00:00If you take the modern world where people are trying to teach you how to come in and trade
00:05actively in stocks, well I regard that as roughly equivalent to trying to induce a bunch of young
00:11people to start off on heroin. It is really stupid. And when you're already rich to make
00:19your money by encouraging people to get rich by trading, then there are people on the TV,
00:25another wonderful place, and they say, I have this book that will teach you how to make 300% a year,
00:33and all you have to do is pay for shipping, and I will mail it to you. How likely is it that a person
00:41who had suddenly found a way to make 300% a year will be trying to sell books on the internet to you?
00:47Yeah, it's ridiculous. And yet, I've described modern commerce, and the people who do this all day
00:57think they're useful citizens. The advertising agents that invent the lingo, and so in insurance,
01:04they say, well, they say, the two people who shifted from Geico to the Guat's insurance company
01:11saved $400 each. What they don't tell you is there are only two such people in the whole United States.
01:17And they were both nuts. But they mislead you on purpose. And I get tired of it. And I don't think
01:27it's right that we deliberately mislead people as much as we do. Let me tell you another story that I
01:34think is an interesting one about the modern life. But this goes back to a different time. And this man
01:40has this wonderful horse. And it's just a marvelous horse. It's got an easy gait and good looking and
01:47everything. It just works wonderfully. But also occasionally just gets so he's dangerous and
01:52vicious and causes enormous damage and trouble and breaks arms and legs for his rider and so on.
01:59And he goes to the vet and says, what can I do about this horse? And the vet says, that's a very easy
02:04problem. And I'm glad to help you. What should I do? And the man says, the next time your horse
02:09is behaving well, sell it.
02:11Well, think of how immoral that is. And haven't I just described what private equity has to do?
02:25When private equity has to sell something that's really troublesome,
02:30they hire an investment banker. And what does the investment banker do? He makes a projection.
02:37You can't, I have never seen such expertise in my whole life as this created in making projections
02:47in investment banking. There is no business so lousy, you can't get a wonderful projection.
02:55And, but is that a great way to make a living, to have phony projections and use it to make money out
03:01of people you look right into the eyes of? I would say no. And
03:06by and large, Warren and I, we never tried to make money out of dumb, say out of stupidity of our dumb
03:15buyers. We tried to make money by buying. And if we were selling horse shit, we didn't want to
03:20pretend it was a cure for arthritis. And, and, and I think it's better to go through life our way
03:29instead of theirs. I think it's always been this way. I think there's always been chicanery. Think of
03:34the carnival. So, the carny operator. Think how much trickier there is in a carny operation. And
03:41people just seek out the weaknesses of their fellow man and take advantage. And you have to get wise
03:48enough so you, you avoid them all. And you can't avoid them if they're in your family. I have no
03:55solution to that one. But, but where you're have a fair choice, there are just so many people that
04:03should be avoided. My father had this best friend and client. And he also had this other client who
04:10is a big blowhard. And, and he was always working for the big blowhard and he wasn't ever working for
04:18his wonderful client whom I admired. And I said, why do you do this? And he said, Charlie, you idiot.
04:24He says, the big blowhard is an endless source of legal troubles. He's all always in trouble,
04:31overreaching and misbehaving and so forth. Where is it? Grant McFadden treats everybody right. The
04:38employees, the customers, everything. He gets involved with some psychotic. He walks over there and makes
04:43a great select immediately. So a man like that doesn't need a lawyer. And my father was trying
04:51to teach me something and it really worked. I spent my whole life trying to be like Grant McFadden.
04:56And I want to tell you, it works. It really works. Peter Hoffman is always telling me if the crooks
05:03only knew how much money you could make by being honest, they all behave differently. Warren has a
05:09wonderful saying I like. He says, you take the high road, it's never crowded.
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