What I Learned From Meeting Warren Buffett's Favorite Authors

As I write this, in a few hours, the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting will begin. Yesterday, May 5th, 2017, I went to the CenturyLink Center, which was open to shareholders for shopping. It was filled with thousands of people and dozens of Berkshire owned brands sold limited edition items at a discount for the shareholders.

One exhibit caught my eye - Bookworms. It was a bookstore that sold Warren Buffett's and Charlie Munger's top recommended books of the year. As I entered the exhibit, I was handed a flyer summarizing all the books. You can view it here.

Then at the corner, I was greeted by two old jolly men who claimed that they were standing next to the best book there. It turns out that they wrote the book. At that moment, I decided to channel my inner Tim Ferriss - I wanted to seize this rare opportunity to learn as much from the authors as possible. While everyone else grabbed copies of the autographed books and hurried along, I ended up interviewing four authors for over an hour.

John Prescott wrote and Tom Kerr illustrated The Oracle's Fables: Life Lessons for Children Inspired by the Oracle of Omaha. Kerr had been an illustrator for over 45 years and had collaborated with Prescott on projects for 20 years.

Q: What was the most difficult drawing and fable?
JP and TK: The last one, which is about bees and appreciating what you have. It was difficult to end the journey of writing the book. It was also the longest entry and the picture had the most details to draw. I illustrate in watercolor and this is picture is one of the few ones that I had to also edit in Photoshop. I also made multiple versions of the one with the dog to decide if the background should be daytime or nighttime.

Q: What was your favorite drawing and fable?
TK: The raccoons. I just loved drawing them.

JP: The turtles. The message here is very important.

Q: How did you make acquaintance with Warren Buffett and pitch the book idea to him?
JP and TK: We are both from Omaha and were able to run into Warren in some shared social circles. When we first had the idea, we made the first 4 fables before pitching to Warren and receiving his approval. Last year, this was the best selling book here and we sold out.

Q: If you could put a billboard anywhere and put anything on it, what would you put on it?
TK: His expression was initially puzzled, then suddenly turned grim. Something about healthcare. This is the most important issue we face today. We are also working on a project called Despicable Jerks, where we make fun of people in the news. You can find it on Wordpress.
Q: It is news in general or specific people?
TK: Specific people. There are horrible people in the world, like the guy bought drug patents and jacked up the prices and that Wikileaks guy.
Q: So is this a political children's book?
TK: Laughs. No, this is standard newspaper political cartoons.

Q: What is your advice to aspiring authors? I'm trying to write a book.
TK: It's very difficult to find a good publisher, and they usually don't even look at your manuscript unless you have a good agent. Make sure to find a good agent for your genre.
Q: How do you find a good agent?
TK: You can find lists of them online, a lot of them are based in New York. It's like speed dating, you just have to go through a bunch of them until you find the right one for you.

I thanked them and took a picture with them, then we shook hands and they told me that I could out to them on their websites to continue the conversation.

The next author I interviewed was Andrew Kilpatrick, who wrote Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett. This is the most comprehensive biography of Warren Buffett - it's over 1300 pages and includes 2200 photographs.

Q: Wow, there are a lot of pictures! Who took all of them?
AK: Most were taken by me or my wife, but we also received many donated photos.

Q: How long have you been working on this book?
AK: I had been working this project for over 20 years and every year or two, I release a new updated edition.
Q: Do you just add what's new for the year, or do you go back to edit all the previous chapters?
AK: Every edition, I go through the whole book and update and rearrange all the previous chapters.

Q: This is probably the thickest book I've ever seen, I don't think I could carry it with me. Do you have an ebook version?
AK: I can ship it to you. Where do you live?
Q: I'm in Omaha.
AK: Laughs. Well, you look like you're strong enough to carry it home. It's only 10 pounds.
Then he takes out his business card, signs it for me, and whispered in my ear.
It's cheaper on Amazon, but don't tell anyone else here about this. It's our secret. It doesn't matter where I make the sale as long as I make a sale.
Q: Awesome, I'll tape your card on my Kindle. That's pretty much the same as having a signed copy of the book.

The book is available on Kindle Unlimited for free or as 3 volumes at $9.99 each for purchase.

As I was leaving, I saw another shareholder hugging him from behind... it seemed like they were friends, so I stepped out of the way.

Peter Bevelin was signing his books while standing next to Andrew Kilpatrick. He's the author of A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers from Warren E. Buffett, "All I Want to Know is Where I'm GOing to Die so I'll Never go There": Buffett and Munger: A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense, and Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger. (When I got home, I realized that he was also the author of A Few Lessons From Sherlock Holmes, which was recommended by Nassim Taleb. I also realized that I had previously read about him on Farnam Street Blog and Tim Ferriss's blog. I had been a long term fan, but failed to make the connection in my head in the moment.)

“Peter Bevelin is one of the wisest people on the planet.” - Nassim Taleb

Perhaps it was good that I didn't realize who he was, because I was still awed by what I had learned from him. At first he seemed busy signing his books and didn't want to talk to anyone, but after a few thoughtful questions, he started smiling and became much more relaxed.

Q: Which book do you recommend to start with for the average person?
PB: Seeking Wisdom. It originally started as notes for myself and my children. A book should be meaningful and useful to not only the reader, but also the writer. That makes a book worth writing. I wanted to write books that have timeless wisdom and value, for example, truths from math and physics.

Q: Wow this is exactly the type of content I'm looking for! I've also wrote many notes for myself while seeking timeless wisdom, and some friends have suggested that I should write a book. It seems like you have connected many difficult concepts. What difficulties did you run into while writing the books?
PB: When writing Buffett and Munger, I had to compile and organize thousands of citations.

He also flipped through Seeking Wisdom and informed me that he couldn't decide which section was the most difficult to write. He had spent 6 years writing the book and overall, the organization process took the most time.

Q: What was the most fun section to write?
PB: The whole book. Whenever I finish a book, I'm almost a bit sad, like I'm saying good bye to an old friend.

Q: What is your most important learning advice that you have not included in the books? Could you write that as a personal message for me? Thanks!
PB: For everything you learn, it is important to put it in the context of your own life. From there, you have to practice it to make it your own. Also make sure to take time to think. I like to take walks in the forest by myself. NO MUSIC.

This reminded me of a quote in The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Taleb: "If you need to listen to music while walking, don't walk; and please don't listen to music."
No wonder they are friends. Bevelin also thanked Taleb in the acknowledgements of Seeking Wisdom.

In 3 hours, I will have to get up to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting. Time to take a nap. If you have enjoyed and learned something from this article, then please follow me.

Best,
@limitless