"Buffett And Munger Unscripted"

I have some exciting news: I have been working on a book, titled “Buffett And Munger Unscripted”, for three years - and it has finally reached the finish line!

It is available now for preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Waterstones.

In addition to being a valuable resource that will be a perfect addition to the bookshelf of investors and business people alike, you will also be supporting a good cause: I will donate 50% of my net proceeds to GLIDE, a charitable organization that Warren Buffett has supported for more than twenty years.

The idea for this book was planted about 15 years ago, when I was learning the ropes as a young investor. At that time, Larry Cunningham’s “The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons For Corporate America” - a synthesis of Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, organized by theme - was my Bible. (I still have a dog-eared copy on my desk.) As Warren noted at the 1998 annual meeting, he believed Cunningham’s book did the best job of conveying the lessons that he hoped to share with investors: “He has done a first-class job of organizing, by topic, all these things I’ve written… If I were picking one thing to read, [“The Essays”] would probably be the one.”

“Buffett And Munger Unscripted” was inspired by Cunningham’s work, and seeks to perform a similar act of synthesis for the countless unscripted insights delivered by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meetings. For decades, those meetings were an in-person event held each spring in Omaha, Nebraska, with no video recordings. In the 2000’s and 2010’s, investors like myself waited anxiously for the notes taken by meeting attendees to be shared online. But that all changed in 2018, when Berkshire Hathaway released the old annual meeting videos back to 1994.

While it was now widely available for all to access, it still presented a daunting task for an individual who hoped to derive insights on a particular topic; in total, the annual meetings covered about 150 hours and more than 1,700 shareholder questions. My objective with “Buffett And Munger Unscripted” was to provide an effective solution to that problem.

I have reviewed every Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting from 1994 to 2024. From the aforementioned 1,700+ questions, I selected the answers that offered the most valuable insights for business people and investors (the hardcover edition is 475 pages). “Unscripted” is the output of that exercise.

It is organized around a number of important investment and business themes, including the skills and temperament required to be a successful long-term investor, the art of business valuation, living with uncertainty and volatility, defining your circle of competence, thinking about opportunity costs, and many others. While Buffett and Munger shared many insights about politics, life lessons, etc., those topics are not the focus of “Unscripted”.

Much of what I’ve learned about investing and business is rooted in the teachings of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. This book is my attempt at conveying my gratitude for all they’ve given to the investment community.

If you are interested in “Buffett And Munger Unscripted”, it would mean a great deal to me if you preordered the book today. In addition to adding a valuable investment resource to your library, you will also be providing support to people who are truly in need of a helping hand through GLIDE.

As always, thank you for your time. TSOH Investment Research will be back Monday with an update on DLTR and DG (with feedback from DG IR on the expert panel discussion), followed by a Spotify post-mortem on Thursday.

NOTE - This is not investment advice. Do your own due diligence.

I make no representation, warranty, or undertaking, express or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or reasonableness of the information presented in this report. Assumptions, opinions, and estimates expressed in this report constitute my judgment as of the date thereof and are subject to change without notice. Projections are based on a number of assumptions, and there is no guarantee that they will be achieved. TSOH Investment Research is not acting as your advisor or in any fiduciary capacity.