My Pilgrimage – Safal Niveshak
4 min read
Even though I consider myself relatively religious, I’m not typically drawn to pilgrimages. In simple fact, the previous significant pilgrimage I undertook was practically 40 years ago, at age 5, when I accompanied my grandparents on the Chaar Dhaam Yatra (four places of pilgrimage) in the mountains of north India.
I nonetheless have vivid memories of that trip, not due to the fact of the spirituality people spots invoke but mainly because the mountains have always attracted me. In point, it could sound abnormal, but whenever I am in the mountains, I have an eerie sensation that I belong there. The air and the water remind me that at some minute in time, I lived there.
In any case, forty a long time later, I am setting up on a various pilgrimage. This time, not in the mountains, but I have this sensation that the working experience shall be the identical – I will really feel that at some minute in time, in a preceding beginning, I had been there.
This pilgrimage is 12,000 KM apart from my past one particular. It’s ideal in the heart of The usa, in Omaha, also potentially the coronary heart of all items price investing.
After deferring for a couple many years, thanks to inertia and financial constraints, I have collected my will and personal savings this time to attend Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders’ conference, to “see” the person with whom I started and have walked through my investing journey of the previous 21 a long time — Warren Buffett.
The event, usually dubbed the “Woodstock for Capitalists,” signifies significantly a lot more to me than just an opportunity to glean enterprise, investing and existence insights from Warren. It is my pilgrimage to pay back homage to a residing legend in the planet of investing and to honour the memory of his not too long ago departed associate and a single of the couple people I actually glance up to in lifestyle, Charlie Munger.
Warren, with his legendary endurance and sage-like wisdom, has served as a distant mentor to me. His ethos and life selections resonate deeply with my values. His approach to investing — emphasising rationality, tolerance, equanimity, empathy, and prolonged-term value — parallels many of the religious classes I have ingrained in my final forty many years considering that I produced the first pilgrimage with my grandparents.
I noticed Charlie in 2018 when I attended the AGM of Every day Journal, in which he was the Chairman. That second when I bought the possibility to talk to him a concern is still etched in my head. Time stood nevertheless for me, and I only listened to Charlie’s response in a video clip recorded by a buddy.
I am sure time will stand continue to when I get my 1st glimpse of Warren on 4th May possibly 2024. I won’t be observing Charlie, at the very least not bodily, but I hope to visualize his soul seated next to Warren, casually popping in See’s peanut brittle with Coke, and indicating just about every time Warren finishes his assertion, “I have nothing to include.”
This pilgrimage to Omaha marks a profound second in my life, substantially like that non secular journey I created as a baby. It symbolizes a whole circle of types, from the sacred temples of my childhood to the hallowed halls exactly where small business, investing, and ethics have merged below the steering of Warren and Charlie.
In Omaha, I also hope to discover some excellent close friends I have met and a lot I never ever have, each drawn by respect for Warren’s and Charlie’s legacy. I am guaranteed this a single will be a impressive reminder that some journeys, regardless of whether religious or mental, are finest carried out with many others who share our values and aspirations.
In his most recent 2023 letter to shareholders, Warren described Omaha as a exclusive position wherever all the three persons seated on the phase on 4th May well – Warren, Greg Abel, Ajit Jain – and Charlie previously, have identified as house at some details in their lives. He also wrote how Berkshire’s fortunes changed for the better when the firm relocated to Omaha from New England in 1970. And then he also wrote about his sister Bertie who invested her early formative yrs in Omaha and, several a long time afterwards, emerged as a single of the country’s terrific traders.
He then wrote –
So what is heading on? Is it Omaha’s water? Is it Omaha’s air? Is it some bizarre planetary phenomenon akin to that which has generated Jamaica’s sprinters, Kenya’s marathon runners, or Russia’s chess experts? Have to we wait around right until AI sometime yields the respond to to this puzzle?
Preserve an open up head. Appear to Omaha in May perhaps, inhale the air, consume the drinking water and say “hi” to Bertie and her great-searching daughters. Who is aware? There is no downside, and, in any celebration, you will have a very good time and meet up with a huge group of pleasant people.
As I see Warren, inhale Omaha’s air, drink its water, and meet several pals on this pilgrimage, I will hold you in my brain, way too.
And, if you are also building the pilgrimage this time, I appear forward to seeing you at the location exactly where, I have a feeling, I will believe I have by now been.
Price Investing Meetups in Dallas and New York: I am organising in-human being meetups on Value Investing in –
Dallas (US): Saturday, 27th April
New York (US): Saturday, 11th Might
If you are in or all around these towns and desire to show up at, kindly sign-up here. Thank you!
