In May 2022 I went to the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. I wanted to share with you some of the thoughts regarding this annual meeting that has been happening for many decades. It was my first time there and wanted to share my favorite points over a very memorable 4 day weekend that ended up costing $2,000. This meeting was not in full capacity, just 85% full, lower than previous years. This was due to COVID restrictions reducing the number of Chinese audience members that would attend. Previous years would include guests standing in the audience who did not line up at 4am in the line. Some experienced users ended up bringing a lawn chair to sit on and move as the lin; clearly, they had been there more than once. I attended the weekend with TIP, The Investor’s Podcast which focuses on value investing. This group of 95% men was the strongest group of men that I had ever met. I was stunned at the people in the group. Many of them were in their 20s and 30s, and quite a few were self made millionaires and multi-millionaires. They were strong, independent, hard working, strong values, voracious readers, ambitious, motivated, high energy, positive. I had never met a group quite like this. Most people have died at 25 but aren’t buried until they are 75. They operate as NPC zombies during the day, and to see the opposite was just stunning.  It really is true that you become the people around you. They left me a positive impression to become better, inspired and motivated to reach higher heights.

The greed of the attendees, even more so for those older in years, was quite astonishing. There was a lot of famous people that attended, the ones I saw by face included: Bill Gates, Li Lu, Mohnish Pabrai, Guy Spier, Tobias Carlisle, Tim Cook, Jamie Dimon. There were many more that I either did not know the names of or did not see entirely. I only saw their faces for 3 seconds before they got swarmed by many older people. They were trying to ask for autographs and get photos taken. It was akin to vultures seeing fresh meat and pouncing on it. You could see the sheer greed on the faces of those running towards these famous people. What do you gain from a photo and autograph, and desperately trying to get this? To get some attention on social media? That attention is vain, shallow, and doesn’t actually tangibly improve your life.

Notes from the wisest themselves, vice chairman Charlie Munger and chairman Warren Buffett 2022. I managed to stay awake despite waking up at 3:30am to line up for the meeting. Here are my favorite takeaways:

-crypto is not cash
-hold cash as recession is coming and only buy when others are out of money
-lots of gamblers now in market on stocks and options
-bought occidental 14% share in 2 weeks, too much trading activity now by people who don’t know what they are doing advised by people who don’t know what they are doing
-get rich off gamblers, don’t be the gambler. One way is to sell options and not buy them, makes it easier to make money off gamblers
-complex options are no good, falsely change the value of the business itself
-shareholders trying to provide advice to Warren, and want Warren to meet with them due to their ownership of the company
-people only interested to ask Warren questions about money, per Warrens remarks
-do you end up being happy if you act in your own self-interest? Self-interested behaviour is far more typical when younger
-athletes are well overpaid, by the fans who are interested. Why are the fans paying these amounts?
-capitalism is narrow in rewards
-if people do well in life the 2nd half should be better than the 1st out of wisdom and recognition of the younger foolish ways. Should be embarrassed of 1st half life. They want to be judged based just on the 2nd half
-living a life of love is the best life
-when most people die, others primary reason to go to the funeral to make sure they are dead
-you can only learn some things by interacting with people
-people in self-interest end up doing very irrational things that causes there own life to be far worse
-life is self-selecting; your focus comes from your unconscious and your focus becomes your future
-keep learning
-why does it take so long for guys to learn it?
-a few times in life you change directions dramatically. Some people never get it
-to be kind, loving
-men can often make the wrong decision with women
-usually people are too late to wrong their mistakes
-it’s not wise to critique people but Charlie can’t help it
-be multi-disciplinary
-change may not occur in the way you want it
-once you start lying it’s all over
-people are more tribal today but will lead to problems
-they believe people get offended easily now

Disclaimer

This is not Financial Advice. This article is meant only for educational and perhaps entertainment purposes.