Being a Stockbroker is a Sales Job, not a Financial Job

a great investor. But when I first got started when I was 22,
I really didn’t know what I was doing. I’m fresh out of college from University
of Illinois. And I thought being a stockbroker was a financial
management or analyst type job. But after I actually started doing it, I realized it was
a sales job. And so, I went to one of the
most experienced people in our office at the time. We had about 100 and I think we had
105 brokers in our office. And Leo Samet, he was around 80 years old, and he had started with A. G.
Edwards 60 years prior. And he’s very successful. So, I went into his office, and I was like, hey,
Leo, I’m new, you’re successful. Can you share a few tips with
me on how to have a long career in this industry and be successful like you are?
And Leo is funny. I remember this like it was yesterday.
And this was I guess what, 30 years ago? Yeah, 30 years ago, this
happened. But it’s still so fresh in my mind. He looked at me.
I mean, it was probably just for like, maybe 10 seconds, but it seemed like it was for at
least a minute, like just sizing me up. And I guess in his mind, he was thinking,
should I really share the secret of success with this kid? And so,
he didn’t say a word. All he did was he put his hand on a piece of paper,
and he slid it over to me across his desk. And he goes, just put
all your clients in this. And what he slid me was a Value Line report on a
company called Berkshire Hathaway. And so, this is back in 1991. Berkshire Hathaway was less than
$10,000 a share. I think it was about $8,000 or something like that.
And he was like, just put all your clients in this. And I looked at
him, and I was like, my clients are not buying an $8,000 per share of stock.
Don’t you have anything that’s like $10 or $1, like a penny stock?
And that’s what I was thinking in my head because I didn’t know how to
value a company. I didn’t know what the value of Warren Buffett who
ran the company. I didn’t know how to value the free cash flow being generated by the company.
I didn’t know how to predict that interest rates might drop from 10% base or
down to zero over the next 30 years, which would increase the value of the company.
And so, I was just unaware. And so, I never bought the stock. And over the next 30 years, Berkshire
Hathaway went from $8,000 up to over, I think today it’s like $410,000 or so,
and they’ve never had a stock split. And so,
that’s where I learned that don’t pay attention to the price. The price is not what matters.
It’s the value that matters. And I equate that to Bitcoin today because
a lot of people are looking at Bitcoin at $61,000 a coin.
And they’re like, oh, I don’t want to buy it’s too high. I can’t buy a whole Bitcoin.
I’d rather buy like Dogecoin at 23 cents. And that just doesn’t
make sense to me. Because there’s a value to Bitcoin, there’s really no