Skip to content

2026-05-15 Book Summaries

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

The Snowball: Warren Buffett Wisdom Notes#

Cleaned notes from The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder.

Purpose: keep the practical lessons about life, business quality, valuation, capital allocation, risk, and choosing investments.

Core Lessons#

Compounding Is the Main Idea#

Buffett’s life is built around one idea: a small snowball, rolled for a long time, can become enormous.

Important implications:

  • Money today is worth far more if it can compound for decades.
  • Avoid interrupting compounding with debt, panic, taxes, fees, or emotional decisions.
  • Time is the friend of a good business and the enemy of a bad one.
  • A great investment does not need constant activity. Often the hard part is buying well and then sitting still.

Buffett’s early habit was to treat every dollar as future capital. Even small purchases felt expensive if he imagined what that money could become after years of compounding.

Rule One: Do Not Lose Money#

Buffett’s famous rule is not about avoiding temporary price drops. It is about avoiding permanent loss of capital.

Permanent loss usually comes from:

  • Paying too much.
  • Using debt.
  • Buying a business you do not understand.
  • Owning a weak business that keeps needing more capital.
  • Trusting projections instead of economics.
  • Ignoring management quality.

Volatility is not the same as risk. Risk is the chance that the investment permanently damages your purchasing power.

Margin of Safety#

Benjamin Graham taught Buffett that a stock is not a ticker symbol. It is part ownership of a business.

The investor’s job:

  1. Estimate what the business is worth.
  2. Pay much less than that value.
  3. Leave room for mistakes, bad luck, and imperfect information.

This gap between value and price is the margin of safety.

Circle of Competence#

Buffett avoided businesses he could not understand well enough to value.

That means:

  • Do not buy just because something is popular.
  • Do not buy because someone smarter bought it.
  • Do not buy a story that requires complex forecasting.
  • Prefer businesses where the important variables are understandable.

The goal is not to know everything. The goal is to know the boundary of what you understand.

Inner Scorecard#

Buffett cared deeply about winning, but he also developed an “inner scorecard”: judging decisions by his own standards rather than by outside applause.

Useful questions:

  • Would I still do this if nobody knew?
  • Am I trying to look smart or trying to be right?
  • Am I following a crowd because uncertainty is uncomfortable?
  • Would I be comfortable owning this business if the stock market closed for five years?

Mr. Market and Temperament#

Graham’s “Mr. Market” lesson is central to Buffett’s investing temperament.

The market is there to serve you, not instruct you. Some days it offers a silly high price. Some days it offers a silly low price. You do not have to agree with either one.

Practical rules:

  • A falling price is not automatically bad if business value is intact.
  • A rising price is not proof that the investment was wise.
  • Use market emotion as an opportunity, not as a guide.
  • Do not let quoted prices replace business judgment.
  • Temperament matters more than IQ once the basic accounting and valuation work is understood.

Life Wisdom#

Reputation Is Fragile#

Buffett’s lesson from Salomon Brothers: it can take a lifetime to build a reputation and only minutes to lose it.

Practical rule:

  • Report bad news quickly.
  • Do not hide mistakes.
  • Do not do anything you would be ashamed to see reported publicly.

Good news takes care of itself. Bad news must be handled fast.

Choose People Carefully#

Buffett learned early that some people are difficult to deal with. The practical lesson is not to fight everyone. It is to avoid unnecessary dealings with people who drain energy, behave dishonestly, or make life complicated.

From Dale Carnegie, Buffett kept several interpersonal lessons:

  • Do not criticize, condemn, or complain.
  • Give honest and sincere appreciation.
  • Remember that people want attention and respect.
  • Use a person’s name.
  • Ask questions instead of giving orders.
  • If you are wrong, admit it quickly.
  • Give people a good reputation to live up to.

Work With People You Admire#

Buffett’s career advice:

  • Work with people you admire.
  • Do not take a job only because it is a stepping stone.
  • If your stomach turns before work, you are probably in the wrong place.
  • Find work that keeps you learning.

The One-Car Lesson#

Buffett’s “genie” lesson: imagine you are given any car you want, but it must last your whole life.

You would maintain it carefully.

The point: you only get one mind and one body. Treat them as long-term assets.

Wealth and Family#

Buffett believed inherited wealth can harm people if it removes the need to develop judgment, work ethic, and independence.

His ideal was to give children enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.

Business Wisdom#

What Makes a Good Business?#

A great business usually has:

  • High returns on capital.
  • Durable customer demand.
  • Pricing power.
  • Low need for constant reinvestment.
  • Honest and capable managers.
  • A product or service customers repeatedly use.
  • A moat that competitors cannot easily copy.

Buffett moved from Graham’s cheap “cigar butt” investments toward Munger’s view: it is better to buy a wonderful business at a fair price than a fair business at a wonderful price.

Moats#

A moat is the structural reason competitors cannot easily take a business’s profits.

Common moat sources:

  • Brand: customers trust or prefer the product.
  • Cost advantage: the company can sell profitably at prices others cannot match.
  • Network effects: the product becomes more useful as more people use it.
  • Switching costs: customers do not want the hassle or risk of changing providers.
  • Scale: size lowers unit costs or improves distribution.
  • Regulation or licenses: competitors cannot easily enter.

Moats must be tested, not assumed. A famous brand without pricing power is not a moat. A high market share in a declining or commodity business may not be worth much.

What Makes a Bad Business?#

Weak businesses often have:

  • Constant capital needs.
  • Poor pricing power.
  • Commodity economics.
  • Heavy debt.
  • Weak customer loyalty.
  • Labor, regulatory, or technology risks that are hard to control.
  • Management that chases growth without discipline.

Buffett eventually regretted using Berkshire Hathaway, a declining textile company, as his main platform. It was cheap, but it was not a good business.

Float#

Float is money a company holds before it must pay it out.

Examples:

  • Insurance premiums collected before claims are paid.
  • Trading stamps paid for before rewards are redeemed.
  • Customer payments received before costs are incurred.

Float is valuable only if it is low-cost or cost-free and managed conservatively.

Insurance appealed to Buffett because a good insurer receives money upfront, invests it, and pays claims later. But if underwriting is poor, float becomes expensive and dangerous.

Insurance Underwriting#

In insurance, growth is dangerous if policies are underpriced.

Important terms:

  • Premiums: money collected from customers.
  • Loss reserves: estimated future claim payments.
  • Underwriting profit: premiums exceed claims and expenses.
  • Underwriting loss: claims and expenses exceed premiums.
  • Combined ratio: claims plus expenses divided by premiums. Below 100% usually means underwriting profit; above 100% means underwriting loss.

Buffett cared about both the size of float and the cost of float. Float is valuable when its cost is lower than other funding sources. It is exceptional when underwriting profits mean the insurer is effectively paid to hold money.

Capital Allocation#

A CEO’s most important job is capital allocation.

Good capital allocation asks:

  • Should earnings be reinvested?
  • Should debt be reduced?
  • Should shares be repurchased?
  • Should dividends be paid?
  • Should another business be bought?
  • Is the next dollar likely to earn an attractive return?

The cost of every deal is the best alternative deal available at the time.

Management#

Buffett liked managers who:

  • Loved the business.
  • Were honest.
  • Were frugal.
  • Thought like owners.
  • Did not need supervision.
  • Protected reputation.
  • Allocated capital rationally.

He preferred to buy businesses where excellent managers would stay and keep running operations.

His management style:

  • Give managers autonomy.
  • Do not second-guess capable people.
  • Judge results and integrity.
  • Keep headquarters small.
  • Avoid bureaucracy.

Acquisition Criteria#

Berkshire’s public acquisition criteria are a useful checklist for private companies and public stocks.

Look for:

  • Demonstrated earning power, not just projections.
  • Good returns on equity while using little or no debt.
  • Simple businesses.
  • Management already in place.
  • A clear offering price.
  • A business large enough to matter.

The deeper lesson: do not waste time on vague deals, turnarounds, complicated technology, or businesses that need a new manager before the economics can work.

Valuation Principles#

Price Is What You Pay. Value Is What You Get.#

The market price changes every day. Intrinsic value changes more slowly.

The investor’s edge comes from understanding the difference.

Intrinsic Value#

Intrinsic value is the present value of the cash that can be taken out of a business over its remaining life.

Important points:

  • It is an estimate, not a precise number.
  • It changes when future cash flows or interest rates change.
  • Two rational people can reach different estimates.
  • The goal is not exactness; the goal is to be roughly right with a margin of safety.

Book value can sometimes help, but it is not the same as intrinsic value. Book value can overstate a weak business and understate a strong business with valuable intangible assets.

Book Value and Net Current Asset Value#

Book value:

Book Value = Total Assets - Total Liabilities

Net current asset value, or NCAV:

NCAV = Current Assets - Total Liabilities

Graham liked companies selling below liquidation value. These were “net-net” or “cigar butt” investments.

The logic:

  • If the business is worth more dead than alive, the downside may be limited.
  • If the market price is below conservative asset value, there may be a margin of safety.

Weakness:

  • Cheap assets do not make a good business.
  • Management can waste the value.
  • Bad businesses can keep destroying capital.
  • The stock can stay cheap for years.

Earnings Valuation#

Earnings per share:

EPS = Earnings / Shares Outstanding

Price-to-earnings ratio:

P/E = Share Price / EPS

A low P/E can be attractive, but only if earnings are real, durable, and not temporarily inflated.

Buffett’s Western Insurance example showed the power of extreme cheapness: a stock selling near $3 while earning about $29 per share looked like a mispriced bargain.

Enterprise Value#

Enterprise value estimates what it costs to buy the whole business:

EV = Market Capitalization + Debt - Cash

Useful because an acquirer must account for both equity and debt, while cash reduces the effective price.

Free Cash Flow#

Free cash flow:

Free Cash Flow = Operating Cash Flow - Capital Expenditures

Earnings are accounting profit. Free cash flow is the cash left after the business maintains itself.

Strong businesses turn earnings into cash. Weak businesses report profits but constantly need more money.

Owner Earnings#

Buffett’s preferred economic measure is owner earnings.

Owner Earnings =
Reported Earnings
+ Depreciation, Depletion, Amortization, and Other Non-Cash Charges
- Maintenance Capital Expenditures
- Additional Working Capital Needed to Maintain the Business

The key difference from simple cash flow is maintenance capital expenditure. A business cannot ignore the money needed to keep its competitive position and unit volume intact.

Warning sign:

  • If depreciation is much lower than the capital spending needed to maintain the business, accounting earnings may overstate true owner earnings.

Good sign:

  • If a business can grow while using little incremental capital, reported earnings may understate its economic power.

Discounted Cash Flow#

DCF values a business by estimating future cash flows and discounting them back to today.

Use DCF carefully:

  • It is only as good as the assumptions.
  • Small changes in growth or discount rates can change the answer dramatically.
  • It is dangerous when the business has negative or unpredictable cash flow.
  • If the valuation needs heroic assumptions, pass.

Buffett preferred obvious value over elaborate spreadsheets.

Reverse P/E Test#

A useful test is to ask what growth is already implied by today’s P/E.

If a company trades at 40x earnings and you require 10% annual returns, but expect the future P/E to fall to 20x, the business must grow earnings roughly 26% per year for five years.

Then ask:

  • Can revenue grow that fast?
  • Can margins improve enough?
  • Can buybacks help?
  • Is the market large enough?
  • Are competitors weak enough?

If the required growth is unrealistic, the stock is probably overpriced.

Return on Equity and Return on Capital#

Return on equity:

ROE = Earnings / Shareholders' Equity

Return on invested capital:

ROIC = Operating Profit / Invested Capital

High returns matter because they show how effectively a business turns capital into profit.

The best businesses can reinvest large amounts of capital at high rates for many years.

Economic Goodwill#

Accounting goodwill is created when a company buys another business for more than the accounting value of its net assets.

Economic goodwill is different. It is the real earning power created by reputation, brand, customer habits, distribution, and other intangible advantages.

See’s Candies taught Buffett that a business with modest tangible assets can be worth a great deal if it earns high returns and can raise prices over time.

Useful distinction:

  • Accounting goodwill may be amortized or impaired.
  • Economic goodwill may grow if the business strengthens.
  • A business with strong economic goodwill can be inflation-resistant because it may raise prices without large new capital investment.

Debt and Coverage#

Debt-to-equity shows financial risk, not valuation.

Interest cover:

Interest Cover = EBIT / Interest Expense

General guide:

  • Above 5x: strong.
  • 3x to 5x: acceptable.
  • 2x to 3x: concerning.
  • Below 2x: risky.

Debt can destroy good assets if cash flow disappears at the wrong time.

Dividends and Buybacks#

Dividend yield:

Dividend Yield = Dividend / Share Price

Dividend cover:

Dividend Cover = EPS / Dividend

Buybacks are like dividends when done properly: they return capital to shareholders.

Buybacks create value when:

  • Shares are repurchased below intrinsic value.
  • The business has no better use for the cash.
  • The share count actually falls.

Buybacks destroy value when:

  • Shares are overpriced.
  • They are used to hide stock-option dilution.
  • They are funded with reckless debt.

How to Screen Investments#

Level 1: Quick Filter#

Spend a few minutes rejecting obvious mistakes.

Check:

  • Market cap and liquidity.
  • Revenue and profit history.
  • Debt level.
  • P/E and EV/FCF.
  • Whether the business is real and understandable.
  • Whether the annual report is clear.

Most stocks should be rejected quickly.

Level 2: Business Quality#

Ask:

  • Do I understand how this business makes money?
  • Does it have a durable advantage?
  • Are customers loyal?
  • Can it raise prices?
  • Does it need heavy reinvestment?
  • Are managers owner-oriented?
  • Is the industry improving or deteriorating?

Level 3: Deep Work#

For the few remaining candidates:

  • Read financial statements.
  • Estimate intrinsic value.
  • Study debt and liquidity.
  • Check share count and dilution.
  • Understand management incentives.
  • Compare valuation to alternatives.
  • Demand a margin of safety.

When to Sell#

Buffett prefers not to sell good businesses casually. But selling can be rational.

Sell or reduce when:

  • The original thesis is broken.
  • Management proves untrustworthy.
  • The business loses its moat.
  • Debt or dilution changes the risk.
  • The price becomes wildly above intrinsic value and there is a better use for capital.
  • A mistake has been made and holding only hides the mistake.

Do not sell only because:

  • The stock went up.
  • The stock went down.
  • The market is noisy.
  • You are bored.
  • Someone else has a more exciting idea.

Case Studies and Lessons#

eToys vs. Toys “R” Us#

In 1999, the market valued internet companies aggressively even when they lost money.

Rough note:

  • eToys had large losses and much lower revenue.
  • Toys “R” Us had far larger revenue and real earnings.
  • The market still valued eToys higher for a time.

Lesson: a story can become more expensive than a business. Revenue, profit, cash flow, and durability still matter.

Cities Service Preferred#

Buffett bought Cities Service Preferred as a young investor. The stock fell, recovered, and he sold for a small profit. Later it rose far higher.

Lessons:

  • Do not anchor on what you paid.
  • Do not rush to take a small gain from a good investment.
  • Understand the deal before buying.
  • Be careful when investing other people’s money.

GEICO#

GEICO attracted Buffett because it had a structural cost advantage. It sold insurance directly, avoiding agents, and focused on government employees.

Lessons:

  • A low-cost operator can have a durable advantage.
  • Insurance float can be powerful.
  • Growth matters when the economics are good.
  • A great business can become a great investment if bought at the right price.

Later, GEICO nearly failed because it underpriced risk and underreserved for claims.

Second lesson:

  • A good business can be damaged by bad underwriting.
  • In insurance, growth without pricing discipline is dangerous.

Service Station Loss#

Buffett lost money in a service station located near a stronger Texaco competitor.

Lesson: price alone does not beat customer habits, location, brand, and existing relationships.

Sanborn Map#

Sanborn Map had a declining operating business, but its investment portfolio was worth more than the whole company’s market value.

Lesson: sometimes value is hidden on the balance sheet, but unlocking it requires capital allocation and shareholder alignment.

Rockwood Cocoa Arbitrage#

Rockwood shareholders could exchange shares for cocoa beans worth more than the stock price. Graham-Newman bought stock and hedged cocoa price risk with futures.

Lessons:

  • Arbitrage can exploit price differences between equivalent assets.
  • Hedging can reduce a specific risk.
  • Always invert the situation and ask what the other side is doing.
  • Sometimes not tendering can be better if remaining shareholders own a larger slice of what remains.

American Express Salad Oil Scandal#

American Express stock fell after the salad oil scandal, but its core traveler’s cheque and charge-card businesses remained strong.

Lesson:

  • A temporary scandal can create opportunity if the franchise remains intact.
  • Separate headline risk from permanent business damage.

Berkshire Hathaway#

Berkshire was cheap by asset value but was a poor textile business. Buffett bought more after a tender-offer dispute, partly out of anger.

Lessons:

  • Do not let emotion drive capital allocation.
  • A cheap bad business can consume time, attention, and money.
  • The platform you choose matters.

See’s Candies#

See’s showed Buffett and Munger the value of a high-quality business with brand loyalty and pricing power.

Lessons:

  • A business can be worth far more than its tangible assets.
  • Brand, habit, and customer affection can be real economic assets.
  • A great business can raise prices without losing customers.
  • Low capital needs plus pricing power create exceptional returns.

Buffalo Evening News#

Buffett bought the newspaper and endured litigation, losses, and competitive pressure before it became highly profitable.

Lesson:

  • A local monopoly can be extremely valuable.
  • An unregulated toll bridge is a powerful business model: build once, then collect for years.
  • But public perception and legal risk matter.

Nebraska Furniture Mart#

Rose Blumkin built Nebraska Furniture Mart through low prices, hard work, and honesty. Buffett bought the business with unusual trust and little legal complexity.

Lessons:

  • Exceptional operators are rare.
  • Reputation can substitute for paperwork when trust is deserved.
  • Let great managers keep running what they built.
  • Use non-compete agreements when the seller is central to the business.

Coca-Cola#

Buffett bought Coca-Cola because it had global brand strength, repeat consumption, high returns, and strong cash generation.

Lessons:

  • A great brand can be a compounding machine.
  • Even a wonderful business can become overpriced.
  • Growth assumptions must be checked against market size and reality.
  • Boards can be too deferential to management.

Washington Post#

Buffett’s Washington Post investment showed the value of buying a strong franchise when the market price is far below business value.

Lessons:

  • A dominant local media franchise had pricing power and scarce competitive position.
  • Owner-oriented management mattered.
  • The best investments can be psychologically difficult because they are often available during pessimism.
  • Concentration is sensible only when the business quality, price, and downside protection are unusually clear.

Salomon Brothers#

Salomon used enormous leverage and suffered a reputation crisis after misconduct in Treasury auctions.

Lessons:

  • Short-term debt can kill a leveraged institution quickly.
  • Culture matters more than formal controls.
  • Bad news must travel fast.
  • Incentives can push smart people into reckless behavior.

Long-Term Capital Management#

LTCM used high leverage and relied on models that assumed markets would behave normally. When Russia defaulted in 1998, correlations broke down and losses exploded.

Lessons:

  • Leverage turns small errors into fatal errors.
  • Models fail when the world changes.
  • Liquidity can disappear exactly when needed.
  • Smart people can create fragile systems.

Dexter Shoe#

Buffett bought Dexter Shoe and paid with Berkshire stock. Foreign competition damaged the business badly.

Lesson:

  • Paying with undervalued stock can be more expensive than paying cash.
  • A business with no durable moat can be destroyed by lower-cost competition.

Clayton Homes and Mortgage Securitization#

Clayton Homes exposed the risks of weak lending, securitization, and dependence on funding markets.

Lessons:

  • Lending quality matters more than loan growth.
  • Securitization can hide risk by moving it around.
  • Cheap money encourages bad behavior.
  • Always ask who holds the final risk.

Financial Concepts#

Shares Outstanding#

Important share terms:

  • Authorized shares: the maximum number the company may issue.
  • Issued shares: shares already created.
  • Treasury shares: shares repurchased and held by the company.
  • Shares outstanding: shares currently owned by shareholders and used for valuation.

If a company issues more shares, each existing share owns less of the business unless the new capital creates enough value to offset dilution.

Public Float#

Public float is the portion of shares available for public trading.

At an IPO, only a fraction of total shares may be sold to the public. Founders, employees, and early investors often keep the rest, sometimes subject to lockups.

Market Makers#

A market maker provides liquidity by standing ready to buy and sell at quoted prices.

They earn the spread between bid and ask prices. They are usually not long-term investors; they manage inventory and trading flow.

During frenzied buying or selling, market making becomes harder because order flow becomes one-sided.

Derivatives#

A derivative gets its value from something else, such as a stock index, bond, commodity, currency, or credit event.

Derivatives can be useful for hedging, but dangerous when combined with:

  • Leverage.
  • Poor collateral.
  • Weak regulation.
  • Complex contracts.
  • Counterparties that cannot pay.

Buffett called derivatives financial weapons of mass destruction because they can concentrate hidden risk across the system.

Cost of Capital#

A business creates value only if it earns more than its cost of capital.

Simple idea:

  • Debt has an interest cost.
  • Equity has an expected return.
  • The blended cost is often called WACC.

Higher-risk businesses require higher expected returns.

A stable Coca-Cola-like business may justify a lower discount rate than a small commodity miner because its cash flows are more predictable.

Inflation#

Inflation hurts businesses that must keep replacing assets at higher prices.

Better inflation-resistant businesses:

  • Require little incremental capital.
  • Have pricing power.
  • Sell products customers continue buying after price increases.
  • Do not rely heavily on fixed-rate long-term contracts that become unattractive.

Weak inflation businesses:

  • Need constant plant, equipment, inventory, or working capital.
  • Cannot raise prices without losing customers.
  • Report accounting profits while real purchasing power declines.

Fees and Friction#

Fees, taxes, spreads, and unnecessary trading interrupt compounding.

Practical lesson:

  • Low-cost index funds are a strong default for people who do not want to analyze businesses.
  • Active investing only makes sense if you can reasonably expect to overcome fees, taxes, mistakes, and opportunity cost.
  • High activity can feel productive while quietly reducing returns.

Stock Options and Dilution#

Stock options are an economic cost even when accounting rules make them look painless.

Ask:

  • Is management paying itself with shareholder dilution?
  • Are buybacks merely offsetting employee stock issuance?
  • Is per-share value rising, or only total company size?
  • Are incentives tied to real long-term value or short-term stock price movement?

Investing Checklist#

Before buying, ask:

  • Do I understand the business?
  • What are the key variables?
  • Is the business durable?
  • Does it have pricing power?
  • Does it need constant capital?
  • Are managers honest and capable?
  • Is debt manageable?
  • Are earnings turning into cash?
  • Is the share count stable?
  • What is intrinsic value?
  • What margin of safety do I have?
  • What can go wrong?
  • Why is the seller willing to sell at this price?
  • What is my second-best opportunity?
  • What does owner earnings look like?
  • How much capital is required to maintain the business?
  • Is the moat strengthening or weakening?
  • Are incentives aligned with shareholders?

When to Avoid#

Avoid investments where:

  • The thesis depends on hype.
  • The valuation needs perfect growth.
  • The business is outside your circle of competence.
  • Debt is high and cash flows are uncertain.
  • Management hides bad news.
  • Accounting is hard to understand.
  • The business needs constant reinvestment just to stand still.
  • You are buying because other people are getting rich.
  • You cannot explain the investment simply.

Career and Learning Checklist#

Buffett’s edge came from obsession and repeated learning:

  • Read constantly.
  • Study businesses directly.
  • Ask fearless questions.
  • Learn accounting.
  • Learn business history.
  • Study people you admire.
  • Keep a network of capable people.
  • Stay independent.
  • Avoid debt.
  • Focus intensely on what matters.
  • Keep improving judgment.

Post-Book Context#

The Snowball was published in 2008, so it does not cover the full later Berkshire story.

As of January 1, 2026, Greg Abel became Berkshire Hathaway’s president and CEO, while Buffett remained chairman. The succession reinforces one of Buffett’s long-running lessons: culture and capital allocation systems matter because even the best individual operator eventually has to hand over responsibility.

Simple Summary#

Buffett’s wisdom is not mainly about clever formulas. It is about judgment:

  • Buy pieces of real businesses.
  • Stay inside your circle of competence.
  • Prefer great businesses with durable economics.
  • Pay a sensible price with a margin of safety.
  • Avoid debt and fragile structures.
  • Let compounding work.
  • Protect reputation.
  • Work with people you admire.
  • Keep learning.
  • Do not confuse activity with progress.

Sources for Researched Additions#

  • Berkshire Hathaway 1986 shareholder letter: owner earnings and the limits of GAAP earnings. https://www.warrenbuffetletters.com/1986-letter-to-the-stockholders-of-berkshire-hathaway/
  • Berkshire Hathaway 1996 shareholder letter: intrinsic value, float, and acquisition thinking. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1996.html
  • Berkshire Hathaway 2003 annual report: Owner’s Manual, partnership mindset, intrinsic value, and management structure. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2003ar/2003ar.pdf
  • Berkshire Hathaway 2002 annual report: derivatives risk. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2002ar/2002ar.pdf
  • Berkshire Hathaway 2025 annual report: Greg Abel succession and continuation of Berkshire’s culture. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2025ar/2025ar.pdf