Buffet as Gorilla Gamer
So last night I'm reading this article in the current Fortune by Warren Buffet, and I'm getting really depressed. I mean, it's all about how there's not a snowball's chance in hell that this stock market boom can continue much longer, how the next couple of decades will see solid real economic growth but nothing remotely like the market performance of the last couple, etc. etc. This seems to offer a choice: either I can lower my expectations dramatically, or be arrogant enough to think I know better than the greatest investor in history--neither an attractive proposition. And then...and then...and gentlemen and then... (remember Pippin?) I come across the following passage, after an implicit comparison of the internet to the automobile and air travel industries, which profited the world but not their investors:
"I won't dwell on other glamorous businesses that dramatically changed our lives but concurently failed to deliver rewards to U.S. investors: the manufacture of radios and televisions, for example. But I will draw a lesson from those businesses: The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage. The products or services that have wide, sustainable moats around them are the ones that deliver rewards to investors. [emphasis added]"
I start to smile...then to grin...and then to smirk. Yesssss! Warren is talking about gorillas! So I can retain my wild-eyed optimism and still be with WB rather than agin him, because what matters will be less general market performance than the performance of the companies in my portfolio, which as gorillas and kings can still rise up to meet the sky! At peace with the world, I ride out the dark night of the soul with thoughts of gorillas in the mists, beyond the dreams of avarice.
tekboy/Ares@valueinvestorsRus.com
PS Irwin Jacobs is my hero... |
