OK, on to the meeting report.
Note: because no audio or video recording is allowed during the meeting, all quotes are based on notes and possibly not verbatim.
For those unfamiliar with the Berkshire annual meeting format, a little background. It's held in a large arena called the Qwest Center in Omaha, and in recent years over 20,000 people have attended. The main attraction is the Q&A that Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger do from 9:30 to around 3. This is an amazing feat of public speaking - they take questions from the audience on any topic under the sun and, completely off the cuff, come up with informative and funny answers for hours on end. Most of the time, Warren will do most of the talking, and Charlie will come in with well-timed zingers. There's also a funny video they show at 8:30, and a large exhibit hall showing products from some of the many Berkshire-associated companies. Also, there are assorted parties at other venues through the weekend.
OK, enough background - now to our story. I had thought about asking a question at the meeting for a couple of years, and Nancy was interested in asking one for her book. Now, in theory anyone can ask a question - you just have to be first in line at one of the dozen or so designated mikes around the arena. But, considering there would be around 30,000 people there and Buffett normally gets to maybe 60 questions, I didn't have high hopes. (Foreshadowing alert) Little did we know that not only would we get to ask our questions, but we would each be the recipient of a vintage Charlie Munger zinger (thus the title of this piece)!
Luckily, we got together the night before the meeting with Mike and June Klein and a bunch of other people from the Motley Fool boards. I was talking to Mike about asking a question, and he mentioned that though he had never wanted to, someone he knew had said that the mike in the overflow room was a good place to go for that (this is a side room with video feed that people can go to when the main arena fills up).
So, the next day we arrived at the Qwest Center a minute or so before the doors opened at 7 AM to find a mass of humanity:
We walked by the mass to the main entrance area, and despaired of getting in quickly due to the huge line snaking all over. However, within a couple of minutes after the doors opened the social contract broke down entirely and people just started going right for the doors. We joined the mob - here's the mass of humanity inside shorty afterward:
They later announced the crowd in attendance this year at around 31,000. Now, my initial plan had been to go to the main arena and try and find a mike up in a corner somewhere where the line to ask questions might be shorter. But, we remembered what Mike said about the overflow room. We had no idea where that room was, but, shortly after we went up that escalator, I saw it appear like a mirage on our left. We cut away from the crowd charging for the main arena, walked right into the huge, completely deserted overflow room, and promptly signed ourselves up as number 1 and 2 on the list for that mike. This was shortly after 7:00. Considering the Q&A was going to start at 9:30, and our mike was the last in the rotation, this barely gave us 3 or 4 hours to schmooze with Mike and June, finalize our questions, and rehearse asking them. It was tight but we just made it.
Nancy went first, asking Buffett what advice he would give introverts to help them raise their visibility in their careers. Buffett lit up like a Christmas tree! You could tell this was something close to his heart. He began by saying, amazingly, that he used to be terrified of public speaking - even the thought of it was enough to make him physically ill. He told a funny story about signing up for a Dale Carnegie course for $100 in New York, then going home and stopping payment on the check ("you're looking at a real man of courage here!"). He said that the ability to communicate, both in writing and orally, is enormously important and undertaught. And, he told Nancy that she was doing something very worthwhile if she was able to help introverts get outside of themselves (at this point I must admit I was starting to seethe with jealousy!)
And, just to add the cherry on the sundae, Munger chimed in:
"It is a pleasure to have an educator come who is doing something simple and important rather than foolish and unimportant!"
I went next, around an hour later. I knew that both Buffett and Munger had on some occasions made really big bets, putting 25% or more of the bankroll into one position. I asked for some examples like this and what their thinking was at the time - while I'm not confident enough to make such large bets myself, I figured it would at least be instructive to go back over some examples where Buffett and Munger were. Buffett wasn't as delighted with my question as he was with
NANCY'S (
mutter mutter), but I found their answer interesting. First, they did give some particular examples, including Cap Cities and Coca Cola back when they originally bought (I believe in the 70's and 80's), and junk bonds in 2002. They also proved to be even more extreme about concentrating than I thought - Buffett said there were quite a few occasions he could think of when he would have been comfortable putting 75% in one position, and Munger talked about over 100% (as Buffett noted, this might require a friendly banker). Interesting for me to hear since my hands start shaking at around 10%! And, I personally would advise you not to try it at home - to use John Train's metaphor, this is like swinging a tennis racket as hard as you can - works if you're Andre Agassi, but likely to result in a lost ball otherwise.
And then Charlie topped it off with a good food-for-thought zinger, going something like: "Conventional investment theory sees safety in diversification. This is exactly bass-ackwards. The whole point of investing is to find things where it's safe NOT to diversify."
Kind of high off the experience but reeling a bit, we staggered back to Mike's block of seats and rested for a while before going to the exhibit hall. More on that later ...
Isaac
This also gives a good view of my full blinged-out meeting outfit. If you look closely at my chest, you can even see the small LED scrolling-message pendant, which I programmed stock ticker-style to keep repeating BRKA ... 40,000,000 ...
Unbelievably, as far as I saw they didn't have the best company mascot of all, the Geico Caveman! Here's some more pics from around the exhibit floor. A Geico custom bike:
A Geico racing boat:
A horrible painting of Buffett that some artist did before the meeting (with Benjamin Moore paints - a Berkshire subsidiary):
Nancy behind the wheel of a camper:
and myself relaxing on the bed of said camper:
And a great freebie they were handing out at the Mars/Wrigley booth - a bag of special edition M&M's with little pictures of Warren printed on (I really hope I can resist eating these ... )
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