I found out about James J. Hill from Charlie Munger.

Munger said that Hill was a great operator like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carney.

And I thought that was very high praise.

And what jumps out when you read a biography on James J. Hill is just how difficult Hill was to compete with.

And in this biography, they are constantly comparing the way Hill runs his business to his main competitors. And here's one

example. It says many observers would later compare Hill with Henry Villard. The comparison was inevitable.

While Hill was building carefully and checking his costs minutely, Villard built in ignorance of his

costs. Amid mounting deficits, Villard was then forced to resign the presidency.

Hill knew that the best defense against invading railroads was a better-built system that could

operate at lower rates. Well, just how sound was the system that James J. Hill built? Well,

the Great Northern Railway lasted from 1889 to 1970. Hill died in 1916.

That's over 50 years after he died, and you'll think that you'll find this interesting.

The Great Northern Railway in 1970 is merged into the Burlington Northern Railway,

which then the Burlington Northern Railways merged in 1996 to the BNSF Railway. And in 2010, Warren Buffett bought the BNSF Railway. Buffett still owns it to

this day. And this all started with James J. Hill. James J. Hill knew that you could find a competitive

advantage if you controlled your costs better than your competition. In fact, Sam Walton said exactly

that. Sam Walton said, control your expenses better than your competition. In fact, Sam Walton said exactly that. Sam

Walton said, control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always

find the competitive advantage for 25 years running long before Walmart was known as the nation's

largest retailer. We ranked number one in our industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales.

Anyone who is committed to being great at building their business is obsessed with watching

their costs.

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