M12:13
几年前，我想今天现场有一位观众就是那个人，他当时六十多岁，来找我。他说，大概有一年的时间里，他一直在考虑要不要把自己的公司卖掉。
A few years ago, a person who's in this audience, I believe, came to me, and he was in his 60s, and he said that for about a year he'd been thinking about selling his business.
而他考虑这件事的原因，并不是因为他想退休。实际上，我们很少从那些想退休的人手里买公司。
And the reason he'd been thinking about it was not because he wanted to retire, and we very seldom buy businesses from people who want to retire.
他根本一点都不想退休。
He didn't want to retire at all.
他很喜欢自己正在做的事，不过几年前他买过一家企业，那家企业原来是一个家族的，他也认识那个把公司建立起来的人。
He loved what he was doing, but he had an experience in buying a business a few years earlier from a family where he had known the fellow who had built it.
后来那个人去世了，接着这个家族、这家公司、员工，还有其他方方面面，糟糕的事情就一件接一件地开始发生了。
The fellow had died, and then just everything bad started happening in the family and the business and the employees, everything else.
所以，他真正想解决的，是这家公司将来会怎么样这个问题。
So he really wanted to put to bed the question of what happened with this business.
并不是说他有多在意把它变现，或者多想拿到那笔钱。
It wasn't that he really cared a lot about monetizing it or having the money.
他只是想让自己安心：他花了三十年、四十年，用心血一点点建立起来的东西，不会被毁掉；也不会在他去世之后，把他的家人也拖垮。
He just wanted to put his mind at ease that what he'd spent lovingly building up over 30 or 40 years was not going to get destroyed, or that his family would get destroyed if he died.
所以他说，他想了一年，反复地想。他觉得，如果把公司卖给某个竞争对手，那会是很合乎逻辑的买家——通常确实如此，这也是为什么我们会有反垄断法——如果他卖给竞争对手，对方进来之后，基本上就会把他们自己的人安插来掌管公司。
So he said he thought about it a year, and he thought about it, and he thought, well, if I sell it to one of my competitors, and they would be a logical buyer—they usually are, that's why we have antitrust laws—if he sold it to a competitor, they would come in and basically they would put their people in charge.
他们会提出一大堆关于 synergy 的想法，而所谓 synergy，意思往往就是：那些过去三十年里帮他把公司建立起来的人，最后都会被裁掉；收购方会像 Attila the Hun 一样冲进来，作为征服者接管一切。
They would have all these ideas about synergy, and synergy would mean that the people that had helped him build the business over 30 years would all get sacked, and that the acquiring company would come in like Attila the Hun and be the conquering people.
而他就是不愿意这样对待这些多年来帮助过他的人。
And he just didn't want to do that to the people that had helped him over the years.
后来他又想，也许可以把公司卖给某家 private equity firm。
And then he thought he might sell it to some private equity firm.
他觉得，如果把公司卖给他们，他们会给公司加上很多债务，这一点他不喜欢，然后之后他们还会再把公司转手卖掉。
And he figured that if he sold it to them, they'd load it up with debt, which he didn't like, and then they'd resell it later on.
那样一来，他就又会失去控制权。
And then so he would again have lost control.
他们很可能会做出他一开始最不想发生的那种事，比如把公司卖给竞争对手之类的。
They might do the same thing that he didn't want to have happen in the first place in terms of selling it to a competitor or whatever it might be.
所以他来找我的时候，就说——他把这些情况都讲了一遍，然后他说，这其实不是因为你有多吸引人，而是因为你是唯一还站着的人了。
So when he came to me, he said—he described this, and he said, it really isn't because you're so attractive, but he says, you're the only guy left standing.
你知道，我的意思是，你不是竞争对手，你也不是 private equity firm。
You know, I mean, you're not a competitor, you're not a private equity firm.
而且我知道，到了 Berkshire 这里，我的公司会有一个永久的归宿，这些多年来一直跟着我的人，也会继续得到机会。
And I know I will get a permanent home with Berkshire, and that the people that have stayed with me over the years will continue to get opportunities.
他们会继续为我工作，我也还能继续做我热爱的事情；而且如果今晚我出了什么事，我也不用担心之后会怎么样。
And they will continue to work for me, and I'll get to keep doing what I love doing, and I won't have to worry about what will happen if something happens to me tonight.
结果那家公司后来成了 Berkshire 一笔非常棒的收购，而我们的竞争优势就是，我们没有竞争对手。
Well, that company's turned out to be a wonderful acquisition for Berkshire, and our competitive advantage is we had no competitors.
我觉得，嗯，我们还会看到更多这样的情况。
And I think, well, we will see more of that.
这些年来，我们已经见过很多了。
We've seen a lot of it over the years.
我们会，会看到更多。
We'll, we'll see more of it.
Charlie，还有——我觉得你还没提到一点，就是我们也培养出了一个不一样的 shareholder base。你知道，我们，我们，我们确实把股东看作合伙人，这不是什么 public relations firm 替我们写出来的话，完全不是那回事。
Charlie, any—and I don't think you mentioned the fact that developing a shareholder base too that's different than, you know, we, we, we do look at shareholders as partners and, you know, it's not something that a public relations firm wrote for us or anything of the sort.
我们希望你们得到和我们一样的结果，而且我们也尽量在每一个方面都把这一点体现出来。
We, we want you to get the same result we get and we try to demonstrate that in every way we can.