Saturday, May 2, '98.

When the first rays of the morning sun wake up the sleeping earth, and the sparkle rising from the horizon is like a diamond, casting a dazzling light and smearing the white clouds in the sky with a layer of golden light, the crowd at the entrance of the Century Link Center at 455 North 10th Street in downtown Omaha is like a long coil of people circling from the entrance of the venue.

Bending to the right when touching the streetlight, winding around the huge bronze statue of the clock, the men in different clothes line up in groups of three or five, if you have to look for commonality, it is that everyone has a sign around their necks printed with Warren Buffett's comic book portrait.

That's right, before the sun rises, there are people lining up here.

Or rather, after the ticket exchange service opened on the morning of May 1, many people waited here that night.

And they all have a common name -

'Pilgrims'

In this era when the mobile Internet has not yet arrived, a night of waiting can narrow the distance of many people, when the fatigue gradually subsides with the darkness away, and the fire of faith is like a scorching sun climbing and burning, the unfinished topic of last night still continues.

"Wow! Did you buy so much at Joy Candy? ”

Next to the bronze statue of the clock, two men and two women sat together on the ground.

When the blonde lady with a ponytail saw the man in a gray casual T-shirt take out boxes of Xishi candy from his backpack and invite them to enjoy it together.

"Didn't you buy it? You can get a 20% discount with your ID card! The red-haired woman in the shawl next to the man smiled and pulled out the thirst-quenching bottles and cans from her husband's backpack, "Coke? Sprite? Or Fanta? Although it was heavy on our backs, we bought a little to prepare a little at the thought of opening the door at seven o'clock to serve breakfast. ”

"Oh my God! You're too careful, aren't you? ”

In the face of the kindness handed by the two, the couple did not refuse, and at the same time, they also showed each other their results, "We bought two pairs of deerskin gloves in the exhibition area of Wells Lamont yesterday, and also bought a set of Quikut knives, which was too heavy so I put it in the car, and then my husband and I bought a pair of shoes, as for the food, ......"

"You see we didn't take anything but the shoes on our feet......"

"Wow! Look at you like this, you're ready to eat for three days in a row! The man in a gray casual T-shirt laughed.

"I can't help it! Who makes the food provided by the sponsor better than the restaurant? The point is that you don't want money yet! ”

The red-haired woman made a grimace, and the appearance of a big eater made several people happy.

"Did you buy jewelry last night?" The blonde lady asked, "We looked at it last night, and we were all there for a discount." ”

"No ......," the red-haired woman shook her head like a rattle, "even if it's 50% off, it's so expensive!" ”

That's right, although Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder meeting is officially held on the first day of rest in May, in fact, the day before, the event has already begun, and the whole Friday, which is the shareholder purchase day, the specialties of the various companies under the name of the textile mill are sold at a discount, as long as you have a ticket, you can enter, if you don't want to, you can not go.

On Friday night, from six to nine o'clock, it was the shareholders' reception, and the shareholders who bought it for a day could enjoy the meticulous service of the textile factory, eat and drink as much as they wanted, and the whole audience was free, of course, all they had to pay was to simply listen to the operation concept of Warren Buffett's Boxian Jewelry, take a product manual, and by the way, receive a green '-50%' coupon.

Don't think about it, there is no G fat smile on the coupon.

If someone becomes interested in Boxian jewelry and spends 100,000 ......

Then Warren Buffett, who feels the strong support of shareholders for the company, will appear and take a picture with him.

Just imagine, 200,000 jewelry, now you can buy it for 100,000 yuan, not only that, but you can also have close contact with the god of stocks, and take a close look at the investment halo on the other party......

It's just blood, okay!

I gave you a discount, and I took the time to meet you and take a group photo, that's a blood loss!

In short, on the 0th day of the shareholders' meeting, it is to give back to the company's shareholders!

It's really not about making money!

And just outside the venue, when the group of people ate the high-calorie candy and chocolate they bought yesterday and chatted about various topics, the sun rising from the horizon was gradually rising, and when the time quietly approached seven o'clock, the door of the venue was also opened on time.

The staff in charge of identity verification are familiar with checking the identity information of all walks of life, because there is no seating at the conference, so the seating rhythm is actually the same as the movie theater, which is first-come, first-served.

In this way, after taking the love breakfast provided by the gods, a bunch of people went straight to the infield.

With the exception of a row of seats reserved for front-end board members, two rows of seats for core shareholders, and fixed seats for journalists and long-time analysts, the rest of the seats are all about hand speed.

At this time, if you come to say, 'The fifth floor is not assisted', it is no one to bird you.

Of course, grabbing a position at the beginning is something that a budding talent can do.

The real old fritter shouted as he entered the arena, 'I'm going to take the lead!' As he walked in snakeskin, he jumped over the seats and went straight to the front of the stage for questions.

There were 12 microphones, each targeting three investment analysts with long-term dealings with the company, three journalists with good business contacts with the company, and 18 lucky viewers.

As long as you register with the staff there, you can participate in the lottery before the start of the meeting, and if you are lucky enough to have your pants stripped off by the goddess of luck, you can shoot a fierce arrow in your life to the god of stock during the Q&A stage of the shareholders' meeting.

Because of this, even if everyone is a civilized person in a suit, many times, they will knock out the dog's brain for this.

Even if you don't ask questions, let your children ask questions!

"Wow, there are more and more people coming to the shareholders' meeting......"

"Yes, if it continues to grow at this rate, it will soon be a branch venue......

"No way, who made Berkshire Hathaway's stock price keep rising? In the 90s, analysts from all walks of life thought that their stock price was only 10,000 yuan at most, but now it is 70,000 yuan, and if you buy 100 shares at 7,000 yuan at that time, you can now achieve financial freedom......

"What are you thinking? 7,000 yuan and 100 shares is also 700,000, and if you can take out 700,000 yuan to buy stocks and wait for the appreciation, you will have already achieved financial freedom, okay? Anyone who would buy Berkshire Hathaway at the beginning of their career is either a madman or a fool! Don't want liquidity? Don't want to expand your career? ”

"Also to ......"

Chatting here, the two people sitting in the press area also took their eyes back from the lottery area.

While sorting out the information, the identity tag hanging around the neck also appeared, and unlike those 'pilgrims', the nameplate of this group of guys is their press card, and under the avatar, there is also the logo of the company they work for - BC.

If the zero day is the textile mill's bloodletting to give back to its shareholders, then the first day is the main event.

The venue opened at seven o'clock, and the lucky ones began to be drawn at eight and fifteen, and a small movie related to the company began to be played at half past eight, in the small short film, the chairman of the company was the object of the narrator's ridicule, not only that, but when the old man appeared on the camera, he was also very bold to complain about himself, which was like a comedian-like style, which made everyone in the venue laugh.

To be honest, many of the jokes the old man told were actually not funny.

For ordinary people, it will definitely fall into a cold effect.

But many times, whether a joke is funny or not doesn't really depend on the joke itself, but on the person who told the joke.

It's like Bill Gates lining up to buy a burger to make headlines, and entrepreneurs who spend a lot of money to buy newspaper pages, most of the time, status is the key to determining attention.

When everyone was amused by the old man's humor, the 30-minute short film finally came to an end, as the lights went out, the stage spotlights turned on, and the invited performers also took the stage to warm up.

Dances and songs took turns, and what should have been a serious shareholders' meeting turned into a party scene, and when the atmosphere of the scene reached its peak with the music, the headlights on the stage suddenly went out with a bang.

The newcomer who came for the first time was overwhelmed by this move, but for those old birds who have been here for many years-

"They're coming."

Excited words blurted out.

“What？”

The stunned budding newcomer couldn't figure out the situation.

"They're coming!"

The old bird, staring at the front of the room, shouted.

Although he didn't explain much, at the same time as his words fell, the roaring lights also hit the blue curtain.

The opening like a god soldier from heaven aroused applause in the audience, and the two old men who suddenly appeared in the center of the stage calmly accepted the enthusiasm of everyone, and after the applause gradually declined, the old man adjusted his sitting posture and said to the guests on the microphone simply, "Thank you." ”

And Charlie Munger, who was sitting next to him, did not respond coldly.

If it were a star in the entertainment industry, the guy on the stage would have been sprayed to death by the audience, but for the investors present, they didn't think there was anything wrong with the old man's approach.

After all, investment is not entertainment, the latter can be giggled, but if the former really does this, it will be unstable.

No one is immune to this kind of thing.

No matter which circle you mix in, you will use a character in the end.

After a brief thank-you, the old man recited the familiar opening remarks, and then introduced the board members to everyone, and the named directors stood up with a smile and greeted the guests.

As they moved, the camera also pulled up, and when everyone thought it was just a routine, the human background of the last director made everyone at the scene exclaim.

“What？”

“Wow！”

“Oh！”

Behind the director's left sat a Sven man in a pink shirt and glasses, while in the back right, a handsome and charming young man in a black T-shirt, was smiling and clapping when the camera swept over them, and when they found out that they were on the big screen, the expected surprise also clinged to their faces.

Seeing that the camera was reluctant to move away, the two guys also got up at the same time and waved around, which also made the old man on the rostrum explain a lot, "William, the founder of Microsoft, my good friend, and also a shareholder of the company." ”

"Roland, a well-known Hollywood actor and a shareholder of the company, came for him last year by his uncle, and his position is right."

Although the old man said it easily, it seemed that the existence of two people was a matter of course.

But for the public at the scene, this is undoubtedly a flat thunder!

It's not the first time Bill Gates has been here, so after seeing him, everyone was surprised, but not surprised.

But the Earthball Grass that stirred up the storm in the first half of the year turned out to be one of Berkshire Hathaway's top 20 shareholders?

This, this, this......

“What the fuck？ Does Roland hold so many shares? ”

"Those who can sit in front of that have at least 10,000 shares in shares, right? The unit price is 70,000, which is 700 million? ”

"OMG! Is he so rich? ”

"No wonder you can afford such expensive jewelry at the Oscars!"

"So handsome and so rich? Does this really give people a way to live? ”

With the confirmation of the old man, the discussion sounded one after another, as faithful pilgrims, they would not question the truth of the other party's words at all, but only sighed at Roland's sudden display of strength.

For the past eight years, Roland has come across as a record-breaking actor, and although he has been on Forbes' Hollywood power list every year, he has never been disclosed, so people have always regarded him as an influencer.

At most, they are actors who can make money.

As for how much money was earned, no one knows.

But now, when an estimated amount appears, and this amount is still large enough, the feeling of re-acquaintance comes to their hearts - after eight years in the industry, a net worth of 700 million?

Hold the grass!

Is it so scary?

Although most investors understand that the net worth of 700 million will definitely include the increase in the stocks they hold.

But that's not the point!

It doesn't matter at what price Roland buys the stock or how much it costs!

Because now, he is sitting next to Bill Gates, on the twenty seats that symbolize status!

This special code is the key!

It's like when you find your next-door neighbor who doesn't go to work every day and starts his own business at home.

You think that the other party is just doing a small business and eating with a small income, at most it is financial freedom.

But one day, after you find out that the other party's self-employed project is Taobao, your mentality will collapse.

I know that the other party is rich, but I don't know that the other party is so rich!

After all, having money is a very broad concept, millions of dollars is rich, assets of hundreds of millions are also rich, and mixing with the richest man is also called rich, but ...... The level is different!