QuestionerWhat do you do to keep you from making the same mistake twice?
WarrenThe best thing to do is learn from other guys' mistakes. I mean, it's like Patton used to say, you know, it's an honor to die for your country. Make sure the other guy gets the honor, you know. So our approach is really to try and learn vicariously, but there's a lot of mistakes that I've repeated. I can tell you that. The biggest one, probably the biggest category over time, is being reluctant to pay up a little for a business I knew was really outstanding or to continue to buy it at higher prices when I knew it was outstanding. So the cost of that have been in many, many billions. And I'll probably keep making that mistake. There are, the mistakes are made when there are businesses you can understand and they're attractive and you don't do something about it. I don't worry at all about the mistakes to come about because when I met Bill Gates, I didn't buy Microsoft or something. That's not my game. But the mistakes are made when you, most of our mistakes have been mistakes of omission rather than commission. Charlie?
CharlieYeah, I think most people get very few what I call no-brainer opportunities where it's just so damned obvious that this is. is going to work. And since they are very few and they may be separated by periods of years, I think people have to learn to have the courage and the intelligence to step up in a major way when those rare opportunities come by. Yeah, you've got to be willing to take a really big bite. And it's crazy if you don't. And it's crazy if you dabble around at the edges so you're not prepared to take a big bite when the time comes.