March 8, 2021

Investment sage Warren Buffett is the example I use for transparent, plain-speaking, authentic, responsible communications, especially with shareholders. He just announced a mistake that required his company Berkshire Hathaway to report an $11 billion loss:

“I paid too much for the company.….No one misled me in any way – I was simply too optimistic about PCC’s normalized profit potential…. PCC is far from my first error of that sort. But it’s a big one.”

It reminds me of advice I received from a bank colleague. She said we should be making three mistakes a day to ensure we are being appropriately vulnerable. I have adopted her practice, also to ensure I am not playing it too safe. It feels good.

Back to Blog Overview »