Blog Anniversary and Berkshire Meeting

Today is a very special day – I’m not only celebrating 1 year since I started the blog, I’m also celebrating attending my very first Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting for Shareholders in Omaha, Nebraska. Berkshire Hathaway is Warren Buffett’s company and today was the first in-person meeting since 2019. 

The first blog post was published on April 30th 2021 and I want to share my deepest appreciation for you dear readers for an amazing year here on the blog and for all the encouragement I get from you – I truly appreciate that you’re reading along and remember that you can always request value investing topics you’d like to know more about.

Mohnish Pabrai

Today I'd like to share my experience at the annual meeting with you. It will be a different post than usual so if you are particularly interested in investing topics scroll down to the headline: Investing Learnings. For those of you who’re curious about my time at the annual meeting, continue to read and I’ll share some highlights – if you want all the details, go follow me on Instagram or Facebook where I share every little moment (and on Instagram you'll find highlighted stories under highlights "BRK Meet 2022").

Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Meeting

The biggest highlight of the trip was definitely when I was sitting in the CHI Health Center and watching Buffett and his business partner Charlie Munger on stage. My 2020 trip got canceled so it was 2 years of excitement that was finally released, and I had goosebumps and a heart filled with gratitude.

Another highlight was attending Aquamarine Funds Friday night dinner, a very intimate and beautiful dinner party with Guy Spier’s family, friends, and business relations. I’m so grateful to have been invited to this very special event and it was so intimate and with extraordinary people there that I forgot to take photos. I also wasn't quick enough to snap a photo of Bill Gates who I got a chance to quickly greet outside the hotel after the party.

William Green and Guy Spier at CHI Health Center

Meeting Michelle Marki was absolutely one of the highest points of the trip. Michelle and I spent the first day biking around town and on a hotel rooftop terrasse we met a super inspiring tech-CEO, who just came from a meeting with Buffett and Munger and showed pictures of him and Buffett and shared many personal and inspirational stories with Michelle and I. We promised not to reveal his identity. Michelle and I had so many great experiences together throughout the week. I’m so grateful to have gotten to know her.

Michelle Marki

Becky Quick

Also many warm thoughts and gratitude to Lori Spier and Erica, Chantal Hackett, William Green, Gillian Zoe Segal, Adam Mead, Mohnish Pabrai, Becky Quick, Namitha Somasundaram, Stefania Figueroa, Zoe Zhang, Sharon Roush, Rocky Price, Troy Eller and the other blue dot’ers.


Adam Mead

Investing Learnings

I need to reflect on the meeting and watch it again on Youtube. Some of the most impactful answers from the Q&A was the fact that the 3 largest index funds have extreme power in companies. Today many people invest in index funds - you might be one of them if you’ve invested in an EFT like SPY or VOO that’s tracking the S&P 500. The result is that the index funds become the largest shareholders of multiple businesses and that they end up having so much decision power in those companies. When so many businesses are impacted by these 3 funds there are many implications for example that there’s a lack of diversity in opinions, there are a tendency to vote for what is popular and trendy which is not necessarily great for shareholders and a majority of companies now have the same direction because it’s the same 3 funds that impacts the direction in the businesses. Very interesting insights. 

My seat at the meeting

Another reflection is that Munger and Buffett were in a brilliant mood, and I could be wrong, but it felt like they were more humorous than ever before and ping-ponged one funny quote from one to the other. Finally, Buffett did not buy back shares of Berkshire Hathaway in April 2022 which could indicate that the stock price reached the company’s intrinsic value (the actual worth of the business: machines, buildings, etc. etc.). Buffett only buys back stock when the price is cheaper than the intrinsic value of the business.

This was a condensed version of everything that happened from the past couple of days. I’m here in the hotel room filled with gratitude and joy. Tomorrow the fun and games continues…

Apple CEO Tim Cook



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