No. of Recommendations: 4
BINGO!!
" It is fascinating to come to the realization that Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have always been fully aware that their extreme restraint regarding compensation was not necessary from a moral standpoint. It would indeed have been perfectly fair to compensate both men with properly structured options that reflected the tremendous value generated for Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Instead, they both took symbolic $100,000 annual salaries for decades, leaving enormous wealth on the table.
What if Berkshire had granted options to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger over the past half century? Obviously, the magnitude of the effect would depend on the specific terms of the grants, but Berkshire’s terrific performance combined with the effects of compounding would no doubt have made the value of those grants astronomical — certainly well into the tens of billions of dollars. What have Berkshire’s shareholders done to deserve this additional wealth, generated by effectively having Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger work for free all of these years? This is one reason for Berkshire’s “cult-like” following. Even those who have not attempted to figure the amount of this gift know that it is very substantial."
