Warren Buffett - You Can't Properly Value an Internet Business

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There comes a time when you should just start doing what you love. When you get out of school, you should just get a job that you like. You might change along the way, but you want to work a job that you would still take even if you were independently wealthy. You will get much more out of it, no matter what the starting salary is. If you think that you will be better off if you are making 2X instead of X, then you are probably making a mistake.

You should invest in businesses that you understand. That may eliminate 90% of companies. Anyone can understand Coca-cola. It is a simple business. It isn't an easy business, or else that would be too easy for competitors. Then you want competent managers running the business, and you want a large moat around the business. If you have a wonderful castle, then there will be people trying to attack your castle, so ideally, you would like to throw a couple sharks into the moat.

30 years ago, Kodak had a moat just as big as Coca-cola. They have lost some of that. They let their moat narrow. Fuji has chipped away at it. Once they did the Olympics, people began to see Fuji on par with Kodak. Coca-cola's moat has been expanding the past 30 years. You are only going to find businesses like this in extremely simple products. Bill Gates is a brilliant business man, but it is too difficult to see where his moat will be in 10 years. If you had 10 billion dollars, could you take away business from Coca-cola? Chances are, you couldn't do it. You should buy stocks that you are happy with even if the stock exchange is closed for the next 5 years. You are buying a business. You will do well as long as the business does well.

Buffett bought his first stock when he was 11. Then he picked up the book from Benjamin Graham, and everything changed for him. Probably no one can understand an Internet company. How can you properly value these companies? Maybe it is fun if you want to gamble, but it isn't an investment unless you understand the business.

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