For the first, I understand what Buffett and Munger mean when they say there is "no master plan". If you follow attractive values, and focus on opportunity cost, you end up in places you never expected. I have no idea what the firm will look like 10 years from now, only that we will focus on generating the highest risk-adjusted real return on capital.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the ultimate form the partnership or the holding company is going to take when I consolidate everything I own – all of my private businesses, stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets, along with my parents, family, and friends, under a single investment vehicle (I explained this in We’ve Finally Settled on a Course of Action). This has been occupying and increasingly large percentage of my time, mostly because I think the best thing to do is to simply raise capital, take a percentage of the profits, and then invest the money in the best risk-adjusted opportunities. Which opportunities present themselves and which time is beyond our control, so there’s really no way to predict, ahead of time, what our holdings will be.
I do know, however, that there are a few areas that interest me. I’ve been breaking them up in an organizational matrix so I can think about how to put together the various “pieces” when the time comes. This is probably 5+ years in the future.
Here’s the plan …
The average retail price for most of these works of art ranges somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000, depending upon the specific model, with many going for far more than that. They are actually cored out of a rod of solid, pure silver and built using the finest materials available on earth. When I look at them, my heart rate literally picks up and I feel this incredible urge to acquire. It’s the exact same feeling as when I see a stock that is being given away (like when we put a massive portion of our assets into General Electric at $6 per share and U.S. Bancorp at $8.50 per share back in March, watching them skyrocket between 100% and 300% in less than 90 days).