find a truly wonderful business stick with it patience pays and one wonderful business can offset the many mediocre decisions that are inevitable

[00:17:42] I thought that was a good way to sum it up

[00:17:44] It's like it's like anything else

[00:17:49] It's the value investor version of the venture capital thing right coconut amx can paper over a lot of other silly

[00:17:57] accidents or things where

[00:18:00] Crazy stuff happens. I'm going to talk about one of those things in a minute too, but it's

[00:18:05] Just like the venture investor has a bunch of zeros on the way to getting the big return from the thing that goes all the way to

[00:18:12] It goes public or something

[00:18:14] Berkshire Hathaway has a bunch of these keystone investments that basically help paper over a lot of the other problems over time

[00:18:21] And that's a really powerful lesson because I think it kind of shows up everywhere over and over in light

[00:18:27] losses are inevitable there to be expected

[00:18:30] So what do you have going on that's going to help offset the hard stuff

[00:18:34] That's an excellent point and you know he's he said that time and time again that you know

[00:18:39] It's been a handful of winners that have driven the vast majority of the the performance with Berkshire and it's the same with

[00:18:45] You know portfolios a lot of times and even even market cap weighted indices

[00:18:50] I mean, it's those companies that become you know great compounders are the ones that are really driving most of

[00:18:57] Of the returns. That's an excellent point

[00:19:00] Just in terms of the types of

[00:19:03] businesses that he looks for

[00:19:06] You know one of the thing guys is very important and this is why I always kind of found the Burlington Northern acquisition a little interesting

[00:19:13] um

[00:19:14] But you know he wants to find companies that can basically deploy capital and get high returns on their invested capital

[00:19:22] So that's that's a very important quality that companies can take the earnings that they're making

[00:19:27] And reinvest those earnings

[00:19:30] Effectively and if you think about it, that's like a capital allocation decision companies have a whole bunch of choices that they can

[00:19:37] Do with their profits and their cash including returning

[00:19:43] A capital to shareholders and paying dividends buff it and Berkshire doesn't pay a dividend

[00:19:48] Um because he would rather try to reinvest

[00:19:51] Whether it's in stocks or buying stakes of private companies and get a return on that for his shareholders

[00:19:59] But I think this idea of you know deploying capital

[00:20:02] Into projects or investments

[00:20:05] That can then generate high returns is a very important one and it does show up and you know

[00:20:10] A lot of investment strategies whether qualitative or quantitative

[00:20:14] Yeah, that idea like capital allocation

[00:20:16] You realize the more you're in the market them how important that it's like getting a management team to get that right

[00:20:22] Is so essential and like that that's what I think one of the big reasons bucket focus is so much on the people running these companies

[00:20:27] Is that he knows that like when they do have that excess capital what they do with that is gonna be a huge

[00:20:32] Disherment of what they how well the company does over time

[00:20:35] So I think that's really important and I also thought it was

[00:20:37] I've always thought it's very interesting to buff it

[00:20:39] You know doesn't like dividends and I totally understand why he doesn't like dividends

[00:20:43] Um, you know, he has better things to do with the money um, so why would he not you know dislike dividends

[00:20:47] But I thought those are both two interesting takeaways for me

[00:20:50] And it's so interesting because he's thinking about it

[00:20:52] But

[00:20:53] He's thinking about it as the owner of this entity with all these sub entities that pay dividends that he then gets to allocate and he's also thinking of it as

[00:21:02] The owner of Berkshire stock

[00:21:05] And like what the hell am I supposed to do with these dividends if I pay him out of the company to myself

[00:21:09] Which is a really interesting way to think about it from a

[00:21:14] Really like as a business owner standpoint too. I think that's really cool

[00:21:17] Just going back to the monger thing one of the really interesting takeaways for me from this was

[00:21:20] This idea of having a voice that disagrees with you

[00:21:23] Because we've talked this whole time value, you know buying wonderful companies that you know reasonable evaluations

[00:21:28] I mean that was not buffet at the beginning

[00:21:30] You know buffet was the deep value guy at the beginning and monger is really what got him to what he is today

[00:21:35] And you know he probably would have gotten there eventually on his own

[00:21:38] But you know Berkshire's history might look really really different if monger wasn't there

[00:21:42] So I think about that like in our own investing is you know

[00:21:45] We're quant investors and we get trapped in like you know

[00:21:48] This this factor is a dead is it not dead and like there's obviously a lot of arguments in both sides

[00:21:52] But you always want to have somebody who looks at things in a different way than you do

[00:21:56] Because if whatever you're doing ends up not working anymore

[00:21:59] Like having that person who tells you as early as possible

[00:22:02] You know, it makes you really question what you're doing and take a really deep look at it

[00:22:05] It is so so important and that was a role monger did a great job of playing for buffet

[00:22:10] Not that he would have just gone on probably to keep trying to do

[00:22:14] Workouts and cigar butts and all that stuff

[00:22:17] But yeah without monger and and that realization you need a partner you need partners in life be it your spouse be your friends

[00:22:23] You need partners in business

[00:22:25] You need you know the validity of capital guys on your side

[00:22:28] Um, you need stuff like this to basically say

[00:22:32] I'm up to a certain size and I love this too what

[00:22:36] I don't have the quote right in front of me. He has the thing about how monger tells him

[00:22:40] He's like and Charlie told me this was a disastrous investment

[00:22:43] Or this was like a terrible investment that I made in this Berkshire company

[00:22:47] But I guess I guess you are gonna have to work this outward and just knock off to go in that stuff

[00:22:52] And we got to reinvent this thing going forward and that's a

[00:22:56] As value investors like a really interesting thing right to say this works up to a certain size

[00:23:02] But then we have to change strategy once our

[00:23:04] Investment once our fund what's our thing

[00:23:07] If you're a business owner the business you build once you hit a certain point

[00:23:10] You can't do some of the stuff you did that got you off the ground in the first place

[00:23:15] one of the things that just jumped out at me is um

[00:23:20] He wrote we have an alliance to shareholders and country

[00:23:25] and

[00:23:26] he kind of goes on to

[00:23:29] talk about

[00:23:30] How Berkshire half the way is

[00:23:33] sort of like

[00:23:35] Not the lender of last resort, but

[00:23:37] I mean, I think he has like a 150 160 billion in cash and I've always that level of cash is

[00:23:45] Surprised me in a lot of ways because

[00:23:47] I would imagine if that was being put to work if he could find opportunities

[00:23:51] You know, it would have been

[00:23:53] Generating more although it's you know with where rates are where they are today. It's not like he's not he's probably getting

[00:23:58] 4 or 5% on it so it's still significant amount of money

[00:24:01] but you know this idea that

[00:24:04] Berkshire can kind of come in

[00:24:07] During these crisis

[00:24:09] times whenever those come in the future and be there I think is

[00:24:16] becoming

[00:24:18] Me at least it seems like that's becoming a very important

[00:24:24] Uh sort of part of what he

[00:24:27] wants to do here

[00:24:30] um and why

[00:24:32] Berkshire is just pure size

[00:24:34] can be very important

[00:24:37] When the market you know has this and it's next big

[00:24:41] Disruption and this idea and it kind of plays in the Burlington Northern thing a little bit too like my sense in reading it is

[00:24:47] Burlington Northern is not really

[00:24:51] Doing that well and it's requiring a significant amount of investment

[00:24:55] um

[00:24:57] And you know, he kind of was talking about I got the sense, you know

[00:25:01] People don't want to be working out in the cold and Montana and you know laying railroad tracks kind of

[00:25:07] It's not like the the best job in the world but Burlington Northern's

[00:25:11] Importance in terms of moving freight in this country

[00:25:15] now and in the future is

[00:25:17] Kind of critical to our country's infrastructure

[00:25:21] So this idea it's I don't know. I just got the sense he was kind of coming way up in terms of like the patriotic

[00:25:29] Mission if you will Berkshire Hathaway. I don't know if you guys feel about that if that makes any sense or not

[00:25:33] But

[00:25:33] So I felt this too and I'm just curious do you think this is part of like

[00:25:39] It has there been a tonal shift to you in this with him writing about the stuff like this in the way he's framing it

[00:25:44] Because I do kind of feel like post-financial crisis

[00:25:47] With the rail lines and some of the gas pipeline stuff. There has been a little bit more of a

[00:25:53] There's a different level of attention paid to American infrastructure and some of the other stuff and I wonder if that's

[00:25:59] Almost a like a legacy thing does that

[00:26:02] Do you have any insight on that? This is like a

[00:26:05] Lawrence cutting-am question like

[00:26:08] Going back in time has this always been there and I'm just feeling it extra lately

[00:26:13] No, I think that he's brought up like in the past like I think I think Berkshire Hathaway is the largest payer of federal income tax

[00:26:20] I mean it might it's one of the largest employers. I mean, you know the energy

[00:26:25] The energy division is you know huge in terms of producing energy for certain parts of the country

[00:26:30] Like you mentioned, there's some natural gas stuff in there. So I do think

[00:26:35] I think a lot of guys like Buffett too are sort of like the railroads. They love like railroads and stuff like that

[00:26:42] But it does it all it's all like the importance of like the American infrastructure and sort of like a midwestern thing right?

[00:26:49] It's like

[00:26:51] what it takes

[00:26:53] To do hard work and get stuff done whether or not

[00:26:57] I don't know if it's changed that much and maybe it has just as I think the pure size of the company

[00:27:01] I think he knows maybe that this is an incredibly important company versus like 20 years ago

[00:27:06] It was big but it wasn't nearly as big or as important to the overall economy

[00:27:12] And he's also got I mean he's got to be thinking like Matt said he's got to be thinking legacy as well

[00:27:15] I mean he's he's he's getting towards the end of the road here

[00:27:18] Like I think he probably wants to you know in Berkshire was certainly a significant asset to the United States of America

[00:27:23] I think he wants to show you know as much as he can that it was

[00:27:26] And you know part of that though is I think he maybe goes a little bit far with that

[00:27:30] And I do want to read this part about because one of the things you alluded to before just in this is ability to jump in during crises

[00:27:35] Like he did in 2008

[00:27:37] And one of the interesting things about that is and I want to go back to Matt's point about like the size of Berkshire too

[00:27:42] But given the size of Berkshire

[00:27:43] That's one of his few places he can find an edge anymore

[00:27:46] Is this whole idea of coming in during these crises and not all does read

[00:27:48] He said Berkshire's ability to immediately respond to market seizures with both huge sums

[00:27:52] And and certainly a performance may offer us an occasional large scale opportunity

[00:27:56] Though the stock market is massively larger than it was in our earlier today's acted participants are neither more emotionally stable

[00:28:01] Nor better taught than I wasn't school for whatever reasons markets now exhibit more casino-like

[00:28:05] Behavior and they then they did when I was young the casino now rides in many homes resides in many homes

[00:28:09] And daily tempts the occupants when economic upsets occur as they will

[00:28:13] Berkshire's goal will be to function as an asset to the country

[00:28:16] And that may be true

[00:28:17] But also Berkshire made it warrant made a boatload of money in 2008

[00:28:22] And you know to some degree he does build this like Uncle Warren image a little bit about like he's coming into save the country

[00:28:27] And you know, he's not coming into save the country

[00:28:29] He's not making money along the way and he may get both benefits along you know with it

[00:28:33] But certainly in 2008 a huge part of it is he saw a very attractive assets at very attractive prices

[00:28:38] And he got very attractive terms and he came in many tons of money and he helped the country you know along with that

[00:28:44] There's a

[00:28:46] There's a lurking thing in my brain

[00:28:47] I don't know if you saw Dave Nadex

[00:28:49] Zeen that he put out

[00:28:51] In the last couple of weeks you want to get on that mailing list if you haven't but I think I need to do a

[00:28:57] Charlie Munger Uber Alice thing and send it to him for the next one because yeah

[00:29:01] It just feels like the American legacy like rhetoric is dialed up a little bit here and to your point

[00:29:08] Yes, it served

[00:29:09] Shareholders very very well too

[00:29:11] It played an important part in helping out the country in time of crisis

[00:29:16] but

[00:29:17] To me this is this is the natural extension of the opportunistic attitudes they've taken in the risk and the reinsurance markets in the past it's like

[00:29:26] Good value investing at scale

[00:29:28] understands that

[00:29:30] Sometimes it's not about predicting the catalyst that creates the opportunity

[00:29:34] Sometimes we get obsessed with what's the catalyst that realizes the opportunity

[00:29:39] So I own the thing then I need everybody else to figure out why I'm right and everybody else is wrong

[00:29:44] And then I make the money when that happens

[00:29:47] The reinsurance kind of approach to this thing is I wait for the thing that nobody was expecting that everybody panics

[00:29:53] So I can step into the hole and then buy the thing just so it can normalize again

[00:30:00] Berkshire Hathaway where's that hat like nobody else's business and I respect the flex as much as I acknowledge the flex

[00:30:08] Yeah, it's unique. I mean nobody else can do what he does like what he did in 2008

[00:30:12] Nobody else can do that because of not just the money he has but the credibility that comes along with the money

[00:30:17] Like the fact that Warren Buffett is buying in

[00:30:20] That puts bottoms in things like you know

[00:30:22] There's so much credibility associated that so he's in such a unique position

[00:30:26] And it's you know, he should make money when he does it. I mean, that's the whole point

[00:30:29] I'm not criticizing him for making money

[00:30:31] I'm more criticizing him for saying like you know

[00:30:33] This is not all about you know being an asset to the country

[00:30:35] This is also about Warren saw a very attractive investment opportunity then it took advantage of it

[00:30:39] And probably was an asset to the country in the process of doing that and I'm sure

[00:30:43] JP Morgan and whoever did it, you know turn of the century in the banking crisis is too

[00:30:47] It's like you know pre-fed the assets to the country or the assets of the country backing this stuff

[00:30:53] And yeah, you know, I'll acknowledge it in extra emphasis and I'm pretty sure

[00:30:57] I think I'm taking this from Barry Rittholz maybe from his book from forever ago about the crisis

[00:31:01] but

[00:31:02] The Uncle Warren good housekeeping seal of approval is real

[00:31:06] And hey that's that's some intangible value for you right there

[00:31:11] And I wonder just before we stand back to you Justin. I'm just wondering too like how that changes

[00:31:15] um in the future like when Warren's not around anymore

[00:31:18] Like does Berkshire still have that power

[00:31:21] Um to do these kind of things or is some of the credibility of this gone

[00:31:24] I mean, he's certainly going to still have the talented people who will be able to make these deals

[00:31:28] He's still gonna

[00:31:28] There's still not the resources to make the deals

[00:31:30] The question is does that credibility still come in as strong as it did in 2008 when Buffett's not behind it

[00:31:35] Is that some of this legacy dialing up that we're sensing in this

[00:31:40] Letter like is that some of that and that's human and it's real. It's not right or wrong

[00:31:44] It's just it's very interesting to me too

[00:31:47] On on that point, you know when you read and he's been saying this for a while he's

[00:31:52] You know given Berkshire's size

[00:31:54] He's like don't expect anything great out of this like like you know

[00:31:58] We can't find that many opportunities and to your point the opportunities that that are gonna be big, you know largely

[00:32:05] You're gonna come during

[00:32:07] Probably economic crises or hardships or

[00:32:11] but I couldn't help but thinking like

[00:32:15] Warren Buffett is the only one

[00:32:18] That can probably say hey listen the returns aren't gonna be that the returns in the future aren't gonna be nearly as good as there

[00:32:26] Haven't passed and when he's and I think people accept that because they trust him

[00:32:32] They admire him. He's built this incredible company

[00:32:36] Along with Charlie, but when Buffett's not here in the future

[00:32:41] Will investors still accept that or will I can't help but think you know activists sort of trying to

[00:32:49] Come after Berkshire half the way maybe break it up

[00:32:53] Maybe pay investors a huge dividend with all his cash on hand. I mean right now

[00:32:58] Uh, you know no one can do that

[00:33:00] But in the future when it's not Warren Buffett, you know

[00:33:03] That that company could come under attack

[00:33:07] um and

[00:33:08] You know a lot of that will be probably

[00:33:13] Uh have to be stended off by whoever Buffett hands over the reins to

[00:33:17] Uh, he's got his progress. Didn't Chris Davis talk about this as a risk when we interviewed him

[00:33:22] This idea that he's he has some because he's on the board

[00:33:25] He had some concerns about like how this might play out in a post-buffet world with Berkshire

[00:33:29] Hmm forget exactly what he how he

[00:33:33] I mean, I think what Larry Cunningham would say is that the shareholder base is such high quality that you know

[00:33:37] You're not going to be able to convince you know, but although shareholders eventually

[00:33:42] They're not all gonna live forever. So you know, you have some of that just naturally

[00:33:47] Through attrition um, so yeah, it'll be interesting to see for sure

[00:33:51] Yeah, and this you know one of my ideas was this idea of like building a lasting organization

[00:33:54] Is one of the things I took from this because you know he does

[00:33:56] He references the lieutenants in here like it seems like he's trying to do everything he possibly can

[00:34:00] To make Berkshire an organization that is gonna survive and be just as good beyond him

[00:34:05] But it's interesting to think about is he fighting a battle like he can't 100% win because he's such a huge part of this

[00:34:11] Like no matter what he does

[00:34:13] Berkshire will be a little bit different. It may be subject to more threats or or whatever it is

[00:34:16] Like the culture will change a little bit like is there any way he can make it exactly the same when he's gone

[00:34:23] That is control. This is the financial planning conversation we track back to over and over again

[00:34:30] Consumption or a gift

[00:34:32] Guess what you built up this asset your gifting it away to future shareholders and we're gonna see the way it plays out in the

[00:34:39] Justin I was looking for it when you're talking about just the size because I remember thinking it's 6%

[00:34:45] He talks about their their gap net worth

[00:34:49] Do you guys remember this section recorded by any American business? It's the largest and that means the year and figure of

[00:34:55] 561 billion the total gap net worth for the other 499

[00:34:58] SMV companies who from American business was 8.9 trillion and that is just

[00:35:06] It's just staggering to think that they occupy 6% of the universe in which they operate in there's no way to double that base in a short amount of time and

[00:35:16] Yeah, we have no possibility of eye popping performance

[00:35:21] It's a literally statement in this letter from this point which means

[00:35:27] No possibility of eye popping performance

[00:35:29] I heard somewhere that you know eye popping performance is something people look from to their stock returns for

[00:35:36] Not that this is gonna turn into you know

[00:35:38] Raisins and turds and fts or something. Although I guess it could but uh

[00:35:43] There's there's definitely a compelling thing that once he's gone people might try to shake this thing up

[00:35:49] Yeah, that gets like one of the points I had that you brought up early which is an extreme limitation of his size

[00:35:54] You know you brought up this idea of no possibility of eye popping performance

[00:35:57] And he says in there as well

[00:35:58] There remain only a handful of companies in this country

[00:36:01] Capable of truly truly moving the needle at Berkshire

[00:36:03] I mean how many companies Justin you think there are

[00:36:06] That like he could invest in that actually would mean something to Berkshire

[00:36:09] It's it's a very very small universe right

[00:36:12] I would I mean yeah, I would imagine. I mean you have a hundred he has a hundred sixty billion in cash

[00:36:18] Uh, you know if you sort the S&P by market cap

[00:36:21] um

[00:36:23] You know there's probably I'd have to look but you know there's

[00:36:26] I would you think there's maybe like

[00:36:29] 50 companies or maybe 70 companies that have

[00:36:32] Market cap of

[00:36:33] Plus yeah right like in this this gets us a extreme challenge of what he's trying to do here

[00:36:39] I mean think about us like running these multi-factor models like you know

[00:36:42] We've got our 2700 stock universe, you know take that down to like less than 50 companies and say this is all you can invest in

[00:36:49] You know beat the market every year

[00:36:51] Like that that's an incredible that's a much much harder challenge now in recent years

[00:36:54] It's actually been better we would have been better off probably just buying the 50 companies

[00:36:57] But you know you think about it over the long term

[00:36:59] You know that bit of a universe

[00:37:01] It's something that's like can't be done what he's being asked to do at this point

[00:37:05] scale is such at this level scale is such a detriment to what you're trying to do

[00:37:09] I mean, I'm sure there's tons and tons of companies that are out there that buff it could look at right now and say you know

[00:37:14] Not tons but there's there's a decent number of companies that he could look at in the small and mid cap space and be like

[00:37:18] This is a good company I'd want to invest in especially because a lot of those companies are way cheaper than the large caps right now

[00:37:23] But he can't do it makes no difference like if he did it

[00:37:26] He could buy the whole company and it would have no impact on Berkshire

[00:37:28] So it's not even worth his time like it just gets it

[00:37:31] It's such an extreme challenge he has right now and people want to criticize

[00:37:34] You know put the chart up with Berkshire against the S&P 500 in the past decade or whatever

[00:37:38] I mean as we do that

[00:37:39] We also have to acknowledge how incredibly hard it is what he's trying to do given given the size and scale he has

[00:37:47] It's I think this is fast anything from the from the capital allocation standpoint and just thinking of all the different things

[00:37:53] That you could do with it going forward

[00:37:55] I'm thinking about the outsider's book

[00:37:58] I'm thinking about how

[00:38:01] When Google divides up into like Google and alphabet and all the different things

[00:38:05] I think about how entities try to solve for this size problem

[00:38:09] And there's just there's no good answer

[00:38:11] If you want to keep growing beyond a certain point

[00:38:16] It's harder and harder to have an impact and that is

[00:38:20] Massively what he's dealing with right here and right now which is fascinating to watch because what a ride

[00:38:26] Just from a flow of capital standpoint one of the things that I found interesting was he was talking about and we don't need to spend too much time on this

[00:38:33] I just think it's an interesting

[00:38:35] Idea when you when you kind of flow it through which is because Berkshire Hathaway

[00:38:41] Has the ability to buy back shares and I think had been buying back shares

[00:38:47] The shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway

[00:38:50] They're indirect ownership in the companies that Berkshire owns so Apple co-American Express

[00:38:58] That ownership effectively goes up because Berkshire's retiring it shares and your stake in Berkshire becomes more when a company

[00:39:08] Uh, you know

[00:39:10] Eyes back those shares and so therefore the indirect ownership in those holdings also goes up

[00:39:15] So just pass of investing is it breaking the market war and buff it is breaking the market

[00:39:19] Just make that sense yeah

[00:39:22] That might be it Matt

[00:39:24] It's effective really to double buy back right

[00:39:27] Oh like you got all these politicians get all angry about buybacks you've got Apple buying back its own stock right

[00:39:32] You've got Berkshire buying back its own stock like you're getting the double buyback when you when you own Berkshire

[00:39:37] That's the new strategy double buyback strategy

[00:39:39] I mean can we come up with a quad screen to the double buyback?

[00:39:42] I mean there's not gonna be too many examples

[00:39:45] We're just gonna own Berkshire that's gonna be our screen

[00:39:47] It's gonna be like just buy Berkshire

[00:39:49] So one of the ones I wanted to mention too was there's I always look for

[00:39:54] Again as a longtime reader in fan of these I love the mistake section

[00:40:00] I love the way Warren Buffett talks about getting something wrong

[00:40:04] The the BHE earnings disappointment section in this one did not disappoint

[00:40:10] He he opens that section with our second and even more severe earnings disappointment last year occurred at BHE

[00:40:17] Most of its large electricity utility businesses as well as its extensive gas pipelines performed about as expected but

[00:40:25] And then he gets into it

[00:40:29] California wildfires

[00:40:31] profitability controls post covid all this madness has been having with these utilities and it's been a real dog in the portfolio

[00:40:37] so like

[00:40:38] He's not hiding from this

[00:40:40] This is like a full

[00:40:42] Miyakopa by the end because after then the detailed explanation of like why we thought this was a good idea

[00:40:48] And all the things that happened he ends with I did not anticipate or even consider

[00:40:53] The adverse developments in regulatory returns and along with Berkshire's two partners at BHE

[00:40:59] I made a costly mistake in not doing so

[00:41:03] Man that hits hard when you have somebody just messing up to that level of man. I made a costly mistake alongside these two partners

[00:41:11] How did the mistakes six sections hit you guys

[00:41:14] Like does this just feel otherworldly to you the way that he exposes these

[00:41:19] I mean, I think exactly like the way you'd I mean to me it's like

[00:41:25] He it wants to

[00:41:28] Make sure that the shareholders

[00:41:32] Feel like he's being truthful and honest with them and

[00:41:37] They've never hidden from their mistakes going all the way back to buying Berkshire out the way

[00:41:42] I mean, so it's sort of just

[00:41:46] I think like having that type of relationship with your

[00:41:49] You know the people that are trusting you whether it's your customers or shareholders whoever. I think that that's

[00:41:56] I think that's a positive um

[00:41:58] I think people that are always just talking about like why they're so great and not

[00:42:04] Like the mistakes they made like it's just to me

[00:42:06] I don't like those are the types of people. I wouldn't want to be invested with or do business with or whatever

[00:42:11] And but there are some people out there like that

[00:42:13] Um, but buffets not one of them. I mean, I think the mistakes are

[00:42:16] An important part of sort of building that trust and in that

[00:42:20] Connection if you will with the shareholders

[00:42:23] Yeah, it's great that he's able to do that and because he's one of the best investors of all time

[00:42:26] He sets a great standard like for everybody in terms of doing that

[00:42:29] You know, it would be much harder for you know the guy managing two million dollars

[00:42:32] dramatically underperform the s and p to be like you know here are all my mistakes

[00:42:35] I made like everybody's gonna pull the money, but he's buffet like he can do this and you know

[00:42:39] Everybody knows who he is and so it's not gonna negatively affect him

[00:42:43] And the other thing I was thinking about with this is like then this is something that I wish we could do

[00:42:46] Like we don't as quantum investors. You don't really get to do this

[00:42:49] Because you know the quant is all about the process like you can't be like you know

[00:42:52] You know maybe 55 60% of the time you're gonna be right the rest of it. You're gonna be wrong

[00:42:56] Like and the being wrong is part of what you do

[00:42:59] It's part of the process. It's why these you know factors work over time

[00:43:02] And so we can't be like you know look at this terrible stock we bought like

[00:43:05] This is this was a horrible decision and we're gonna make changes in the future because of this like if you start doing that in the

[00:43:10] Quantworld is actually bad because you start taking a process that works

[00:43:13] And you start adjusting it to try to get rid of these losing positions even though they're inevitable

[00:43:17] So like I'm waiting for us to be able to write our annual letter Justin to being like let's dig into this mistake

[00:43:22] We made in this particular position

[00:43:23] You know and learn from it in the future because we can't really do it

[00:43:26] It's such an interesting thing that

[00:43:29] Like I'm trying to think

[00:43:31] Not that I don't know

[00:43:33] Who's the biggest like like a qr like who are the biggest quant shops

[00:43:37] And is there any equivalent to the Berkshire letters and like I don't want to say apologizing for the computers

[00:43:43] But you know what I mean like is there any kind of really good job too like that's a really good job

[00:43:47] Yeah, Cliff doesn't really good job as many use mistakes

[00:43:49] He does a really good job with that too, but it's like the mistakes more relate to process than positions

[00:43:53] I think it's the difference so like as quants we can we can apologize for a process

[00:43:57] We can you know say we've learned from you know

[00:43:59] Whatever's going on or changes in the market

[00:44:01] You know, it's just you never want to apologize for you know

[00:44:03] I bought this stock because that that's just a byproduct of the process

[00:44:08] One of the other just as we kind of get closer to the end here one of the other just from an investing standpoint

[00:44:14] I think it was maybe two years ago

[00:44:17] I might not mind timing exactly correct

[00:44:19] But he made those investments in those five Japanese conglomerates

[00:44:23] Which he discussed in the letter and what's interesting with that his timing by the way was pretty much spot on because

[00:44:30] You know the Japanese market has come back a lot last few years

[00:44:33] And I think those companies have actually mean those are major large companies

[00:44:38] And I think it's called the the sogo

[00:44:40] Socha group is which is like the way that conglomerates are called in Japan

[00:44:47] but what's interesting about that is

[00:44:50] just from a

[00:44:52] Shareholder friendly practice standpoint these a lot these five big conglomerate companies

[00:44:58] I mean they're by as buffet point out they're buying back shares

[00:45:01] They're executives have lower compensation than here in the US

[00:45:05] And he kind of pointed out to this is this interesting thing that

[00:45:09] He sort of views

[00:45:11] This as like partnership so as they find opportunities to invest in you know

[00:45:16] Heatburtshire might be able to co-invest

[00:45:19] With these large sprawling companies

[00:45:21] Over in Asia and Japan. So I thought that was sort of an interesting because buffet is mostly known for you know investing here

[00:45:29] In US companies not so much

[00:45:32] International although he does have some think at one point it was mostly monger that had that Chinese

[00:45:38] electric car maker

[00:45:41] Saken that anyways, so that's just from you know one of one of the things that jumped out from investing standpoint

[00:45:47] Do you think he's looking for good housekeeping seal of approval like

[00:45:51] In Japan too

[00:45:52] Like is there is there a multinational legacy play here? Is there any?

[00:45:58] I think it's very I think but it's very respected in Asia

[00:46:01] um

[00:46:03] Kind of like figurehead status like he like he is here. I don't know if

[00:46:08] Uh if that's the any of the

[00:46:12] motivating factor, but I mean, I think these are large companies that he can deploy

[00:46:16] You know pretty significant amount of capital

[00:46:18] um and the values were good when he bought in and

[00:46:22] Like they have good qualities

[00:46:24] You know inside them

[00:46:26] Remember that uh that work Dan Rasmussen did around this like I believe bankruptcy in Japan is not even a thing

[00:46:32] Um like it's just a completely different market like because when they tested the value factor

[00:46:37] In Japan like one of the big risks of the value factor in the US is you have these bankruptcies and among these cheap price to book companies

[00:46:43] Right, but in Japan like I think it did even better because that risk doesn't exist

[00:46:47] Um like like basically the companies don't I don't know the exact details

[00:46:50] But companies essentially don't go bankrupt in Japan and in the way they do here

[00:46:55] And by the way there are some type of initiatives like at uh

[00:47:00] government level

[00:47:02] With trying to

[00:47:04] Encourage more of their public companies to do more shareholder friendly

[00:47:09] Type of initiatives. I don't know if that's dividends or whatever the government has like instituted some

[00:47:15] Um type of policy framework to try to

[00:47:19] Improve like the underlying operations and therefore the the stock valuations over there

[00:47:25] So just uh

[00:47:27] I'm curious Justin as we wrap up with this like what do you think since you're a resident Berkshire expert like

[00:47:32] How does this change when Buffett's not around in terms of the letter the meeting like how much of this still goes on and how much of this is something that dies out over time

[00:47:41] um

[00:47:42] I really could go both ways on that i'm not really positive like because they're they're gonna have to put somebody up there

[00:47:46] You know answering the questions and it won't be the same as it was with Warren and Charlie in terms of the joking and all of that like

[00:47:53] What do you think all this changes to when he's not around?

[00:47:57] I mean, it's a good question it

[00:48:02] Probably depends on

[00:48:05] Whoever takes the reins how much they

[00:48:09] I guess continue to honor

[00:48:12] Like Buffett's legacy and trying to be consistent with

[00:48:16] Everything that he's built and said and and sort of the overall brand and ethos set Buffett represents

[00:48:22] That was one of the things that Jason's wag pointed out and i think it was a conversation with David Perl

[00:48:27] I'm not sure, but it was like the consistency of like Buffett and Munger over you know a

[00:48:33] However many year periods from 1965 i mean yes the investment process has changed but effectively over the last 30 years

[00:48:41] The message has been consistent and you know what you're getting and you know

[00:48:45] I think if that continues then a lot of this can continue but i think that

[00:48:51] And what we talked about earlier it's kind of the interesting point that

[00:48:57] Will the company come under attack and could there be pressures

[00:49:01] And influences from the outside that might try to

[00:49:06] Do different things with the company or bring it in different directions or make it pay a dividend or

[00:49:12] Whatever

[00:49:14] That you know that could be that could be a big risk when when Buffett's not there because

[00:49:19] People might challenge you know the direction of of the company in some in some way so it's it's a good yeah

[00:49:26] It'll be interesting to see

[00:49:29] How it plays out i have a couple other just quick sats for you and then a question okay

[00:49:35] So uh two

[00:49:37] First of all just and he always lists this but it needs to be said

[00:49:41] From 1964 to 2003 19.8% annualized return to Berkshire Hathaway stock versus 10.2 for the S&P 500

[00:49:48] cumulatively

[00:49:50] That's 31,000 percent versus 4300 roughly

[00:49:55] Let's say 4400 percent for the S&P 500 so it just is an amazing like if you take like

[00:50:02] You know 19% versus 10.2 it really just demonstrates the power of compounding

[00:50:07] And i mean over such a long period of time

[00:50:09] It's just unbelievable in terms of the wealth

[00:50:12] That that's created and that's

[00:50:15] We'll go back to that a second but i thought this statistic was interesting too so Charlie monger lived

[00:50:22] Under 15 of the 45 presidents that america has had

[00:50:30] Which is pretty crazy when you think about it

[00:50:33] I mean he lit he he was alive

[00:50:36] For a third of all presidents of this country has ever had

[00:50:40] It's pretty crazy

[00:50:42] How many election cycles

[00:50:44] That's why he was so and that's why he was so better with the politicians because he's like right

[00:50:49] He's not like he's like

[00:50:51] They still he's like they haven't gotten anything done in Washington since about 15 years old

[00:50:57] Um

[00:50:59] Let me ask you this i'm curious to see if you guys does the name Ruth

[00:51:04] Gotzman mean anything to you or do you know

[00:51:08] Would you happen to know

[00:51:09] Why that would come up in this conversation

[00:51:13] I do not mad

[00:51:14] Not positive if she would have like the quirky Omaha people or something or is well close so her husband David which he died in

[00:51:23] He died in 2022

[00:51:25] Was a very very long time profit friend and investor Berkshire half a way

[00:51:30] And earlier this year Ruth made a one billion dollar donation to the albara Einstein college of medicine in the brox

[00:51:37] That will cover all tuition for all students

[00:51:41] In the future and that was all done because of the wealth that they accumulated

[00:51:46] Ah

[00:51:47] Through Berkshire half the way which i think is just an amazing story that you know someone

[00:51:55] That was that lucky

[00:51:57] Uh, you know can do that for

[00:51:59] For college and i mean we need medical we need more medical people in this country and all the world

[00:52:05] So you know that's great that tuition is going to be paid for or all those future students

[00:52:10] And it's all through Berkshire stock which is awesome so did the did the

[00:52:14] Did the school sell the stock after the charitable gift?

[00:52:18] Did they hedge it good question. I don't i don't know

[00:52:21] Are you saying charitable giving is breaking the market just by

[00:52:25] Charitable giving is breaking that's

[00:52:27] But that's amazing

[00:52:28] That's an utterly amazing thing that's so cool and again, I think it's it's it's reinforcing

[00:52:35] The shareholder ethos and

[00:52:40] The point that i was making at the open about like how he takes this like status thing and inverts it automatically from the beginning

[00:52:46] Like he sticks the landing on this the last four or five paragraphs are just also

[00:52:53] Beautifully done and beautifully exited he he he he

[00:52:57] Charlie's not coming to Omaha this year for the annual meeting

[00:53:01] So by that point you're crying and then he's telling you birdie's still going to be there because she comes back every year

[00:53:07] He pleads with you to come join and basically feel like family because what is it about Omaha? And was it these things

[00:53:14] This aspect of building community in this way is the most profoundly stunning

[00:53:21] Think and getting to celebrate stories like that charitable gift

[00:53:25] That's an incredible thing for a community to get together and celebrate like this

[00:53:31] And by the way if we're going to keep doing these questions at the end of the episodes

[00:53:33] We're gonna have to start feeding jack the answers because it's getting embarrassing

[00:53:36] I mean matt did everything he could to get me to get over the top by still best or salon in the last episode

[00:53:40] And like i still couldn't get it and then in the last breaking news

[00:53:43] You would you would essentially told me the answer was Michael Jackson to the question and i still got it running so

[00:53:48] We're gonna we're gonna have to come up with some way for me to actually get one of these questions right if we're gonna continue them

[00:53:52] When jack forehand invested in bHE

[00:53:54] If it is two other partners or it's all leave it

[00:53:57] Yeah, don't worry. We're gonna start feeding the answers extra quiz show from here on out don't just don't tell the people listening never

[00:54:04] All right guys good stuff we appreciate everyone listening. We'll see next time

[00:54:09] Hi guys this is Justin again

[00:54:11] Thanks so much for tuning into this episode

[00:54:14] You can follow jack on twitter at at practical quatt you can follow me on twitter at jj carbono and follow matt on twitter at

[00:54:21] At cultish creative if you found this discussion interesting and valuable

[00:54:25] Please subscribe and either iTunes or on youtube

[00:54:28] Or leave a review or a comment

[00:54:30] Also, if you have any ideas for topics you'd like us to cover in the future

[00:54:34] Please email us at access returns pod at gmail.com

[00:54:37] We would like this to be a listener driven podcast and would appreciate any suggestions. Thank you