I’m feeling really humbled after meeting Warren Buffett and hearing him speak for 2.5  hours on Friday. The man is amazing!

The Foster crew got in to Omaha last night, and went to dinner and drinks together. We were up early for breakfast, all looking sharp in our suits. (I looked especially stunning as I had to buy an emergency new suit the day before we left town thanks to a botched tailoring job.) At 9:30am a rock star style bus came for us at the hotel and whisked us off to Mr. Buffett’s office building.

The assembly was held in the Cloud Room at the top of the building. Imagine walking into this room of suited up MBAs!

Each school got to ask a few questions, which ranged from his opinion of recent Berkshire news (e.g. Kraft’s purchase of Cadburry and Berkshire losing its AAA S&P rating), thoughts on the economy, advice on how to start investing with $10,000, how to instill ethics into a company, and his opinion on philanthropy. My favorite comments of his were about his heroes (his father, his wife, Bill Graham, Charlie Munger and a handful of others.) and raising children (how you only get one shot at doing it right). He was just as straightforward and unassuming as both books I’ve read about him portray him to be. He literally could have been my grandfather. Wouldn’t that have been nice! He held a can of Coke in his hand for most of the 2.5 hours, and even though the man is 72, I think he could have spoken to us all day. There were never any signs of wear.

I recorded some of his speech using my iPhone. I’ll try to trim it down into a few sound bites to share.

After the Q&A we were invited to have lunch with him at one of his favorite restaurants called Piccolos. Everyone got a kick out of this place… It was very Midwest, down to the iceberg lettuce (only) salad and rootbeer floats for desert. The main course was Omaha steak. It was definitely a cultural experience! And again, humbling and reminiscent of some deep Americana.

After lunch he took a receiving line of people wanting to take individual and group photos with him. I had brought my big camera, so I stood about 8 feet away from him and snapped away. He had some fun with a few of us, posing with students (ladies in particular) stealing his wallet, or him proposing.

All in all awesome. We left quickly to catch our flight, only to have it be delayed and then cancelled! So, we spent an extra night in Omaha.