Eric Schleien discusses the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway Letter To Shareholders on The Intelligent Investing Podcast.
The Beauty Of The Ferrari Business Model
Ferrari is like the inverse of some scammy MLM business or a tarot card reader or a self-proclaimed “life coach” that does motivation and gives people advice.
The Ferrari Model
On one hand you have a business that caters to the ultra-wealthy, has a wait list, will kick you off it for life if you come to the front of the line and don’t buy, and needs you to prove brand loyalty to have the right to buy exclusive products.
The Scammy Hustle
Then there’s those people who are always busy and hustling running their scammy little business at worst or just doing some hobby business with no sound revenue model at best who is constantly chasing around for clients and working with pretty poor low value creating people which tends to correlate with having shittier integrity and character.
Then, you have no pricing power, your clients can barely afford to pay you, you are still dirt poor, and you’re running around like a crazy person hustling while still struggling to get by.
Charlie Munger’s Principle Of Inversion
Inversion is such a great principle. Just avoid all of that. All of that.
I’ve turned down nearly 2 million dollars over the past few years. But I only work with really smart and wonderful people that I highly respect and admire who also are a pleasure to partner up with.
Avoiding and saying no to everything that doesn’t work while being clear what you need to do to deserve the results you get in life is so key.
It’s one of the reasons I love and admire the Ferrari model. In an industry that’s cyclical and tends to have pretty horrible returns over time (automobiles) — they totally stand out from the crowd and avoid all the dumb stuff. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
Or as Charlie Munger would say, “invert, always invert”
Cheers!