RWH057: Celebrating Warren Buffett w/ Joel Greenblatt, Nick Sleep, Tom Russo, Christopher Bloomstran & Chris Davis

We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network

Stig Brodersen

Education, Investing, Business

4.6 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2025

⏱️ 110 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special celebratory episode, William Green spotlights some of the most important lessons from the greatest investor of all time: Warren Buffett. In honor of Buffett’s historic decision to retire after 60 years as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO, William offers his thoughts on Buffett’s legacy & Berkshire’s future; he also shares powerful highlights from his conversations about Buffett with Joel Greenblatt, Nick Sleep, Thomas Russo, Chris Davis, Chuck Akre & Christopher Bloomstran. IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: 00:00 - Intro 04:20 - What makes Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting a joyous experience. 06:13 - How Warren Buffett’s virtues & values shone through at this year’s AGM. 14:51 - How he & Charlie Munger made most of their money off 8 or 9 big bets. 22:41 - What Buffett taught Joel Greenblatt about buying great businesses. 27:24 - What stunned Greenblatt when he finally met Buffett. 33:45 - Why Chuck Akre attributes his enormous success to Buffett’s teachings. 38:18 - What Thomas Russo learned from Buffett about reducing “agency risk.” 46:17 - How Buffett inspired Nick Sleep to do what he already knew was right. 52:34 - Why Christopher Bloomstran thinks all CEOs should study Berkshire. 1:19:54 - Why Buffett focuses relentlessly on resilience in the face of extreme risks. 1:22:48 - What principles guide Greg Abel’s philosophy of asset allocation. 1:26:00 - Why Berkshire directors like Chris Davis vow to protect its unique culture. 1:33:39 - How he achieved staggering success without making enemies. Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Join Clay and a select group of passionate value investors for a retreat in Big Sky, Montana. Learn more ⁠here⁠. Join the exclusive ⁠TIP Mastermind Community⁠ to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Stig, Clay, Kyle, and the other community members. Berkshire Hathaway’s annual reports since 1995. Robert Hagstrom’s book The Warren Buffett Way. Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends & Influence People. William Green’s podcast episode with Joel Greenblatt. William Green’s podcast episode with Thomas Russo. William Green’s podcast episode with Christopher Bloomstran. William Green’s podcast episode with Chris Davis. William Green’s book, “Richer, Wiser, Happier” – ⁠read the reviews of this book⁠. Follow William Green on ⁠X⁠. Check out all the books mentioned and discussed in our podcast episodes ⁠here⁠. Enjoy ad-free episodes when you subscribe to our ⁠Premium Feed⁠. NEW TO THE SHOW? Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, ⁠The Intrinsic Value Newsletter⁠. Check out our ⁠We Study Billionaires Starter Packs⁠. Follow our official social media accounts: ⁠X (Twitter)⁠ | ⁠LinkedIn⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Facebook⁠ | ⁠TikTok⁠. Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) ⁠here⁠. Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: ⁠TIP Finance Tool⁠. Enjoy exclusive perks from our ⁠favorite Apps and Services⁠. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the ⁠best business podcasts⁠. SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our ⁠sponsors⁠: ⁠SimpleMining⁠ ⁠⁠Hardblock⁠ ⁠AnchorWatch⁠ ⁠Fundrise⁠ ⁠DeleteMe⁠ ⁠CFI Education⁠ ⁠Vanta⁠ ⁠The Bitcoin Way⁠ ⁠Onramp⁠ ⁠Indeed⁠ ⁠Shopify⁠ HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a ⁠rating and review⁠ on ⁠Spotify⁠! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to TIP.
0:02.8	Hi, folks. Welcome back to the richer, wiser, happier podcast. I'm thrilled to be here with you
0:08.4	again today for a special celebratory episode that I hadn't planned at all, but that I
0:13.6	decided to record because something really truly historic has happened. As I'm sure you know by
0:19.6	now, a few days ago on May 3rd,
0:21.9	Warren Buffett made a massive announcement at the end of his annual shareholder meeting in Omaha.
0:28.1	After six decades as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, he declared that the timers arrived for Greg
0:34.3	Abel to become the CEO of Berkshire at the end of this year. It's hard to
0:39.8	overstate the importance of this milestone because it marks the end of an era in the spectacular
0:46.3	story of this legendary investor, business leader, and role model. The scale of Buffett's
0:53.0	achievements is astounding. Over the last 60 years,
0:57.6	he's built Berkshire Hathaway into a behemoth with a market value of about $1.2 trillion,
1:04.4	with almost 400,000 employees with huge stakes in companies like Apple and American Express and Coca-Cola,
1:12.5	not to mention insurance operations, energy, railroads, and consumer businesses,
1:17.6	like Dairy Queen and DuraCell and Benjamin Moore and Fruit of the Loom.
1:22.7	Oh yeah, he's also sitting on almost $350 billion in cash.
1:29.3	Since Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway, back in 1965, he's racked up an average return
1:35.8	of 19.9% a year, versus 10.4% a year for the S&P 500. According to Berkshire Hathaway's latest annual report, Berkshire's stock price has risen by 5,502,284% since
1:55.0	1965.
1:57.0	That means Berkshire stock has outperformed the S&P by more than 5.46 million percentage points,
2:04.9	so much for markets being so efficient that it's impossible to outperform them.
2:10.3	The scale of Buffett's outperformance has been staggering, but as we'll discuss, it's not just
	...

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