How Buffett caught Jack Ringwalt "in heat" · Transcript · BuffettMungerGPT

WarrenWell, Jack Ringwald, who ran national indemnity and some of you here in the room knew, Jack was a very interesting guy and a friend, and Jack, for 15 minutes every year, would want to sell national indemnity. Something would make him mad, a claim would come in or something of the sort. So for 15 minutes every year, he would want to sell. And I had a friend of mine, Charlie Heider, who may be here today, and I had discussed this phenomenon of Jack, being in heat once a year for 15 minutes, and I told Charlie, if you ever caught him in this a particular phase, to let me know. And there was a day that Charlie called and said, Jack's ready. And I said, well, get him over here. So he came about 11.30, and we made a deal in that 15-minute zone. And this is absolutely true. It's a fascinating story, because Jack, having made the deal, and we really did make it in 15-minute zone. minutes, Jack, having made the deal, really didn't want to do it. And, but he was, he wouldn't have backed out of a deal, but he said to me after, after we'd shaken hands, he said, well, he says, I suppose you'll want audited financial statements. And if I'd said, yes, he would have said, well, that's too bad, then we can't have a deal. So I said, I wouldn't dream of looking at audited financial statements. They're the worst kind, you know. And then Jack said to me, he says, I suppose you'll want me. me to sell my agencies. And to you as well, and I said, Jack, I wouldn't buy those agencies under any circumstances. If I'd said yes to that, he would, he would, he would, that I wanted him to sell the agency. He said, well, I wouldn't be able to do it more. And we must have misunderstood each other. So we went through about three or four of those. And finally, Jack gave up and sold me the business. He was an honorable guy. I mean, because he really, I don't think, wanted to do it. But we met down at Charlie's office at 19th, I think. Douglas and Jack was about 10 minutes late picking up this $7 million for national indemnity. He was about 10 minutes late because he was looking for a parking meter with a few minutes left on it. And that's when I knew he was my kind of guy.