1995: Is Buffett's growing fame a distraction?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi there. My name is Lee Debroff (PH) from Morgantown, West Virginia.

Ever since the Salomon debacle, it appears that you have attracted more and more media attention.

In this regard, there have been numerous displays that would appear to be distractions from the actual business of investing. To wit, we have watched as you attended Bill Gates’ wedding in Hawaii, and bought a personal computer, and now wear striking designer ties. (Laughter)

And yesterday —

WARREN BUFFETT: Bill would’ve invited me to the wedding even if I hadn’t have been at Salomon. (Laughs)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yesterday, we got those pennants during the rainout.

A very serious question, now that you’ve become this media darling, how can you assure us that you’re still keeping your eyes concentrated on the proverbial ball? (Laughter)

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I do get more mail than I used to, so we’ve developed a little more of a system on that. But I just — I do what I like to do.

Just take speeches, I probably get asked to make, maybe, 20 times as many speeches as I would’ve been asked to make 10 years ago, but I make the same number. You know, I’ve got the — I’ve got my own selection process for what I do on that.

And it’s the same way, you know, I’m invited to, you know, I don’t know how many dinner tributes, et cetera. And you know, they basically — I don’t change the way I — what I do, because I don’t want to change the way —

If I wanted something else — if, while I was building Berkshire, that was being done to end up in some other spot, I’d have been there by now. And it just doesn’t change anything.

It does change the volume of mail, but I’ve got that so that that is not a big distraction.

Pardon me?

WARREN BUFFETT: Oh, I’ll remain in Omaha. Yeah, there’s no question about that. I mean, I — if I hadn’t wanted to be in Omaha, I would have figured out ways to change, and it would have been very easy to change decades ago.

I think it’s — we’ve got a lot of people here who aren’t from Omaha, but that’s their problem. I mean — (Laughter)

CHARLIE MUNGER: I have been watching Warren for a long time, and people who are concerned that he will change have a huge appetite for needless worry. (Laughter)

WARREN BUFFETT: The odds that I will change are about as good as the odds that Charlie will change. (Laughter)

The mail thing is a, you know, you wish you didn’t — that there was an easier way to handle it.

But you essentially can’t answer all the letters you get, it’s that’s simple. And that’s about the — once you get past that and get a form letter that takes care of it, that takes care of it.