2012: If Buffett had to start over, what would he focus on?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Good morning, Warren and Charlie. Glad you’re feeling well.
My name is Ryan Boyle, and I’m 26 and working for a private equity firm in Chicago.
If you were me and had the chance to start over, what areas would you look to get into?
And do you think that my generation will have the same number of opportunities as yours? And if not, would you look to focus on emerging markets?
WARREN BUFFETT: Oh, I think you have all kinds of opportunities.
I would probably do very much what I have done in life, except I’d do it — I’d try and do it a little earlier, and I would have tried to be a little bit better when I was running a partnership, in terms of aggregating the money faster.
I used to work with $5,000 contributions from partners and, you know, I would try to develop an audited record of performance as early as I could.
I would try to attract some money, and then when I’d build up a fair amount of money out of investing, I would try to get into something much more interesting, which would be buying businesses to keep.
You mentioned private equity, which very often is buying businesses to sell. I don’t want to be buying and selling businesses. I mean, if I establish relationships with people that come to me with their business, and they want to join Berkshire, I want it to be for keeps.
And that’s been enormously satisfying. But it takes some capital to get into that business, and I didn’t have any capital when I started out, so I built it through managing money for myself and other people, combined.
And like I say, I would get us through that process as fast as I could and then into a game where I could buy businesses of significance and interest to me. And I’d spend the rest of my life doing it, just as I’ve done.
Charlie?
CHARLIE MUNGER: Well, I’ve got nothing to add to that, either.
WARREN BUFFETT: And I’d do it with Charlie, incidentally. (Laughs)