[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 32 (Friday, March 12, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S2765]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we will be wrapping up here in about 15 or 
20 minutes.
  Seeing the Presiding Officer, who is from Tennessee, I want to pull 
out something which I find remarkable. It doesn't have anything to do 
with Senate business, but it does have something to do with the State 
which the Presiding Officer represents and which I represent. In fact, 
it is a historic sort of message. The bottom line is very simple. It 
has to do with saying ``thank you'' and the thoughtfulness of saying 
``thank you.'' I will take a very few minutes to recount this 
fascinating story.

  In the 2003 annual report of Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated, a 
report that was released to shareholders on Saturday, March 6, there 
was a fascinating item that piqued my interest. Berkshire Hathaway is 
the $42 billion dollar firm led by someone who is considered to be the 
greatest stock market investor of all times, Warren E. Buffet. I call 
the annual report to your attention because it contains an unusual 
story involving 40 students and a professor from the University of 
Tennessee.
  For the last 5 years, Professor Auxier has led his finance class on a 
field trip from Knoxville, TN to Nebraska to meet that legendary oracle 
of Omaha, as Mr. Buffet is known. The meetings there would last as long 
as 2 hours as students would have and took advantage of that 
opportunity of peppering the investor with questions on everything, 
everything from finance to life lessons, to mentors, to instances or 
occurrences or events that shaped his life. At the end of each meeting, 
the group presents Mr. Buffet with a gift of appreciation, a gift of 
thank you for taking the time to share his thoughts with them.
  Professor Auxier tells my office his pupils always leave, as we might 
expect, exhilarated and inspired. At last year's meeting, the Tennessee 
group presented Mr. Buffet with an autobiography of Knoxville home 
builder Jim Clayton. The book made sense. It was from their hometown of 
Knoxville, TN, where the University of Tennessee is located. They left 
this as a thank you.
  This would not be particularly noteworthy except for the fact Mr. 
Buffet became so interested in Jim Clayton's story and his successful 
venture--Jim Clayton's successful venture called Clayton Homes--that 
Mr. Buffet turned around and bought the Knoxville company for $1.7 
billion. He closed that deal last October.
  Now the story gets even better. Mr. Buffet was so appreciative of the 
students who had come to visit him to share his thoughts with them, 
putting him on to Clayton Homes investment through this very simple 
gift, so this past October he presented each of them with a share of 
class B stock in his company. The shares are now worth roughly $3,100 
each. He also gave the professor a share of his class A stock which was 
worth, as of yesterday, $94,700. Professor Auxier tells my office when 
Mr. Buffet unveiled these surprise gifts, everyone was simply, using 
his words, flabbergasted.
  All of this is recounted in Mr. Buffet's annual report to his 
shareholders. Those shareholders now include those 40 very lucky 
students and a tremendously appreciative professor from the University 
of Tennessee.
  I believe there are two lessons to be learned from this delightful 
story. The first is to be interested in other people. We all, no matter 
how busy we are, should take advantage of that opportunity to share 
experiences with others. It also shows Mr. Buffet was interested in 
other people, the fact that he took this book and he actually read it. 
It was an autobiography of a fellow businessman, indeed, a long way 
from his home. He was so impressed he turned around and ended up buying 
the company for $1.7 billion.
  The students took that opportunity--it is not always easy to go all 
the way from Tennessee out to Nebraska--to avail themselves of meeting 
the world's renowned expert in the field. They had the good fortune of 
getting his advice. What they did not expect is to get that additional 
per person $3,100. Now they are that much richer for the experience.
  That brings me to the second lesson and then I will close, and that 
is what I opened with. Make sure you always give a thoughtful thank-you 
present. It is the right thing to do. You never, ever know where it 
might lead.

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