Alice Schroeder @ Motley Fool: Buffett’s Biggest Weakness

Interview with Alice, part 1 “One Big Misconception About Buffett”, part 2 “Buffett’s Biggest Weakness”, and part 3 “Buffett’s Cold Shoulder”.

Here is an excerpt from part 2 (emphasis added),

“Hill: You have said that everyone in Warren’s world is his protector, and if you just look at the annual shareholder’s meeting, it is really, it is almost like a coronation on an annual basis. Are there people around Warren Buffett who will openly disagree with him?

Schroeder: Very few. One of the roles that Charlie Munger plays that is really important is he is one of the very few who will tell Warren “no” or “you’re wrong.” Interestingly, Warren has enlisted all of these women to be recruited as his protectors, but there are one or two — Carol Loomis is one, his friend who works for Fortune, and Sharon Osberg, his bridge partner — … who will really stand up to him. It is tough to be in the position he is in where you are incredibly rich, incredibly famous, and known for your wisdom because people are in awe of you. He said to me one time, “When I was 21 years old, I could have been saying the most brilliant things on earth and nobody would have listened to me. Now, I could say that the moon was made of pink tissue paper and everyone would go, ‘Wow, look! It really is.’ And they would believe me, because I am Warren Buffett.” He said it is the strangest thing.“

Here is an excerpt from part 3 (emphasis added),

“Hill: What part of his story has had the most impact on you personally?

Schroeder: On me personally what has been the most important was to understand the value of time — and this is something that has come from observing him, learning his story and that time compounds. What you do when you are young (and as you use time over your life) can have an exponential effect so that if you are thoughtful about it, you can really have powerful results later, if you want to.

Also, that is a reason to be hopeful, because compounding is something that happens pretty quickly. If you are 50 or 60, it is not too late. He said to me one time, if there is something you really want to do, don’t put it off until you are 70 years old. … Do it now. Don’t worry about how much it costs or things like that, because you are going to enjoy it now. You don’t even know what your health will be like then.

On the other hand, if you are investing in your education and you are learning, you should do that as early as you possibly can, because then it will have time to compound over the longest period. And that the things you do learn and invest in should be knowledge that is cumulative, so that the knowledge builds on itself. So instead of learning something that might become obsolete tomorrow, like some particular type of software [that no one even uses two years later], choose things that will make you smarter in 10 or 20 years. That lesson is something I use all the time now.”

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For my friends Wallace & Zhaofeng: Even I mention Warren Buffett in our conversation often and respect him, I still know that he can be wrong (and sometimes quite wrong). :)

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