You can’tinvest based on a tearsheet, but when I'mgoing to go analyze abusiness and breaksomething down,especially when I wasyounger, if I didn't reallyknow a business thatwell and I wanted to getmyself oriented in ahurry, I'd spend 5 or 10minutes with the ValueLine page and pages forthe industry, then Iwould read severalyears’ worth of annualreports and Ks and Qs.But I'd start with thetear sheet and then I'vegot a better long-termsense about where thisbusiness has been.

“But professionallyit’s mission critical tochoose your friendgroup carefully. Findthose smarter thanyou, some older, someyounger, but above allelse find good peoplewith moralcompasses.”

“But I would say get alot more of your dailycalendar orientedtoward turning overas many rocks as youcan and readingabout as manycompanies as youcan, and read them indepth. If you're juststarting out, for thefirst ten years of yourcareer, you have tolive in the footnotes.”

“I’d read TheIntelligent Investor,no doubt about that.But just turn overrock after rock afterrock. Read as manyKs and Qs as you can.Continuously add tothe arsenal ofcompanies that youknow well and getdeeper and deeperunderstandings ofbusinesses.”

“A tiny overvaluedposition can’t killyou. You've alwaysgot to adjust yourintrinsic values. Iadjust all valuesquarterly, not thatI'm trying to do itwith precision, but itforces me to look atwhat's changed in aquarter, what’s thechange in the sharecount. Has capitalmoved around? Hasthe balance sheetchanged?”

“The advantage ofliving in the world ofintrinsic value, if youhave a good sense ofwhat’s undervaluedand what’s lessundervalued andwhat’s working, is theability to movecapital around.”

“You know thebusiness. You knowthe valuation. Whenthe two mesh and it’sthe best idea in frontof you, don’t screwaround with 1%.There's no rule, but Ilike to at least get atleast 2% in generalwith a new idea.”

“And my job,essentially a largepart of what we do, isto discern how wellthe managers of thebusinesses we owninvest retainedearnings. If most ofprofits are retained, along-term owner willsee returns gravitateto the underlyingreturn on equity ofthe business.”

“You really need theflexibility to go buythings where theymake sense. We doget pigeonholed as avalue investor. Butwe love growth asmuch as anybody butrecognize it as onlypart of the valuationequation. In ourworld, price is theparamount driver ofwhat we do.”

“Ignoring the macroand the herd most ofthe time serves youwell. Butunderstanding whenyou're at an inflectionpoint, I think you cando things veryopportunistically.”