After increasing Berkshire’s net worth by more than $600 million or 48% the year before, Buffett was feeling good in 1986. He phoned his old buddy and colleague CEO Walter Scott Jr. to inquire as to how he could possible justify purchasing a jet for himself.Buffett struggled with the extravagant purchase since it went against his background and sense of self. When Katharine Graham, the editor of The Washington Post and a close friend of his, once asked him for a dime to make a phone call at the airport, he pulled out a quarter and began hurrying out to obtain change since he was such a miser. Finally, she persuaded him to allow her to waste 15 cents.Schroeder said in her biography of the investor, For Buffett, it was like leaping in one bound over Mount Kilimanjaro to go from explaining 25 cents for a phone call to rationalising two pilots and a full jet to carry him about like a pharaoh on a litter.In his 1992 letter, Buffett made light of his hypocrisy by portraying his purchase as an example of uncharacteristic flexibility.I’ve fiercely opposed corporate planes for years, he remarked. But eventually, my karma ran over my dogma.
Source : Quora Although Munger finds luxury travel to be frivolous, Buffett may be a devotee.At the 1994 shareholder meeting, the vice-chairman of Berkshire observed, The back of the plane always arrives at the same time as the front of the plane.Moreover, Buffett jokedly accused Munger of employing the audience member to embarrass him when he was asked at the 1994 meeting if a new cross-country service would prompt him to reduce his usage of private planes.He said, This is a question seeded by Charlie, before highlighting how much he loves the plane.I now take it to the pharmacy, he stated. Just a matter of time before I begin sleeping in it in the hangar.In the end, Buffett overcame his reservations and defended the plane’s worth by renaming it as The Indispensable.Share your thoughts with us in the comments.t
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