QuestionerWhat have you learned from the investments you did not make over the last few years that you now regret refraining from?
WarrenWell, the mistakes we made, and we made them, some of them big time, are of two kinds. One is when we didn't invest at all in something that we understood that was cheap, maybe because we weren't even working hard enough at looking at the whole list, or because for one reason or another, we just didn't take action. We didn't take action. And the second was starting in on something that could have been a very large investment and not maximizing it. Charlie is a huge believer in the idea that you don't sit around sucking your thumb when something comes along that should be done that you pour into it. And that's generally what we've tried to do. But there have been times, and it's usually happened when I've started buying something at X, and it went up to X plus an eighth or some. intolerable amount like that. And I quit or waited for it to come back, and we've missed in some cases billions of dollars of profit because of the fact that I'd gotten anchored, in effect, to some initial price when I could have paid more subsequently, and it really was inconsequential.
QuestionerDo you have anything worse to confess than Walmart?
WarrenNo, Walmart. I cost us about – I'd probably – It's up to $10 billion now. I cost us about $10 billion. I set out to buy $100 million shares of Walmart pre-split at about 23, and Charlie said it didn't sound like the worst idea I ever came up with, which is from him, I mean, just ungodly praise. And then, you know, we bought a little, and then it moved up a little bit, and I thought, well, you know, maybe it'll come back or what. who knows what I thought. I mean, you know, only my psychiatrist could tell me. And that thumb-sucking, reluctance to pay a little more, the current cost is in the area of $10 billion. But in the end, we're going to make a lot of mistakes at Berkshire, and we've made them in the past, we'll make them in the future. You know, if every shot you hit in golf was a hole in one, it wouldn't be, you know, the game would soon lose interest. So you have to hit you. get a few in the woods occasionally just to make it a little more interesting.