[0:01]
WarrenWell, I would use the approach that I think I'm using now of trying to search out businesses that were I think they're selling at the lowest price relative to the discounted cash they would produce in the future. But if I were working with a small amount of money, the universe would be huge compared to the universe of possible ideas I work with now. I think that I think if you're working with a small amount of money with exactly the same background, that Charlie and I have, and same ideas, same whatever ability we have. You know, I think you can make very significant sums, but you, but as soon as you start getting the money up into the millions, many millions, the curve on expectable results falls off just dramatically. But that's the nature of it. You've got a lot, you know, when you, when you get up the things you can put millions of dollars into, you've got a lot. lot of competition looking at that, and they're not looking as I did when I started. When I started, I went through the pages of the manuals, page by page. I mean, I probably went through 20,000 pages in the Moody's industrial transportation, banks, and finance manuals, and I did it twice. And I actually, you know, looked at every business. I didn't look very hard at some. Well, that's not a practical way to invest tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. So I would say if you're working with a small sum of money, that, and you're really interested in the business and willing to do the work, you can, you will find something, if you were, there's no question about it in my mind. You will find some things that promise very large returns compared to what we will be able to deliver with large sums of money. Charlie?
CharlieWell, yeah, I think that's right. A brilliant man who can't get any money from other people and is working with a very small sum. Probably should work in very obscure stuff. ducks searching out unusual mispriced opportunities. But, you know, you could, that's such a small world. It may be a way for one person to come up, but it's a long slog. Yeah, most smart people, unfortunately, in Wall Street figured that they can make a lot more money, a lot easier, just by one way or another, getting an override on other people's money or delivering services in some way that people, and the monetization of hope and greed you know, is a way to make a huge amount of money. It's just astounding to me how willing people are during a bull market, just to toss money around
[3:01]
Warrenbecause they, you know, they think it's easy. And, of course, that's what they felt about. Interest Stocks a few years ago. They'll think about something else next year, too. But the biggest money made, you know, in Wall Street in recent years, has not been made by great performance, but it's been made by great promotion, basically.
WarrenCharlie, do you have anything?
CharlieWell, I would state it even more strongly. I think the current scene is obscene. I think there's too much mania. There's too much chasing after easy money. There's too much. misleading sales material about investments. There's too much on the television emphasizing speculation in stocks.