Warren E. Buffett – The Legend or A Clown?!

As naturally curious, this question has been haunting me for a comparatively long period of time as   I have difficulty in thinking through how a great country US as the global leader with the most successful investing legend turned out to be jeopardized by itself in significant debts at global scale as reported by news worldwide. 

As the worldly famous investor and former No.1 richest man, Warren E. Buffett gained his reputation not only because of his record high investing returns, but also his national patriotic spirit with many influential mottos that inspire investors over generations. Such as “We can afford to lose money- even a lot of money, but lose A shred of reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless.” (Cited His testimony at Congress hearing, a selective summary of his mottos will be listed at the end of this writing). Honestly I was and still am a fan of this sentence particularly  because it inspires me to be a better person in the journey of growth personally and professionally. However, reality shakes me up with question “The Legend or A Clown” due to inconsistencies between his words and actions. 

Since tremendously notable cash hoard by Berkshire Hathaway Inc reaches to US$270 billion, I assume investors around the world would wonder how this Legendary Beacon is about to maneuver this significant resource to do something good even if not for the world but least for his own country US. However, as a nerd what troubles me is his recent massive cashing out and purchases of short term national debt rather than investing in industries to revitalize domestic core competitive strengths (eg. Banking, Airline, Retail, etc). Meanwhile, while interest rates stay high at global levels as governmental efforts to curb the inflation issues, the simple math tells me Berkshire Hathaway led Mr. Warren Buffett is going to make loads of fortune during the most difficult time of its motherland, thanks to its tremendous amount of cash in hoard. By contrast, Banks are trapped, financial institutions are scratching heads for survival solutions. Then it leads me to further question how a person presents his patriotism by actions instead of words, if reputation is the Most honorable standard held by heart.

Insurance, as the major business upheld and promoted proudly by Mr. Warren Buffett, I assume its conduct mode might be the guiding line in the industry least in US. If my memory still functions well, Mr. Warren used to publicly express his concerns over medical situation and would love to do something positive to change it. However, I only accidentally found some videos about how Americans are still struggling with their health and medical care journey. Furthermore, as learnt(pls correct me if am wrong🫡) that insurance as a service product is required to affiliate when buying a house in US, so I wonder how those home displaced people being taken care after natural disasters. Well, if you tell me this part is not included in insurance, then my question goes to why I should by an insurance for my house. Please lecture me more since I am just a nerd with very limited access to knowledges and resources. Although the construction or renovation businesses received lucky cookies from Berkshire Hathaway months ago, I wonder how the results/return of those investments would be. 

Anyway, I don’t know if Mr. Warren likes cookie or not but candy must definitely be his most favorite, otherwise, why it’s always been picked up and enjoyed mouth-fully by him at Annual Investor Meetings. Btw, how’s its (Candy) offline (outside the meetings) sales? 🤔 

As a rookie I learnt a lot from Mr. Buffett at his annual investor meetings, even though sometimes I really have difficulties in understanding his messages and sharing, especially his answers to questions by attendances. (Maybe I am just a nerdy turtle, my fault 🤦‍♀️) The first time I learnt the terminology of “EBITA” was from those meetings which literally engraved in my brain cell because those extremely despising descriptions by the legends. Therefore, I assume businesses that applied EBITA must always be far away from spectrums of Mr.Buffett and His Family Connections. 👍🫡

I can understand Mr. Warren’s investing philosophy and favorite of business with high dividends returned to investors, but ONE ghost question that haunts me is how Berkshire Hathaway distributes to its investors with dividends, though I do notice that the stock price of Berkshire Hathaway is the highest on earth. Then I start wondering whether any bubble in it Too, since billions of dollars has been lost due to its historical investment failure as Mr.Warren announced himself at meetings. There is always risk in investing, NO one can get 100% wins, however, I wonder what if some of those loss could be saved and used in other areas for good like supporting poor families with education, medicine, etc. Anyway, I am just too poor to figure how to better utilize that kind of resources at industrial and global level, given my grass root background. 🤦‍♀️ 

Love for lifelong reading is the only thing I can call it a common ground I shared with a legend like Mr. Warren, this kind of connection makes me heartwarmingly honorable. ☺️  Driven by curiosity and desire for learning more about how to be a proficient and professional investor, I have no choice but to follow up every update related to Mr.Buffett since he is the beacon in investing industry. (Which I assume I am not the only one as his Fan) 

However, the more I learn, the Harder questions jammed in my idiotic head which hurt my Brain Cell big time. Could it be called Proficient for timing sell due to access to the first hand information before others? (Well, I can not argue with that since privilege does exist. 😂) Could it be called Professional for selling while telling others it’s still good to hold in hand? (Well, I can not argue with that if that’s the rule of the game.🥹) Then I wonder what the difference between Leader-guiding and Pig-butchering?  Frankly speaking, I am confused with what this legend taught me by his words and actions. As a poor grass root rookie, it might not hurt me too much, but I wonder what kind of environment in this field would be, while this particular industry is vital and essential to each country, business and institution. And what kind of consequence or ripple effect would be at a sensitive moment of time domestically and globally? Well, Mr. Buffet has great patience to experience market turbulence as proved by his age, however, the question, to general Economies and Businesses that Berkshire Hathaway (under Mr. Buffett’s lead) already involved and holds, is how long it would take roughly for them to survive with so many uncertainties in face. As a worldly well-known investing legend, I assume people would love to hear him out about how to revitalize the environment instead of watching him cashing out while most others are in trouble or struggling. 

Finally, in short what the definition of Reputation should be for a well known figure at this global stage?! 🤔

Some Mottos by Mr. Warren E. Buffett 

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

“I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will”

“You can’t make a Good deal with a Bad person.”

“The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.”

“What’s nice about investing is you don’t have to swing at every pitch. The trick in investing is just to sit there and watch pitch after pitch go by and wait for the ONE RIGHT in your sweet spot.”

“There seems to be some Perverse Human Characteristic that likes to make Easy thing Difficult.”

“I’m no genius, but I’m IN spots, and I Stay Around those spots.”

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about it, you’ll do things Differently.” 

“You only have to do a very Few things Right in your life so long as you Don’t do too many things Wrong.” 

“Marry the right person. It will Change all kinds of things.”

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