by Tom Bradley

I wasn’t at the Berkshire Annual Meeting in Omaha this weekend, but watched a good portion of it via live streaming. Having been to the Woodstock for Capitalists before, I thought the Yahoo feed captured the essence of it very well.

What did I take away from this year’s Q&A with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger?

• With all the noise around the markets, it’s easy to forget about what we’re trying to achieve – i.e., in our case, solid long-term client returns. Warren and Charlie’s ambivalence to the short-term distractions is heartening. It kind of washes over you as the meeting goes on. It certainly helped me recalibrate my perspective.
• In a similar vein, their commentary reinforced the importance of patience and confidence in what you’re doing. For instance, in go-go times like we have now (extensive use of debt; high valuations; technology euphoria; and rampant real estate speculation), prudent strategies can look and feel outdated and irrelevant. But Warren and Charlie remind us that relative standing can change in a heartbeat.
• “Most people are trying to be brilliant. We’re just trying to be rational.” Brilliant.

You can read Berkshire’s Annual Report here.