From Dilly Bars to Squishmallows...Highlights from the 2025 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting.
May 5, 2025
Mr. Buffett, thank you. Your common sense approach to life is so refreshing and I love hearing you apply this to investing, economics and politics annually at your legendary shareholder meeting in our hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
At the 2025 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting with over 40,000 in attendance, Buffett not only wove wisdom about investing, economics, and politics into his responses, but did so with a focus on people and his personal philosophies, which was notably different.
Warren Buffet is my favorite orator of all time. I encourage my students to read every letter composed by Buffett for the BRK annual reports and the book that influenced him the most in life, The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. My 12-year-old nephew, who owns 2 shares of BRK.B, and whose favorite hobby is tracking stocks, received this book for his last birthday.
To say I will miss reading his letters and absorbing his wisdom at the annual meeting is a gross understatement. Given this statement, I understand change is necessary in life for all of us and look forward to welcoming the leadership of Greg Abel and witnessing the future of BRK under his leadership. I also appreciate Buffett reminding us that he will never sell one share of stock, as it will all be donated, and that he is not going far. He hopes to be around if, and when, the time is right to deploy BRK's capital.
Indeed, I did absorb a lot of Warren's wisdom this year, wisdom which I am sharing with you below. Please note that unless quotation marks are present, the words are my attempt at sharing his wisdom in a concise manner.
"Keep a lot of curiosity and read a lot."
Buffet thanked Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, for making more money for Berkshire Hathaway shareholders than he has. He also credited Charlie Munger for the strong push to expand beyond "Cigar Butt" companies, which led to the initial acquisition of Apple stock. Apple has been BRK's earnings superstar.
Warren reflected on how he spends more time looking at balance sheets than he does income statements. Wall Street does not pay much attention to balance sheets, but there are certain things that are harder to hide or play games with on the balance sheet, he shared. (I could not agree more, although I learned this from him!)
A young man asked Buffett what he would say to Benjamin Franklin if he was sitting with him in 1776 designing our country. “You just keep thinking and don’t talk to me because you’ll come up with some better ideas than I will. I would advise him to figure out how to win the game and do it with a certain amount of humility."
The healthcare industry, which is approximately 20% of GDP, is a tapeworm in the economy. The political power is too strong to overcome. We tried, but did not know how to kill the tapeworm. It won. (Reference to a joint effort among him, JPMorgan and Amazon to try to kill the tapeworm).
People have emotions, but you have to check them at the door when investing.
Buffett's reflection on the incredible buying opportunity in the stock market following the 1929 crash incited a roar of laughter, led by him. "I screwed that up." He was born on August 30, 1930.
"Minds are really different. I watch great bridge players, great physicians – people have really different talents. I think you’re supposed to have 88 billion cells in your brain. I’m not sure that all of mine are flashing bright lights, but you are different than anybody else. That’s what my dad always used to tell me – that you’re something different. It may not be good at the moment, but you find your own path."
“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” -Warren Buffett
The BRK Shareholder Meeting offers shareholders the opportunity to visit "booths" setup in the convention center to learn about the BRK companies and more importantly, purchase goods at a significant discount. On Friday, I brought my 6-year-old niece who was out of school for the day. She knew she was going to visit "stocks" but had no idea how much fun visiting "stocks" could be. Her favorite companies were Forest River (RVs), Dairy Queen, Oriental Trading, and Squishmallows. This future shareholder was enjoying her first ever Dilly Bar and entered into a chat with Troy Bader, CEO of Dairy Queen. When he asked her what her favorite Blizzard was, she said "I don't know...I don't know because I like them all." The conversation was captured by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. You can read more about it, Dairy Queen, and the BRK meeting here in the Star Tribune.
