巴菲特致股东的信（2021年）⑨致谢

Thanks

致谢

I taught my first investing class 70 years ago. Since then, I have enjoyed working almost every year with students of all ages, finally “retiring” from that pursuit in 2018.

70年前，我上了人生第一堂投资课。从那以后，我几乎每年都乐于和各年龄段的学生一起交流，最终在2018年从这项爱好中"退休"。

Along the way, my toughest audience was my grandson’s fifth-grade class. The 11-year-olds were squirming in their seats and giving me blank stares until I mentioned Coca-Cola and its famous secret formula. Instantly, every hand went up, and I learned that “secrets” are catnip to kids.

一路走来，最难搞定的听众是我孙子五年级班上的同学们。这帮11岁的孩子在座位上扭来扭去，用一脸茫然的眼神看着我——直到我提起可口可乐和它那著名的秘密配方。瞬间，每只小手都举了起来，我这才明白"秘密"对孩子来说简直就是猫薄荷。

Teaching, like writing, has helped me develop and clarify my own thoughts. Charlie calls this phenomenon the orangutan effect: If you sit down with an orangutan and carefully explain to it one of your cherished ideas, you may leave behind a puzzled primate, but will yourself exit thinking more clearly.

教学，和写作一样，帮助我发展和厘清自己的思路。查理把这种现象称为"红毛猩猩效应"：如果你坐下来，耐心地向一只红毛猩猩解释你珍爱的某个想法，等你离开时，你身后可能留下一只困惑的灵长类动物，但你自己的思路一定会更加清晰。

Talking to university students is far superior. I have urged that they seek employment in (1) the field and (2) with the kind of people they would select, if they had no need for money. Economic realities, I acknowledge, may interfere with that kind of search. Even so, I urge the students never to give up the quest, for when they find that sort of job, they will no longer be “working.”

跟大学生交流就好得多了。我一直鼓励他们在以下两个方面寻找工作：(1) 自己热爱的领域，(2) 假如不差钱的话，选择和自己喜欢的人共事。我承认，现实的经济压力可能会干扰这样的选择。但即便如此，我仍鼓励学生们永远不要放弃这个追求，因为一旦他们找到了这样的工作，就不再是"工作"了。

Charlie and I, ourselves, followed that liberating course after a few early stumbles. We both started as part- timers at my grandfather’s grocery store, Charlie in 1940 and I in 1942. We were each assigned boring tasks and paid little, definitely not what we had in mind. Charlie later took up law, and I tried selling securities. Job satisfaction continued to elude us.

查理和我在经历了早年的一些磕磕绊绊之后，也走上了这条解放之路。我们俩都是从在我爷爷的杂货店打零工开始的——查理是1940年，我是1942年。我们被分配做无聊的活儿，工资也少得可怜，绝对不是我们心目中的理想工作。查理后来去搞法律，我试着卖证券。工作的满足感继续与我们无缘。

Finally, at Berkshire, we found what we love to do. With very few exceptions, we have now “worked” for many decades with people whom we like and trust. It’s a joy in life to join with managers such as Paul Andrews or the Berkshire families I told you about last year. In our home office, we employ decent and talented people – no jerks. Turnover averages, perhaps, one person per year.

最终，在伯克希尔，我们找到了真正热爱的事业。除了极少数例外，我们已经与自己喜欢和信任的人"工作"了几十年。能与保罗·安德鲁斯这样的经理人或我去年跟你们聊过的那些伯克希尔大家庭的成员们共事，是人生一大乐事。在我们的总部办公室，我们雇用的都是正直而有才华的人——没有混蛋。每年的人员流动率大概就一个人。

I would like, however, to emphasize a further item that turns our jobs into fun and satisfaction - - - - working for you. There is nothing more rewarding to Charlie and me than enjoying the trust of individual long-term shareholders who, for many decades, have joined us with the expectation that we would be a reliable custodian of their funds.

不过，我想强调另一个让我们的工作变得充满乐趣和成就感的因素——为你们工作。对查理和我来说，没有什么比获得长期个人股东的信任更令人欣慰的了。几十年来，他们加入我们，期待我们成为他们积蓄的可靠守护者。

Obviously, we can’t select our owners, as we could do if our form of operation were a partnership. Anyone can buy shares of Berkshire today with the intention of soon reselling them. For sure, we get a few of that type of shareholder, just as we get index funds that own huge amounts of Berkshire simply because they are required to do so.

显然，我们无法像经营合伙企业那样挑选自己的股东。今天，任何人都可以买入伯克希尔的股票，打算过几天就卖掉。当然，我们确实有少数这类股东，就像我们也有指数基金纯粹因为被动跟踪的要求而大量持有伯克希尔一样。

To a truly unusual degree, however, Berkshire has as owners a very large corps of individuals and families that have elected to join us with an intent approaching “til death do us part.” Often, they have trusted us with a large – some might say excessive – portion of their savings.

但在一种非常罕见的程度上，伯克希尔拥有一支庞大的个人和家庭股东队伍，他们以近乎"至死不渝"的决心加入我们。他们往往把大部分积蓄——有人可能觉得多到过分——托付给了我们。

Berkshire, these shareholders would sometimes acknowledge, might be far from the best selection they could have made. But they would add that Berkshire would rank high among those with which they would be most comfortable. And people who are comfortable with their investments will, on average, achieve better results than those who are motivated by ever-changing headlines, chatter and promises.

这些股东有时也会承认，伯克希尔可能远非他们本可以做出的最佳选择。但他们会补充说，在所有选择中，伯克希尔是让他们最安心的。而那些对自己的投资感到安心的人，平均而言，取得的成绩会优于那些被不断变化的新闻头条、市场噪音和各种承诺所左右的人。

Long-term individual owners are both the “partners” Charlie and I have always sought and the ones we constantly have in mind as we make decisions at Berkshire. To them we say, “It feels good to ‘work’ for you, and you have our thanks for your trust.”

长期个人股东既是查理和我一直寻求的"合伙人"，也是我们在伯克希尔做每一个决策时心中牵挂的人。我们想对你们说："为你们'工作'的感觉真好，感谢你们的信任。"

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〔译文源于芒格书院整理的巴菲特致股东的信〕

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