After a two week recovery period from the European Luxury Tour I was ready for the pilgrimage to Omaha for the Warren Buffett Trek. Our group of twenty-something flew out of Boston around 8pm on Thursday. The flight was delayed an hour and our connection in Milwaukee looked like it was going to be close. Upon our arrive in Milwaukee we ran to catch our connection only to discover that the flight had been delayed an hour and a half and would now be leaving at 12am for a 1:30am arrival in Omaha.
After catching a few hours of sleep we were up and out at 7:30am to head over to the Nebraska Furniture Mart. This is a company that Berkshire Hathaway purchased from Mrs. B. Mrs. B arrived in the US from Russia not speaking a word of English. She eventually acquired the language from her daughter who would teach her English from what she was learning in school. Eventually she saved up enough money to start the business and through hard work (hard work is probably an understatement), great prices, and exceptional customer service grew it to what it is today. Mrs. B worked in the store 7 days a week until the ripe old age of 103. The highlight of the tour had to be our stop in the recliner section. Just picture 150 sleep-deprived MBAs rocking in super comfortable recliners fighting sleep; we almost lost a few in that section. Our guide told us of the story of Warren introducing a mattress called the "Nervous Nellie" after the start of the recession. The secret of the mattress was it had a built in storage area for valuables. Here is the ad from youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF5LKpLPGrQ
After the furniture mart it was off to the Field Club of Omaha for a question and answer session with Mr. Buffett himself. The first thing I quickly realized about Mr. Buffett is that he is incredibly down to earth and quite funny. My favorite quote from the session had to be him describing what we should do with the drinks they had provided for the event. “We own 8% of Coca-Cola, they’re free here, we get the profit off 1 in 12 cokes, I don’t care what you do with it, pour it on your neighbor, just open the damn can.” One of the main themes he spoke about was the concept of looking for companies with moats around them because “In capitalism, someone always wants your castle.” He also spoke about how the tax system we have strongly favors the wealthy and commented that "the rising tide lifts all yachts." In terms of investing he recommended sticking to your circle of competence and it didn't matter how large this circle was as long as you knew the perimeter. When asked about how he decides to invest his personal time he responded with "I just do what I damn please." He elaborated that this meant an empty datebook, spending a lot of time reading, and about 12 hours a week spent online playing bridge (often against Bill Gates.)
From there it was on to Piccolo Pete's where he treated us to steak and one of his favorite treats, Root Beer Floats. After lunch he spent over an hour making sure everyone who wanted one was able to get a photo with him. This is again where his comedic side shone through. In one of the photos with a student he got down on one knee and pretended to propose to her, while in another he put two guys in a headlock. I can't imagine a PR representative from JP Mogran letting Jamie Dimon take photos like that, but then again Warren doesn't have PR people following him around so it's not a problem. In fact he didn't even use a chauffeur, and even drove a few student to lunch in his car.
In the afternoon we visited Borsheims and then had dinner at Gorat's. I think everyone on the trip was amazed at how down to earth and humble Mr. Buffett is. I pity the person who ever tries to show him with fancy math how much more money he could make by sacrificing his bridge time. The point he made is he knows he will never come close to spending even a fraction of his wealth so he only does what he enjoys, rest assured he has not remained at Berkshire for the money. One of the popular questions being asked right now is who will succeed him as the head of Berkshire Hathaway. I think the more important question is who will succeed him as a model for capitalism at its best and epitome of a classy and responsible business leader.
