Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have piloted Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) to a market-crushing performance over the years. As veteran Berkshire watchers know very well, there's no big secret to this dynamic duo's success.
Buffett shares his knowledge constantly through shareholder letters and the Berkshire annual meeting in Omaha. He prefers a long-term focus, top-notch management, strong brands, staying in his circle of competence, and paying a fair price for a great business.
While many of Buffett's investing tenets can be followed by us mere mortals, there's one in particular that's tough: buying a good company when you'd rather be running away from it.
One example put forth by Andy Kilpatrick, author of Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett, is Wells Fargo & Company (WFC +3.52%). Berkshire already owned a lot of Wells Fargo before the financial crisis, but Buffett continued to buy throughout the turmoil as the price plunged. Besides Wells Fargo, he also deployed capital into many areas during the crisis.
In addition, he's continued buying Wells Fargo even as the price has risen dramatically as the market recovered – and that's something else that average investors have trouble doing.
In this video from the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Kilpatrick talks more about Buffett's successes, as well as some of his mistakes.
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