Berkshire Annual Meeting Debrief

The question I can never quite seem to answer about Berkshire

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For the twelfth time, I returned from the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting with the same question: How can I bottle up and preserve this feeling?

Berkshire weekend is a whirlwind. It’s what you get when you combine intense passion for investing and life with a bunch of introverts there for the same reason. Lots of excited conversation about our favorite topics — go, go, go, crash. But I love it and wouldn’t change a thing.

I return to New Hampshire physically exhausted and mentally rejuvenated. The Berkshire weekend — the meeting and everything surrounding it — centers me. I reconnect with old friends and meet new ones. We discuss investing, life, family, philosophy, and so much more.

Hearing Warren, Greg, and Ajit talk about Berkshire’s business and the core values that have shaped Berkshire for decades reminds me that business is simple but not easy. That it is fun to be challenged and rewarding to do well by doing good for your customers, employees, and communities.

I come back feeling like I can do anything. Seeing what Greg Abel has accomplished and speaking with managers of Berkshire’s subsidiaries — some of them very big businesses — reminds me that they’re not superhuman. They’re just like me with 24 hours in the day. I have that same potential to do big and worthwhile things, bringing people along with me who want to be on the same ride.

I attended my third VALUExBRK event, hosted by the kind and generous

Guy Spier

and his talented and hardworking Aquamarine team of Chantal, Mariana, and David. One of the many incredible speakers at the event was Chris Davis, a Berkshire Hathaway director. Chris told us about Berkshire’s trust-based system and how trust is a “superpower” at Berkshire. What he described is Charlie Munger’s ideal of the seamless web of deserved trust. I’m continually looking for ways to incorporate such a trust-based system in my own life and business endeavors.

Another event I now attend regularly is the Gabelli panel on Friday morning and the Columbia Heilbrunn dinner in the evening. Again, an incredible amount of generosity from Mario Gabelli and his team and the amazing folks on the panels.

I mentioned generosity twice so far. You feel it in spades during the weekend. From free events which are far from free for the hosts, to new and old friends trying to outdo each other to pick up the check at bars/restaurants. It’s exactly what Warren talked about in terms of doing more than your fair share and not taking the credit. In this case, it’s picking up the tab. But it’s also a feeling that friends — new and old — genuinely want to take care of you.

How many events in 17,000-seat stadiums have you attended where people leave jackets, backpacks, even purses on their seats and go off to do something else? I’ve seen it every year inside the arena. Folks get their seats and head off to the exhibit hall, trusting their fellow owners/partners in Berkshire. Nowhere else could that occur aside from perhaps a nun’s convention (if such things exist on that scale).

Warren embodied this feeling of partnership in his final announcement of the 2025 AGM. He announced his retirement as CEO in front of his shareholder partners, all at once. The board of directors and the man replacing him didn’t even know first!

A local friend made the trip to Omaha for the first time this year, and I’m glad he did. It’s hard to explain to people who haven’t attended in person how a company the size of Berkshire can feel like a partnership. But it truly does.

I’ll write about the financial results in a future post. For now, I wanted to preserve my thoughts about what makes going to the Berkshire annual meeting special while it’s so fresh.

And, I think, therein lies my answer. To keep this feeling going will require ongoing maintenance. Where will you find me in early May in 2035, 2045, 2055, and beyond? In Omaha with my closest friends and business partners.

As always,

Stay Rational!

Adam

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