M10:40
这个嘛，你得先明白，我们有点作弊。
Well, you have to understand that we cheat.
我们，呃，我们是直接买那些已经有优秀经理人的企业。
We, uh, we buy businesses with good managers.
所以如果你给我一百个 MBA，我经常会碰到这样的班级，今年我大概去了三十所学校，通常一个班里有七十五到一百名男女学生。
So if you give me 100 MBAs, and I have these classes come out all the time, I've had about 30 schools this year, and usually there's 75 or 100 men and women in, in, in the classes.
谁都不可能把这一百个人拿来，只花几个小时，就按他们未来作为经理人的成就，从第一名排到第一百名，反正我是绝对挑不出来。
No one could take those 100 and spend a few hours and rank them from number 1 to 100 in terms of their future achievements as managers, you know, than I could pick them.
你知道，对我来说这根本不可能。
You know, it would be impossible for me.
但我们做的，是买下那些已经有杰出经理人在岗的企业。
But what we do is we buy businesses with great managers in place.
这些人的表现，我们很多情况下都已经观察了几十年。
We've seen those people perform for, in many cases, decades.
我们看过他们的业绩记录，而他们也是连同企业一起加入进来的。
We've seen their record, and they come with the business.
所以现在，我们的工作倒不太是去挑选优秀的经理人，因为他们本来就带着经过验证的业绩记录一起过来了。
Now, our job is not so much to select great managers, because we do have this proven record that they come with.
我们的工作，是把他们留住。
Our job is to retain them.
而且在 Berkshire 工作的很多经理人，准确说是大多数经理人，本身都已经非常有钱了。
And many of the managers that work at Berkshire, a majority of the managers that work at Berkshire, are independently wealthy.
我们会把支票交到他们手上，呃，有时候是几十亿美元，通常也有几亿美元。
We hand them checks, uh, sometimes in the billions, often in the hundreds of millions.
所以很多情况下，他们工作并不是为了钱。
So they do not have a monetary reason to work in many cases.
所以我们的工作——顺便说一句，我们其实是依赖他们的。
So our job— we are dependent on them, incidentally.
我是说，我们总部大概只有十九个人，但全世界有二十五万人在为 Berkshire 工作，而他们的业务我们是没法亲自去运营的。
I mean, we have 19 or so people at headquarters, and we have 250,000 working for Berkshire around the world, and we can't run their businesses.
我们的工作，就是要确保在股票凭证易手之后，他们对工作的那种热情、兴奋和投入，和之前一样。
And our job is to make sure that they have the same enthusiasm, excitement, passion for their job after the stock certificate changes hands than they had before.
这就需要我们作出一些判断，去看这些人爱的到底是这门生意，还是钱。
Now, that, that requires some judgment on our part as to whether these people love the business or love the money.
当然，他们都喜欢钱，但他们当中的很多人——尤其是我们的经理人——他们爱的是自己的企业。
Now, they all like money, but many of them— well, our managers in particular, they love their businesses.
我的意思是，他们一直在这些企业里工作。
I mean, they've worked at them.
对他们来说，这些企业就像艺术品一样，而且有时候还是家族传了四代的事业。
They're a work of art to them, and they've been in the family sometimes as many as 4 generations.
所以我们得从他们眼里看到那种热情；如果看到了，我们就得用一种方式行事，让这种热情能够一直保留下去。
So we, we have to see the passion in their eyes, and if we see that, then we have to behave in a way that that passion remains.
这不是靠合同能做到的。
Can't be done by contract.
我们没有合同。
We don't have contracts.
那行不通——那种办法没用。
It won't— that doesn't work.
但我们可以尽力去营造一种环境，而坦白说，Berkshire 就是最理想的环境。
But we can try to create an environment, and Berkshire frankly is the ideal environment.
像这样的活动，其实甚至能算是一种理想的环境。
It's even an ideal environment because of events like this.
我们的经理人会觉得自己被重视了，而且他们也确实是被重视的。
Our managers feel appreciated, and they are appreciated.
不只是我和 Charlie 重视他们，你们也重视他们，我们也想给你们一个机会，为他们鼓掌。
They're not just appreciated by me and Charlie, they're appreciated by you, and we want to give you a chance to applaud them.
所以，如果你是要我在一群 MBA 里挑人，那我恐怕帮不上太大的忙，你知道，这并不容易。
So I, I can't be of enormous help in— if you're looking at a group of MBAs, you know, it's, it's not easy.
我是说，他们到了人生那个阶段，多少都已经学会了怎么揣摩你想听什么，然后用那些回答来糊弄你，诸如此类的。
I mean, they know, they sort of learn by that point in life how to fool you in terms of what answers you want to hear and all of that sort of thing.
呃，我会去找那种对工作有热情的人。
Uh, I would, I would look for the person with passion for the job.
我是说，那种总是比自己该做的还多做一份的人。
I mean, the person that is always doing more than their share.
你当然也会找沟通能力强的人，诸如此类的条件。
You look for people that are good communicators and all of that sort of thing.
但我还是更喜欢我自己的办法。
But I, I like my way better.
容易多了，直接找一个在棒球里打击率四成的人，然后说，我看就把他排进先发阵容吧。
It's a lot easier just to take somebody that's been batting .400 in baseball and say, I think I'll stick him in the lineup.
而且我们这个行业有个好处，你知道，在棒球里，除非你是 Nolan Ryan 那样的人，不然差不多到了四十岁左右就得挂靴退休了。
And the nice thing about our game is that, you know, in baseball, unless you're Nolan Ryan or somebody, you have to hang up things at 40 or thereabouts.
但在我们这一行，他们可以一直干下去，一直干下去，一直干下去。
But in, in our game, they go on and on and on.
我是说，我举个例子，我们有一位很有名的 Mrs. B，来自 Furniture Mart。
I mean, I use as an example, we had a famous Mrs. B from the Furniture Mart.
她一直为我们工作到一百零三岁，后来她离开了，第二年就去世了。
And she worked for us till she was 103, and then she left, and she died the next year.
这也给我们的经理人一个教训，那就是—— Charlie？
And that is a lesson to our managers that— Charlie?
嗯，这真是非常有用的建议。
Well, that was very useful advice.
这让我很自然地想起已经去世的 Howard Ahmanson。
It reminds me very much of the late Howard Ahmanson.
有一次，一个年轻又穷困的商学院学生问他，想请教一下该怎么出人头地。
And a young and starving business student once asked him, for advice as to how to get ahead.
Howard 说，嗯，我一般都会手边放着几百万美元，这样一旦突然出现好机会，我就能抓住。
Howard said, well, I always keep a few million dollars lying around in case a good opportunity suddenly turns up.
好，我们来看第五个问题。
Well, let's go to number 5.