A Brief Book Review of What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Developing a Highly Successful Company by Barnett C. Helberg, Jr.
“If you don’t know me by now, I doubt you’ll ever know me. I never won a Grammy, I won’t win a Tony. But I’m not the only MC keeping it real. When I grab the mic to smash a rapper, girls go ‘Illlll!’” - KRS One (1995)
“Games are won by players who focus on the playing field — not by those whose eyes are glued to the scoreboard.” - Warren Buffett
“Be glad I pushed my album back, I did y’all hoes a favor.” - Lil’ Kim (1999)
“To me, it’s obvious that the winner has to be very selective. It’s been obvious to me since very early in life. I don’t know why it’s not obvious to very many other people.” - Charlie Munger
The world has no shortage of business books. And if we’re being honest, as in any field, most of these books probably aren’t wholly original or remotely remarkable. For every Security Analysis (1940), When Genius Failed (2000), or Shoe Dog (2016) there are many more also-rans. But that doesn’t mean these books aren’t worth reading. It doesn’t mean they don’t contain the kernels of some truths ignored or forgotten that when remembered, reinforced, or applied better could be significant.
Consider another field entirely: sports. A championship-winning coach has in all likelihood spent her entire life reading books and articles about the game she loves. She has probably made a deeply ingrained habit of watching games live or tapes of games and weighing analyses of plays and strategies. Through an immense volume of critical consumption, she has gained a robust sense of quality and how to attain it. She has likely forgotten more than you and I will ever know about the sport. And despite this wealth of data, information, and knowledge, she still has the wisdom to know she can’t stop and the passion to not want to. Though at the top of her field, she still with enthusiasm, whether expressed quietly or vocally, picks up books and analyses on the game, whether about it broadly or about arcane aspects of it. And she almost definitely watches game tape with a level of interest bordering on obsession. If the best make time for this, I’m sure you and I probably can too.
This is by analogy why I enjoy reading business and investment books. I read poetry and novels, sure, but I always come back to business books. I have so far started three businesses, served as a temporary CFO or strategic advisor to the officers and managers of dozens of others, but I know, like our hypothetical coach, that I can’t stop learning and don’t want to. Open-minded reading and thinking seems a competitive advantage in any field.
This is a long way of saying I was glad I picked up and read Barnett C. Helzberg, Jr’s What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Developing a Highly Successful Company (2003). It got me thinking.
As a book, it is partly family memoir, partly Berkshire Hathaway case study, and partly business self-help. It contains six sections. Those cover Managing, Decision Making, Hiring, Inspiring, Communicating, and Focusing. At times it feels like it’s almost too much for one book. But I think it serves an honorable purpose. Helzberg, Jr. clearly wanted a written record of achievement. And he did well to chart the business principles, systems, and habits that grew the small diamond business his grandfather started and that he and his father turned into an American success story. This book is rich with tips, or “Helzberg’s Hints” as they are dubbed. There are more in it than I have the time to spend here outlining. But generally, what I took away from it is this: Attaining enduring quality and success in any field isn’t a discrete event. It’s not a thing you can touch or a place you can go or a thing you can buy. It’s organizing principles and adaptive systems of habits and processes that increase and maintain one’s edge of achieving a stated objective.