Managing capital is lifting a finger. People who can't manage it destroy lives en masse. The terrible and stupid idea "it's only money" is evil incarnate.
<His philosophy was simple: For example, if he had an investment in the newspaper company you delivered papers for, or the cement company that you lugged those sacks for, or in the railway that carried them, he understood that the wealth created by his investment was built upon the backs of hardworking people such as yourself. He didn't lift a finger, so to speak; it was the likes of folks such as yourself doing all the real work, thus the wealth would be returned to the workers of society who actually created it.>
My back-strengthening work was to enable me to save money and get to the stage where I could invest, which happened by the time I was 6 and started earning interest in my ASB bank account, and became a dinkum capitalist at 16 when I bought my first shares, in Mt Isa mines, which I sold and used the gains to buy a Yamaha YDS5E to replace my aged and decrepit BSA Bantam Major. I had already used earnings and interest to buy a newer bicycle when I was about 14, with drop handle bars and actual gears. The bikes were wealth. Especially the newer ones which replaced the old ones.
The people who organized the capital and projects on which I worked were the ones who created more value than I did. I just moved stuff around as per directions. I didn't plan the thickness of the concrete or the number or size of steel rods to put in. As a scaffolder, I was just the help while the ticketed scaffolder told me where to put the bars. If we put it together incorrectly, we would have fallen 9 stories onto hard ground so I appreciated his know-how and that of the engineers who designed the bolts which had to not break. My work wasn't the "real" work. It was just part of it. The real work is the thinking work. A well trained monkey can wheel concrete in a wheel barrow and climb bare foot around on scaffolding like I did. A monkey would do it better as they could grip with their feet as well as their hands. Warren Buffet does the real work. I do the real work now, managing capital.
Warren Buffett doesn't think "real work" is the back-strengthening work. He knows the value of great management. You can read what he says about them and the companies they run. He knows a monkey is useless unless told what to do by the investors and managers. Giving a monkey a pitchfork and stupid envious ideology and telling him to "go and get that there wealth which belongs to you" is not going to end up well for the monkey, or anyone else.
Mqurice |
