HOWARD BUFFETT INTERVIEW  

霍华德·巴菲特访谈  

BECOMING WARREN BUFFETT  

《成为沃伦·巴菲特》  

KUNHARDT FILM FOUNDATION  

昆哈特电影基金会  

HOWARD BUFFETT  

霍华德·巴菲特  

November 19, 2015  

2015年11月19日  

Interviewed by: Teddy Kunhardt  

采访者：泰迪·昆哈特  

Total Running Time:  

总时长：  

标题  他的童年  

10:18:35:10  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well you know, I can describe my childhood as normal but who knows what normal is. I mean, you know, people often think when they ask that question, you know well Warren Buffett was this famous rich guy. He was not famous and he wasn’t rich when we were growing up. I mean you know, he was in the process of making money, but he was at home a lot. We had dinner together, we had Christmases together. We, you know—we—we did what I would think would be a very normal—we had what I think would be a very normal upbringing.  

嗯，你知道，我可以把我的童年描述为“正常”，但谁又知道什么才算“正常”呢？人们提出这个问题时常觉得沃伦·巴菲特是个有名的富翁。可在我们成长的年代，他既不出名，也不富有。他那时正在赚钱的过程中，但经常待在家里。我们一起吃晚饭，一起过圣诞节。我们——嗯——做的事情在我看来都相当普通——我们的成长经历在我看来非常普通。  

标题  巴菲特家的圣诞节  

10:19:17:23  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

I think an average Christmas at the Buffett’s was what you would see on TV. I mean it was like, you know, Lots of gifts, a great time, everybody together and we did that year after year. I mean we just— it was a very consistent thing in our lives and we even did it when we were long into our adulthood. I mean it—it was something that we just did for many, many years. Pretty much until my mom died.  

我想，巴菲特家一个普通的圣诞节就像你在电视里看到的那样：礼物很多、气氛愉快，大家聚在一起，而且年复一年都是如此。这在我们的生活中非常固定，甚至在我们成年很久之后依旧如此。可以说，这件事我们坚持了很多很多年，几乎一直持续到我母亲去世。  

标题  他的兄弟姐妹  

10:20:06:04  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

I’m the middle child so of course I got picked on from both ends, had the most difficult part of life in the Buffett family. Ask my sister or brother, they’ll tell you something different. But you know, Susie and I were very close in age, we were about 18 months apart and so we were a bit competitive growing up. I think it was good that—that you know, she was a female and I was a male. I think if we were males we probably would have killed each other but—but you know—and Peter was four years behind so he was—and he was—and he was more—I’ll call him more passive if that’s— you know, if I can use that term, in terms of kind of my personality so you know, we just didn’t do a lot together and we didn’t clash at all but Susie and I were pretty competitive growing up.  

我是家里的中间孩子，所以当然两头都欺负我，在巴菲特家中日子最难过。去问问我姐姐或弟弟，他们会说不同的版本。不过，苏茜和我年龄非常接近，相差大约18个月，所以我们小时候有点竞争。我认为这件事的好处在于——嗯——她是女孩，而我是男孩。我想如果我们都是男孩，也许早就把对方“干掉”了——你知道——而彼得比我小四岁，他的性格更温和一些，所以我们并没有太多共同活动，也几乎没有冲突，但我和苏茜在成长过程中确实相当好胜。

标题  名字的由来  

10:21:00:05  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

So yeah –my first name Howard was after my grandpa Howard Holman Buffett and my second name Graham was after Ben Graham who of course was you know, a great mentor to my dad and you know, they’re both incredible people and you know, I really don’t remember Ben Graham but I remember my grandfather, you know, to a certain degree. He died when I was probably maybe ten years old, something like that. You know, we would—my grandpa and I would watch football games together and it would always throw me because—well it did in the beginning—I mean he would—he’d be rooting—routing—rooting for one of these teams and then the score would change and he would root for the other team, and I thought, wait a minute, you were for the other team. And he’d say, “no I’m always for the underdog” and I’ve never forgotten that. You know it was—it was kind of a life lesson in a sense because he was always for the person who had you know, the least amount of opportunity so that football game kind of represented his philosophy and I’ll never forget that.  

是的——我的名字“霍华德”来源于祖父霍华德·霍尔曼·巴菲特，中间名“格雷厄姆”则取自本杰明·格雷厄姆，他当然是我父亲的重要导师。他们都是令人钦佩的人。说实话，我对本·格雷厄姆几乎没有记忆，但对祖父还有一些印象。他在我十岁左右时去世。我们曾一起看橄榄球比赛，这常常让我困惑——至少一开始如此——他先为某支队伍加油，比分一变又为另一支队伍助威。我心想：等等，你不是支持另一队吗？他却说：“不，我永远支持弱队。”我从未忘记这句话。这算是一种人生课，因为他总是站在机会最少的人一边，那场橄榄球比赛正体现了他的哲学，我永远记得。  

标题  父亲年轻时的样子  

10:22:25:20  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well he was home a lot, and I always get a kick out this story about you know, how he went across the street once and asked Don Keough if he wanted to invest and you know, Don said, not to face but Don said, “why would I invest in a guy that just sits at home and reads books?” You know, and so he was around a lot, which was great. I mean we had a very—it may—I would say normal—but it may have been unusually normal if that—that doesn’t maybe make sense but I mean, you know,  my parents were around all the time and we had dinner together, we went on vacations to dinner—together—went on vacations together. We did, you know, celebrated holidays together. And we even you know, often times had you know, extended family. So I think it was a very—for me, I think the big thing was it was a very stable environment, and you know, my mom and dad were always congenial. I mean we—we never saw—I never saw them fight, ever. I never—I never saw them in an argument.  I mean I never saw them mad at each other and so I think that may actually be a bit of a fantasy ‘cause now that I’ve been married, I know that it doesn’t always work that way but I always made the same effort with my wife, ya know to behave the same way in front of our kids and so I think we had the most stable environment you could ever ask for.  

他经常待在家里。我一直觉得这个故事很有趣：有一次他过街去问唐·基奥是否愿意投资，唐在背后说：“我为什么要投资一个整天宅在家看书的人？”，所以他总是在家，这很好。我想说，我们的生活非常——我会说正常——但也许是“异常地正常”，如果这么说能让人理解的话。父母总在家，我们一起吃晚饭，一起度假，一起庆祝节日。有时还会有大家庭聚会。对我而言，最重要的是那个环境非常稳定，父母总是和蔼可亲。我从未见过他们吵架，也从未见过他们争执或对彼此生气。这或许有点理想化，因为我结婚后知道并不总是这样。但我也尽力在孩子面前做到同样的行为。所以说，这是你能想象到最稳定的家庭环境。  

标题  父亲陪伴的时间多于多数父亲  

10:23:59:10  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Yeah I mean it was, you know, I would constantly kinda go up to the office and say, “you got time to throw the football? You got time to throw the baseball?” And you know, it was typically—it—it would be—it—it—it—I mean I think it was a pretty typical response, ‘I’ll be there in a minute.’ And after the second or third time, you know of kind of prompting him you know, he would always come, he would never say no. He would always come down, throw the football for a while, throw the baseball, you know do whatever it was I was trying to get him to do. So I mean you know, after the second or third time of, you know, prompting him, he always came down. He always would throw the football, throw the baseball, participate, and you know he was—he was around more than most fathers would be around so I probably had an opportunity to do that more than most kids would you know, have an opportunity to do that but yeah he was—he was always great about that. Most of the time he was very patient with me, you know. It was when my—when I really got my mom to her limit, that’s when she called in the heavy forces and that’s when he had to take a little different position.  

是啊，我常常跑到他的办公室去说：“你有空扔橄榄球吗？有空扔棒球吗？”通常他的回答都很典型：“马上就来。”在第二次或第三次催他之后，他总会下来，从不拒绝。然后陪我扔橄榄球、扔棒球，做我想让他做的事。也就是说，在两三次提醒之后，他总会下来陪我玩。他陪我扔橄榄球、扔棒球、一起活动，他陪伴的时间比大多数父亲要多，所以我比许多孩子有更多机会享受这种时光。他几乎一直对我很耐心。只有当我真的把妈妈逼到极限时，她才会请出“重兵”，那时他就得用更严格的态度来对付我。

标题  家务活  

10:25:27:20  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

You know he—I don’t remember him really doing much with chores. Basically I think, you know, my mom and dad would pay us a small allowance. We’d clean gutters, rake leaves. We would do things around the house—empty the garbage; we’d do all of that. I mean I remember when it was 25 cents at one point, then 50 cents a week and it was never a lot of money but you know it was you know, the incentive to do it and it was the reward for doing you know what you know, our parents wanted us to do. But I don’t remember him doing much of that. I mean he’s not the kind of guy who would go out and cut the grass and the truth is, today, I would say, you know, that’s not—I’ve learned—the phrase is, what’s your highest and best use of time and obviously with him, his highest and best use of time was not mowing the lawn.  

说起来——我不记得他真的做过多少家务。基本上，我爸妈会给我们少量零用钱；我们清理屋檐、耙落叶，做些家里的活——倒垃圾之类，全都我们来干。我记得一开始一次才25美分，后来是每周50美分，钱从来不多，但这既是做事的动力，也是在完成父母希望我们做的事情后得到的回报。不过我不记得他做过多少这一类活儿。他不是那种会出去割草的人。实际上，现在我也明白了，有句话叫“把时间用在最高效、最有价值的地方”，显然对他来说，割草并不是时间的最佳用途。  

标题  情感层面的父亲  

10:26:35:23  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well it’s difficult to connect on an emotional level because I think that that’s not his basic mode of operation. I don’t think he could be as successful in business if he were a really like, normally an emotional person. Obviously he has emotions and he expresses emotions; there’s times that that comes and go’s but you know, I would say he’s—he’s a lot of fun but he’s—he’s still in his personal life very direct and very focused on practicality and reality and so you get that. But it’s not—you know in business, you know it probably is a hard-edged approach but personally, even though he’s not, you know, I would say extremely emotional, it isn’t like the thing most people would imagine because he is the funniest guy I’ve ever met and part of that comes from how clever he is, and how witty he is, and you know, there’s nobody who can come up with better jokes on the spur of the moment than my dad and so he’s a fun guy—he is one of the most fun guys to be around from that standpoint.  

在情感层面上与他建立联系是很难的，因为那并不是他的基本行事方式。我认为，如果他是一个常规意义上很情绪化的人，就不可能在商界取得如此成功。当然，他有情感，也会表达情感；有时情感会显现又消退。不过我得说，他非常有趣，但在个人生活中依旧极其直接，专注于实用与现实，所以你能感受到这一点。在商业上，他或许采用的是较为强硬的做法；而在私底下，虽然他不算极度感性，却也并非大家想象的那样，因为他是我遇见过最幽默的人，这部分得益于他的聪明才智和敏锐机智。没有人能像我父亲那样随口说出更巧妙的笑话，所以他是个有趣的人——从这个角度看，他是最让人乐于相处的人之一。  

10:27:53:07  

He will come up with the funniest lines that you can imagine and sometimes I sit there and think, how does he do that, you know? But it’s –it’s—that’s him—I mean that—and—and—so that’s the part I think, the very clever business part that carries through to his personal life, you know. He’s got obviously a tremendous IQ and it’s an IQ that can be applied to you know, produce results. I mean, not everybody with high IQ’s produce results so I—I just think it’s kind of a natural extension of how he actually is.  

他总能说出你能想象到的最妙的台词，有时我坐在一旁想：他是怎么做到的？但那就是他——我想那种极富机智的商业头脑自然延伸到他的私人生活。显然他拥有惊人的智商，而且这种智商可以被应用来创造成果。并非所有高智商的人都能取得成就，所以我觉得这只是他本来面貌的自然延伸。

标题  他与父亲共有的特质  

10:32:15:06  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

You know I think the similarities you would see that I’ve developed from my dad would come from what he’s taught us and all of us kids and I remember certain things, I was driving down dodge street when I was like eleven or twelve years old with him and you know I still remember he said, “just remember it takes you know, twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” And he was always you know giving us you know, these little bits of philosophy and—and they were great. And I think they build—you know, they—they—they build out a character—they build out, you know, what your sensitivities are, what your priorities are, and so I think, you know, the kind of person he is, I think all three of us kids you know, have parts of that in us and he always tried to stress integrity and at the same time being pretty flexible.  

我想，我从父亲身上继承的那些相似之处，都源自他的教导。我记得很多事：十一二岁时，我和他开车沿着道奇街，他说：“记住，建立声誉要二十年，毁掉它只需五分钟。” 他总是给我们这些小哲理，都很受用。这些教诲塑造了人格、敏感度和优先顺序。所以，我们三个孩子身上都有他的一部分。他一直强调正直，同时保持足够的灵活性。  

10:33:04:22  

Knowing that, you know, all young kids, you know, good kids make mistakes. So, just because you make a mistake, doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. I think he would always try, you know I got in trouble probably way more than my brother and sister and I think you know, he would always try and take that and use it as a lesson to try to teach me you know why I didn’t wanna do what I was doing or you know why I got in trouble, you know, what I could learn from that. So I think all of us would have a lot of the traits that he possesses in terms of how he feels about humanity and treating other people and being fair and honest; I think those are all things that he would’ve pretty much, you know, to him was important to make sure that we understood those things.  

他知道所有孩子——好孩子也会犯错。所以，犯错不代表你是坏人。我闯祸的次数可能远超兄弟姐妹，他总会把这些当作课程，告诉我为什么不该那样做，或者我为何惹麻烦、能从中学到什么。因此，在待人、善良、公正和诚实这些方面，我们都继承了他许多品质；他极力确保我们理解这些重要的东西。  

标题  他的母亲  

10:40:54:23  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well my mom was like the biggest part of my life growing up. I mean you know, even though I got disciplined on a regular basis and she was the one doing it, she was still my best friend. And you know, she was somebody who I could go to with almost any problem, or any issue, any situation, even if I knew I was going to get in trouble, I knew she would handle it in a way that I could confide in her or ask for help so she was— I think she was very unusual. You know, everybody might say that about their mom, I don’t know, but you know I think she was very unusual because she was somebody who you know could be the discipliner and the best friend at the same time. And I think that’s a very hard thing to do. My mom was kind of always radiating joy and radiating friendship and people would be very attracted to her. And she was somebody who was really easy to be around, somebody who would help anybody, I mean whether she knew him or didn’t know him or maybe even didn’t agree with them, she would still help them and—so I think she was a very unusual person in that way.  

在我成长过程中，母亲几乎是我生命中最重要的人。虽然我常挨训，而执行惩罚的正是她，她仍是我最好的朋友。我可以带着几乎任何问题或麻烦去找她，即使知道自己会惹祸，她也会以让我能倾诉或寻求帮助的方式来处理。所以我觉得她非常特别。也许人人都会这么说自己的母亲，但我真的觉得她与众不同，因为她能同时扮演管教者和最佳朋友，这很难做到。母亲总是散发喜悦与友善，人们自然被她吸引。她与谁都相处得来，愿意帮助任何人，无论认识与否，甚至意见相左，她仍会伸出援手——在这点上，她确实不同寻常。  

10:42:23:06  

She was a bit of a free spirit. But—but she, you know, wasn’t way out there, you know, she was somebody who I think—and I think that’s what make—I think being a free spirit is what made her be so open and so giving and willing to accept in anything anybody, and I don’t think that’s normal and—and I think she did that to a much greater degree than most people could do or would do.  

她有点自由不羁，但并不过分。正是这份自由让她如此开放与慷慨，愿意接纳任何人任何事。我想这种程度的接纳并不常见，而她做到的远超大多数人能够或愿意做到的。

标题  他与母亲共有的特质  

10:43:02:14  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well I think my mom, probably it’s still very deeply, and I—again I think it’s probably for all three of us, but you know, an obligation to help other people, an obligation to respond to people who are in need. My mom was always helping people. I mean that—her whole life was about helping other people. And so I think that there wasn’t any way we could be around her without absorbing that and having it become like part of our DNA. I mean I just think, you know we’re all—all three of us are very responsive people to situations where others don’t have what they should have or have what they need to have and then I  think, you know, with her and my dad setting up the foundation, it just gave us the financial ability to respond to a lot of that and that’s what we’ve spent a good part of our lives doing in the last you know, ten years or more.  

我想我母亲深深植入我们心中的，还是那种义务感——帮助他人、回应有需要的人。我母亲总是在帮助别人，她的一生都在做这件事。所以我们在她身边，不可能不受其影响，把这种精神融入DNA。我认为，我们三个人都非常乐于在别人缺乏应有或所需时伸出援手，而我想，正因为她和父亲设立了基金会，我们才具备经济能力去回应许多需求，这也是过去十多年里我们致力投入的大事。  

标题  父亲捐赠资金的理由  

10:44:06:21  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

I would say that she was not frustrated at all that my dad was not giving away a large amount of money because he has a very logical, you know, rationale for that. I mean I remember when Ted Turner criticized him you know, for not giving away more money. I thought, well that may be your opinion but it’s a very narrow opinion because my dad is taking money and making more money and he—the more money he has, the more money he can make and so you know, his ability to make money and generate returns as a result of not giving it away too early actually means it will be a much greater—I mean a much greater benefit later on and that’s a very rational argument and I think my dad’s right about that. And so I think she understood that and I think you know from time to time, she might have been a little frustrated, you know trying to get him to loosen up here and there but I think overall, it wasn’t this great frustration that he wasn’t generous. He’s very generous in his own way, but he does that based on you know, his analytical analysis of how he sees things and how he views things and it’s very hard to argue with most of how he analyzes things.  

我想，母亲丝毫不觉得沮丧，因父亲没有大量捐款——因为他有非常合乎逻辑的理由。我记得泰德·特纳曾批评他捐得不够多。我当时想，这只是你个人且狭隘的看法。父亲用钱去赚钱，钱越多，他就能赚得越多。因为不早早捐出去，他能持续创造收益，日后带来的益处会大得多——这是极其理性的论点，我认为他是对的。我想母亲也明白这一点。偶尔她可能会有些懊恼，想让他在某些地方放松些，但总体上，她并非因他“不慷慨”而大为沮丧。他以自己的方式非常慷慨，而这种方式基于他对事物的分析与看法；在大多数情况下，很难反驳他的分析。  

标题  父亲分析情境的方式  

10:45:35:11  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well I think it depends on what the circumstances are. I mean I can remember when I— we were out in Emerald Bay one time, and I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but it was— you can actually figure this out, because it was when the strike was going on at the paper in Buffalo, New York. And I just sat there fascinated kind of listening to his side of the conversation and then he would hang up and I’d ask him some questions and he would explain to me. I mean, at that point in time, what he’s seeing is he’s seeing a set of circumstances that he knows when he’s gonna start losing money, he knows how much money he’s gonna lose and he knows what his tolerance level is for losing the money for the long-term gain—of getting guys back to work. He’s got that all calculated out and he knows what that is. Now, his decision on that may not be the same as somebody else’s decision but his decision is usually the best decision when it comes to something like that and so, you know, in that case, he’s seeing pretty much numbers. I mean he’s seeing, you know—you know, what can I afford, how far can I afford to go before it costs me enough that I can’t recover it and so I would say that’s a numbers game and I think most of what he does is a numbers game and that’s what he focuses on.  

这要视情况而定。我记得有一次在翡翠湾，当时我年龄不大——你可以推算，因为那正是纽约布法罗报业罢工期间。我坐在旁边，被他的对话吸引；他挂掉电话后，我问了些问题，他便向我解释。那时他看到的是一系列情形：他知道自己何时开始亏钱、会亏多少、为了让工人复工而承受亏损的忍耐额度。他把这些都算得清清楚楚。也许他的决定与他人不同，但在这种事情上，他的决定往往最佳。在那种情况下，他看到的几乎全是数字：我能承受多少？在损失到无法弥补前能走多远？这是一场数字游戏，而我认为他所做的大部分事情都是数字游戏——这是他关注的核心。

标题  他母亲参与社会议题  

10:47:05:01  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

You know, when you’re a kid growing up, you don’t always pay attention to everything your mom and dad were doing but there were some things we couldn’t ignore because—‘cause she would kind of pull us into them or we would—you know, there were big enough things going on in life that—that they had some kind of influence but you know, I remember her being very involved in—in like, the women’s league of voters. Not getting really into—I don’t ever remember getting really into the political part of politics, but I remember getting into the, you know, the part that encourages people to vote, participate and be part of the process and—and that—and that—and—and her involvement in that was very much about coming from the angle of civil rights.  That—that all groups were involved, all groups had a fair opportunity to be involved. So I think you know, we saw that, what she was doing and spending her time on. You know she used to go down to what we would call the projects of North Omaha and—and do different things and I went with her quite a few times when she went down and—and you know, got engaged in different activities and I saw a lot of that, and I saw her engaged in that, and I think that absolutely wears off. I mean, you—you see that and you pick it up and—and you learn things from it and I think what—you know, what I learned from it, was that she was a very compassionate person who had empathy for circumstances that—that were not circumstances that you or me would want to be in and—and so I think it was her actions that I learned from, not—not what she would talk about but what she would do.  

你知道，在成长过程中，孩子并不会留意父母做的每件事，但有些事我们无法忽视——因为她会把我们拉进来，或者说，那些事在人生里足够重大，足以产生影响。我记得她非常积极参与诸如“妇女选民联盟”这类组织。我不记得她真正涉足政治的政治面向，但她积极推动人们去投票、去参与、去成为民主进程的一部分——她的参与更多是从民权角度出发，确保所有群体都能参与、都拥有公平机会。所以我们看到了她的付出，看到了她把时间花在这些事情上。她常去奥马哈北区的贫民区做各种事情；我也跟她去了很多次，参与不同活动。我亲眼见证了这些，也看到她的投入，这些当然会潜移默化。你亲眼看到，就会吸收并学到东西。我从中学到的是：她是个极富同情心、对困境怀有共情的人——那些境况并非你我愿意身处其中——而我学到的正是她的行动，而非她的言语。  

标题  习惯成性之人  

10:48:48:20  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well he’s—my dad’s a creature of habit, there’s no question about that. Whether it’s you know, hamburgers or cherry Coke’s or whatever. I mean, you know, he—but I think a lot of us are that way but you know, he also has had a very clear philosophy of you know, doing what you’re good at and sticking with that. I mean he used to always tell me, you know “everybody has a circle of competence and stay within it.” And then he’d always remind me mine was a little bit small, but you know, I mean jokingly but I mean you know, and there—there’s a lot truth in that. I mean that is great advice. People get in trouble when they get outside of their element, when they get outside of their competence level and so you know, he’s somebody that lives in that circle and that means you create certain habits, it means you do things a certain way on a pretty normal basis and that’s what he does but I don’t think that’s so unusual. Most people have personal habits that just don’t change. And you know, somebody might focus on him because he’s famous today. And so you know, they zero in on something. The truth is, that’s probably not much different from 95% of the people in this country.  

没错——我父亲是个极具习惯性的人，这毫无疑问。不论是汉堡还是樱桃可乐，都一样。但很多人都这样。他还有个非常明确的哲学：做自己擅长的事并坚持下去。他常对我说：“每个人都有自己的能力圈，待在里面。”然后他总半开玩笑地提醒我，我的能力圈有点小，不过话虽玩笑，却也含真理。这是条极好的建议：人们一旦离开自己的领域、超出能力范围，就容易惹麻烦。所以他一直待在那个圈子里，这意味着形成固定习惯，日常以特定方式行事——这正是他的做法。但我并不觉得这很罕见，大多数人都有难以改变的个人习惯。只是因为他如今名气大，别人就刻意聚焦某个细节。事实上，他的做法和全国95%的人并没太大区别。  

标题  奥马哈为何适合父亲  

10:50:06:14  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

I think Omaha is a great place for my dad because he—he doesn’t want to be you know, in big groups. He doesn’t want to be—he doesn’t look for attention. I mean you know, he—he—he doesn’t avoid it today because it’s part of what his—kind of goes with what he’s done and what he’s accomplished but you know, he—he—he’s—he’s a loner in a sense. He—he is not somebody who’s going to follow a group; he’s not somebody who cares about being a groupie. He’s not somebody who cares about you know, going to parties or being involved in, you know the things that a lot of people want to be involved in. So I think Omaha fits well. I mean he can—you know people have respected him well in Omaha; he’s somebody who can kind of blend in and—and he’s obviously very friendly and—and so when he’s around Omaha and people see him, it’s an easy thing for him. Omaha’s easy for him. New York would not be easy for him. And so I think you know, Omaha is a perfect place for him and it was a perfect place for us to grow up as a family.  

我认为奥马哈对父亲而言是绝佳之地，因为他不喜欢待在大群体里，也不寻求关注。如今他并不刻意回避关注，因为那已与他的所作所成相伴而生，但某种意义上，他仍是个独行者。他不会随波逐流，也不在乎当“追随者”。他对参加派对或涉足许多人向往的社交活动毫无兴趣。因此奥马哈正好契合他。当地人对他很尊重；他能自然融入其中，而且他显然很友好，所以在奥马哈，人们见到他一切都很自在。奥马哈对他来说轻松自在，纽约则不然。所以我认为，奥马哈对他来说再适合不过，对我们这个家庭的成长也是完美之地。

标题  他父亲独特的品质  

10:51:33:04  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

I would say, the one thing my dad does that almost nobody else does—I mean a lot of people write about this is that you know, he zeros in on something, he gets to understand it and know it better than probably most people would have the patience to do and then he sticks with it. I mean, you know, he hasn’t made these brilliant investments you know, all the time. I mean he does some that are very complicated and very intelligent and very difficult. I’m not—you know I wouldn’t, you know, say that isn’t a part of what he’s done. But you know, buying—you know going out and buying branded companies and hanging onto them for twenty or thirty years is something that anybody could do but people—but most people don’t do it because they don’t have the patience and everybody wants to get rich quick, everybody wants to make a buck today. And so what makes him really different than most people is he’s just—he’s in it for the long haul and that is him and so that’s a very different trait than a lot of investors have. And it isn’t that there aren’t other guys out there like Wally White’s or other people you know, that—that have a similar investment philosophy but he’s done it extremely well and as he’s gotten—you know as he—as he’s earned more money, he’s placed bigger bets and he’s just stuck with those bets and that has really paid off for him. He doesn’t stick with something when it doesn’t make sense anymore. I mean you know, he’s gone in and out of some investments but for the most part, he’s somebody who is very—he’s a very loyal person and he’s very loyal in his investments.  

我想说，我父亲做的一件几乎无人能及的事——许多人都谈到这一点——就是他会对某件事全神贯注，把它研究得比大多数人有耐心做到的程度还要深入，然后长期坚持下去。当然，他并不是每次都做出那些惊艳的投资；他也操作过极其复杂、聪慧而艰难的项目，这无疑是他成就的一部分。但像收购品牌公司并持有二三十年，这其实谁都能做，只是大多数人缺乏耐心，人人都想快速致富、立刻赚钱。因此，使他与众不同的地方在于他的长期主义——这就是他本人，这一点与许多投资者大相径庭。并不是没有像沃利·怀特那样持类似投资理念的人，只是他执行得极为出色；随着财富增长，他下注更大，却始终坚守这些赌注，并从中获得巨大回报。当某件事不再合乎逻辑时，他就不会再坚持。确实，他也曾进出过一些投资，但总体而言，他是极其忠诚的人，对自己的投资尤为忠诚。  

标题  他父亲的竞争心  

10:53:41:16  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

My dad’s very competitive and I think he’s also pretty smart about what he decides to compete in or with. You know, he’s—he’s not gonna try to take something on that he won’t be successful with but when he’s into something, he’s extremely competitive.  

我父亲极具竞争心，也非常聪明地选择竞争的领域与对象。他不会去做没有胜算的事情，但一旦投入其中，他就会竞争到底。  

标题  母亲在父亲成功中的角色  

10:54:06:21  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Oh I think my mom was a huge part of my dad’s success. She was the foundation; she was kind of the rock in terms of always holding everything together and she did that in a lot of ways. She did that for him emotionally, she did that for us as a family, she did that in a way that she took on probably more responsibility than a lot of wives would have taken on just to make things work and she was very committed to that and she was very committed to making our family work and to do that, she was very committed to making sure my dad was very successful.  

哦，我认为母亲是父亲成功的重要组成部分。她是基石，是将一切维系在一起的磐石，这体现在许多方面：她在情感上支持父亲，也支撑整个家庭；为了让一切顺利，她承担的责任可能比许多妻子都要多。她对此全情投入，致力于让家庭运转良好，并确保父亲取得巨大成功。

标题  关于母亲决定搬到加州  

10:57:39:02  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well it was—it was hard for me. I think, you know, I took the position that that’s—whatever the decision and conversation was with her and my dad was none of my business. I mean I just never did ask about that and that wasn’t what I was really concerned about because there were—there were always—you know it wasn’t— it was almost like nothing changed with their relationship. I mean it wasn’t like it was some you know, big thing that caused problems and created bad feelings. I mean nothing—nothing like that ever happened that I ever saw so it was just more the idea that she’s moving away—you know physically moving away. I mean probably a very selfish reaction on my part because it was like, you know she’s going to be further away, I won’t see her as often. She won’t be as involved, you know, on a regular basis.  So my reaction was more probably about how it affected me and I just—I just felt like that was not—it’s not my business; I mean they need to work that out and so it wasn’t something I really got very deeply involved with.  

这对我来说——确实很难。我认为，那是她和父亲之间的决定与谈话——与我无关。所以我从没去问，更不是我真正关心的事，因为他们的关系似乎毫无变化，从未出现什么严重问题或负面情绪——至少我从未见过。让我难以接受的只是她要搬走——真的从身边搬走。也许这是很自私的反应：她离得更远，我见不到她，也不会像以前那样频繁参与我们的日常。因此我的反应更多是它对我的影响。我觉得这不是我的事，他们需要自己解决，所以我并没有深度参与。  

10:58:51:16  

I mean I—I think one of the reasons it was important for her to leave Omaha was because she just felt like she was kind of trapped in this environment, that—that everyone knew who she was, that she couldn’t have her own identity, that she couldn’t kind of just go out and do something without people recognizing her and—and that was true. And so, even though she was a very giving person, everybody needs you know, their own life and they need their own, you know, time where they can privately do what they want to do and she couldn’t do that in Omaha and she really couldn’t do that in Omaha and so I think, you know, she wanted to move somewhere where she had some autonomy, where she could just be herself and not always worry about being pulled into something or being recognized.  

我想，她之所以必须离开奥马哈，其中一个原因是她觉得自己被困在这个环境里——人人都知道她是谁，她无法拥有自己的身份，出门做点什么都会被认出来——这确实如此。虽然她十分慷慨，但每个人都需要自己的生活和私人时间，去做想做的事；在奥马哈她无法做到这一点。所以她想搬到一个能够拥有自主、可以做自己、不必总担心被卷入什么或被认出的地方。  

10:59:54:22  

She was kinda—when she moved—when my mom moved to San Francisco, obviously we didn’t see her as often and that was why I wasn’t you know, thrilled about her moving but you know, if you could take these little snapshots as to when we had Christmas or when we did other things together, you—you wouldn’t have known that anything had changed and so I think it’s pretty unusual. I don’t think that’s a normal set of circumstances but it worked for them and it worked for us.  

当母亲搬到旧金山后，我们显然见她的次数少了，这也是我不太高兴的原因。但如果你截取一些我们一起过圣诞或共度时光的片段，你不会察觉任何变化。我认为这相当少见，不算常态，但对他们、对我们都行得通。  

标题  关于阿斯特丽德  

11:00:57:09  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well Astrid is, you know, a very self-contained person. She’s not somebody who is looking for attention or wants attention. I think she’s one of the few people in the world, to be honest with you, who could be with my dad today and I think my brother and sister would give the same answer, and none of us think that she’s there for any other reason, that she’s there to support him. I think that’s very unusual. I think very few people would do what she’s doing and have it really be what comes naturally for them and so—but she’s a very private person.  

阿斯特丽德是个非常自足的人，她并不寻求或渴望关注。坦白说，她可能是世上少数能与我父亲相处的人之一，我兄弟姐妹会给出同样答案。我们都认为，她陪伴父亲纯粹是为了支持他，没有其他目的。这很少见，也很少有人能像她那样自然地做到。但她是个极为低调的人。  

11:01:53:22  

I never get asked about you know, how did it work Astrid and my mom and if I did, I would just say, you know who cares? I mean I— you know, they—they made it work and that’s what matters. And so, again I felt like it was just not something that involved me or was for me to be involved with. You know, when you have kids, you know, there’s things that your kids will ask you to help with and for the most part, you stay out of there personal life and I felt like you know, that—that’s, Astrid my mom and my dad, however they’re working it out, that’s their personal life and that’s not my business.  

没人问过我阿斯特丽德和母亲如何相处，即便有人问，我也只会说：谁在乎呢？他们能让这一切顺利运转，这才重要。所以我再次觉得这与我无关，也不该由我插手。就像养育子女时，孩子会求助你，但你大多不会干涉他们的私生活一样。我认为，阿斯特丽德、母亲和父亲之间怎样相处，那是他们的私生活，与我无关。

标题  母亲生病时  

11:02:45:05  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Yeah I remembered because I was on my way to a board meeting in India that I served on and I remember saying to her, well I’ll go to the board meeting and I’ll be back and I’ll see you when I get back. And she actually broke down, and she rarely cried. And she just started crying. And said, no you need to stay here, and you need to come out for the operation. And so that’s—that’s when we all went out and she had this, you know amazing—I think it was fourteen hours or someth—it was an amazingly long operation but she came through it very well. You know, she—she did not talk a lot about that. I mean she—she wasn’t looking for sympathy or you know, she just would kind of tell us what she thought we needed to know. Other people probably knew much more about it than I did to be honest with you, ‘cause I always felt like you know, I didn’t pry into her business or—or you know, I don’t pry into my dad’s business; I mean you know, they’re—they’re gonna tell me what they’re gonna tell me, and I think that’s typically how you should treat people.  

我记得当时正要飞往印度参加一个我担任董事的会议，我对她说：我去开会，很快回来，到时再来看你。结果她崩溃了——她很少哭——竟然哭起来，说：不，你得留下，你得来参加手术。于是我们全家都去了。那是一场惊人的手术，好像持续了十四个小时，非常漫长，但她康复得很好。她并不常提这件事，不寻求同情，只是告诉我们她认为我们需要知道的部分。坦白说，别人可能比我了解得更多，因为我从不刺探她或父亲的私事——他们愿意说什么就说什么，我觉得待人之道本该如此。  

标题  父亲如何应对苏茜的病情  

11:03:56:02  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Yeah well I mean, I think he was—he would have done and was trying to do whatever he could to support her. And you know, one of those things was to physically be there. And I could remember when—when I would go back you know, it was unpredictable. I mean you didn’t know—I would go with her sometimes when she would get her treatment, and sometimes she would just have to go home and rest, other times she would wanna go take a walk and sometimes that was two blocks, sometimes it was ten blocks. You know, just completely dependent on how she felt physically and I think—I mean my dad did what all of us tried to do, which was just be there physically to spend time with her and support her the way that she wanted it.  

我想他当时愿意并且正在尽一切可能支持她，其中最重要的就是亲自陪伴。我记得回去时情况总是难以预测：有时我陪她去接受治疗；有时她只能回家休息；有时她想出去走走，可能两条街，也可能十条街，全看她身体状况。我父亲做的就是我们大家都努力做的——亲自陪在她身边，按照她希望的方式与她共度时光并给予支持。  

标题  得知母亲去世  

11:04:46:15  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

So I was, I’d just gotten off an airplane and landed in Johannesburg South Africa, and my s—my—the guy there Peter Kinero who was to pick me up had—I call—I always would call Peter and say ok, I’m here, I’m getting my bags, I’ll be out in twenty minutes or something and Peter said you need to call your sister. And I said, “well, it’s like 2 am or something, I‘ll call her in a little bit.” And he says, “No you have to call her right now.” I actually thought something happened to my dad. I don’t know why I thought that, I guess I thought, you know, my mom had this recovery, it was successful and why would anything happen to her at that point. And so I called my sister and she told me what was going on and it was like, ok, how do I get home? She was like, “get a private airplane.” I said, “well it won’t matter because you know, it’s still gonna take the same time to get home and they’ll have to get a—you know, I mean where’s the plane gonna come from?” And we were all talking about the logistics of how to get back because at that time, she was on her way to the hospital. She hadn’t actually died. And so, you know, she was trying to figure out how—she was actually going to the airport and getting on a plane, going to Idaho and I was trying to figure out how to get home and then she let me know that she died. So then, it was like, ok I just need to figure out how to get back and they kinda—Susie just slowed everything down, and just made sure that you know, I could get home and it was a long trip home.  

当时我刚下飞机抵达南非约翰内斯堡，接机的彼得·基内罗——我一向会打电话告诉他：我到了，正取行李，大概二十分钟后出来——却告诉我得立刻给姐姐打电话。我说：现在凌晨两点，我稍后再拨。他说：不，你必须马上打。我第一反应是父亲出事了，不知为何这么想，大概因为母亲康复顺利，觉得她不会有事。我给姐姐打电话，她说明了情况，我立刻想：怎么回家？她说：包架私人飞机。我说：没用，回去还是需要同样时间，而且飞机从哪儿来？我们都在讨论返程的后勤，那时母亲正被送往医院，还没去世。姐姐正赶去机场飞往爱达荷，我也在设法回家。随后她告诉我母亲去世了。于是我只想尽快回去；苏茜放慢了所有安排，确保我能赶回家，那真是一段漫长的归程。

标题  关于面对死亡  

11:046:37:13  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

You know, it depends on who the person is, what the relationship is. I mean I—I have—this is gonna sound strange but her death was not that difficult for me because I think I had an amazing relationship with her when she was alive and she was a huge part of my life so when she’s gone, there’s nothing I can do about that, but I had no reason to look back and feel like, I should have done this or I wish this had happened or anything like that. So I mean, I think for me, it may sound strange but it was not that difficult. It’s—it’s difficult to lose someone, don’t get me wrong. But it was not that difficult to deal with the fact that you know—I mean I—I think it’s one of the things that I learned from my dad. I mean you know, it’s a practical part of it. I mean there’s nothing I can do about; there’s nothing I can change about it. It’s a fact, it’s—you know, it’s happened and you have to deal with it. And so for me, I just looked at it as I had had, you know the greatest mom, the greatest life with my mom, she was my best friend, always supported me, so there was nothing for me to look back and go, I wish it had been different.  

你知道，这取决于逝者是谁、关系如何。听起来或许奇怪，但她的去世对我并不算难以承受，因为她在世时我们关系极好，她是我生命的重要部分。既然她离开了，我也无能为力，更没有理由回顾并自责“我本该这么做”或“要是那样就好了”。对我而言，这听来或许怪异，却并不艰难。失去亲人当然痛苦，但接受这一事实并不难——这是我从父亲那里学到的务实：无法改变，就必须面对。因此，我只是把它看作：我拥有过最好的母亲，和她度过了最美好的时光，她一直支持我，所以我没有任何遗憾。

标题  父亲捐出财富的决定  

11:08:12:09  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Yeah.  We actually talked about it for months, to be honest with ya. I mean the first time, he sat down with Susie at our house when I was in Omaha, and just talked to Susie and I about it, some of the ideas he was thinking about and you know, we had a little back and forth on his—what he was thinking and what did we think of it. And then, as he kinda got more geared up on trying to get something done, we all kind of had some input on it and discussed it and then he decided how he was going to do it.  

是的。老实说，我们为此讨论了几个月。第一次是在我回奥马哈时，他和苏茜在家中坐下，把自己的想法告诉我们，我们也针对他的设想提出看法。随后，随着他愈发决心落实此事，我们都参与进来提供意见、进行讨论，最后他决定了具体的实施方式。

标题  他与比尔·盖茨的关系  

11:08:51:10  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well, my guess is it’s complicated but I don’t know. I mean you know. They’re friends, they’re probably a little competitive. They’re—they have different interests but you know, they have some things that are parallel. I mean I’m sure—I don’t—I mean I don’t ask how his relationship is with Bill Gates, I don’t really know how to answer that. But I’m sure it’s a—I’m sure it’s not simple.  

我想情况很复杂，但我并不清楚。他们是朋友，也可能有些竞争；兴趣各异，却在某些方面并行。我从不去问他和比尔·盖茨的关系如何，所以也不知该如何回答。但可以肯定，这段关系绝不会简单。

标题  伯克希尔·哈撒韦的未来  

11:09:25:11  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well, ultimately, when my dad’s gone, what happens to Berkshire will be a decision by the board. And there’s no guarantee the board will put me in as a non-executive chairman; my dad has suggested that, the board has been very supportive of that. If that’s what I’m asked to do, that’s what I’ll do.  

最终，当我父亲离世后，伯克希尔的去向将由董事会决定。董事会未必一定让我出任非执行董事长；这是父亲的提议，董事会也很支持。如果他们真的要求我承担这个角色，我就会照做。  

标题  父亲的遗产与影响  

11:09:50:12  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Pretty amazing. I mean, you know, he’s done a lot for many, many people. I mean I think one thing—You know our society measures things in wealth and if you want to measure it that way, he has probably made as many people wealthy as any single individual ever did, and did it in a very unique way. And a lot of the people that he has helped over that period of time are very generous people, and so they have helped millions of other people. And so it’s just—it’s—it’s really—it’s—it’s almost like the pay-it-forward, you know, movie where, you know you just, you know, I—I’ll help you, but you have to help other people. And it’s happened naturally. I mean it’s happened without him ever—he would never suggest to somebody you know, who has made money whether it’s through his—you know through him doing it or some other way of doing it, he would never suggest how you should spend your money. You know, he would be glad to give advice on it, he would be glad to share his experience with it, but he would never say this is what you really should do. And so I think, you know, in his case, he has made—he has given a lot of people the opportunity to use, you know, financial resources to help a lot of other people in the world, and that’s something not everybody can say.  

真是了不起。他为无数人做出了巨大的贡献。我们的社会常以财富衡量成就；若用这种尺度，他可能让成千上万的人致富，其规模前所未见，而且方式独特。在这段时间里，他帮助过的许多人本身也极为慷慨，于是又帮助了数以百万计的他人。这几乎就是电影《把爱传出去》的真实写照——我帮你，你再去帮别人。这一切自然而然发生；他从未对那些通过他或其他途径致富的人指手画脚，告诉他们该如何花钱。他乐于提供建议、分享经验，却绝不会说“你必须这么做”。因此，他提供了机会，让很多人运用财务资源去帮助世界各地更多人，这并非人人都能做到。  

11:11:27:00  

You know I think it’s hard to say what his legacy is because I think different people will interpret it in different ways. I think he is someone who will absolutely be remembered for Berkshire Hathaway and what he built and that’s been the most important thing to him in his life and so I think that’ll be—I—I think to me, that’ll be the overreaching part of his legacy that the majority of people will talk about when he dies and the majority of people will remember him for.  

要界定他的遗产并不容易，因为不同的人会有不同的解读。但毫无疑问，他将因伯克希尔·哈撒韦及其所建造的一切而被铭记——那是他一生最重要的事业。我认为，这将成为他最核心、最为大众所谈论并铭记的传奇。  

标题  童年时期的挑战性天性  

11:12:13:03  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well somebody had to keep my dad on his toes so I mean, you know, I—I—I kept challenging him a little bit, I was a very challenging kid. You know, my mom played the biggest role in trying to keep everything under control. I am, you know, probably even what I do today is a bit of you know, what I did when I was a kid; which is, I like challenges. I want to do things differently, I’ll push stuff to the limit and I’ll take risks and that’s just who I am and—and that’s how I’m made and so as a kid when you don’t have good judgment and you don’t understand the consequences, sometimes you—you do more things than you should do, and I was that kid, I did that and you know, there was times when I, you know, would really push it to the limit. And not illegal things, not things where I was gonna end up in jail, I never came close to that.  

总得有人让父亲保持警觉，所以我会时不时挑战他——我从小就是个“麻烦”孩子。母亲在维持秩序方面起了最大作用。其实我今天所做的事多少仍带有童年的影子：我喜欢挑战，热衷不同寻常的做法，会把事情推到极限，并且愿意冒险，这就是我的天性。小时候缺乏判断力、不明白后果，有时做得过火；我正是那样的孩子，偶尔确实把事情推到极限。但不是违法之事，也没到坐牢的程度，远未触及那一步。  

11:14:10:16  

I wouldn’t give up on anything that I thought I had a chance at getting done or accomplishing so I think you know, my mom saying I would survive in any circumstances is probably a fair description. I would give it a good fight. And I think that’s part of what drove me when I was young. I mean I always wanted another challenge. I was never satisfied with what I had.  

只要我认为有机会完成的事，就绝不轻言放弃。母亲说我“在任何环境都能生存”，大概就是这个意思——我总会全力以赴。这正是我年轻时的驱动力：我永远渴望新的挑战，从不满足于现状。

标题  所罗门兄弟丑闻期间的父亲  

11:19:01:08  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well he was pretty pre-occupied. I do remember it for one reason because it was the—right in the heart of it was when I got a call and—and I was asked if I wanted to go to work at Archer Daniels Midland at ADM. So I called him ‘cause I wanted—I called two people. I called Don Keough, who was president of Coca-Cola at the time and I called and Don talked to me about it and then I called him, and I got a hold of him and he just said, “I can talk tonight as long as you wanna talk but you know, I’m getting ready to go into a Congressional Hearing and you know, but I’m available tonight for as long as you wanna talk.” So you know, even under all that pressure, this is what he was so good at. Under that pressure, he could—he could kind of compartmentalize things so he could deal with that and he could step away from it. When I talked to him that night, you would not have known he was involved in something as huge and as critical as what was going on at Solomon. You—you—you would never know it. I mean he was totally focused and—and relaxed and we talked for more than an hour that evening talking about my decision to go. So I mean, I—I think that’s the best example I can give to you about how he was then. I mean he was very, I’m sure inside he was tied up in knots, and tense and you know, upset but he did a pretty good job of not showing it. I can’t remember exactly, I know he was getting ready for the testimony because he was in New York and he was with a bunch of lawyers and with you know, different people and whether it—whether it was the next day or not, I—I don’t know exactly what the timing was because I don’t remember that but he just—I remember him referring to it and saying “but I can talk to you as long as you want to talk to, you know, tonight. Just call me.”  

那段时间他非常分身乏术。我之所以记得，是因为正好在事态最紧要时，我接到电话，问我是否愿意去阿彻丹尼尔斯米德兰公司（ADM）工作。我于是打电话给两个人：可口可乐当时的总裁唐·基奥，他跟我谈了意见；然后我又打给父亲，联系上他后，他说：“今晚我可以陪你聊多久都行，不过我正准备出席国会听证会，但只要你想聊，今晚我都有空。” 即便在巨大压力下，他依旧擅长将事务分门别类、一一应对。当晚与他交谈，你完全感受不到他正身处所罗门兄弟那样重大而严峻的风暴中——全神贯注，却神态轻松。那晚我们讨论我去任职的决定，谈了一小时多。我想这是最能说明他当时状态的例子：内心肯定紧绷、焦虑，但外表毫无破绽。我不记得具体时间表，只知道他在纽约，与一群律师及相关人士准备作证，也不确定是否第二天出席。但我记得他提到此事，并说：“今晚随时打给我，想聊多久都行。”  

11:21:04:02

Ya know after 7 or 8, whatever he told me, I don’t remember. But I mean that’s—that in itself is a pretty amazing characteristic because, ya know, a lot of people would break down under that. A lot of people would not handle that pressure as well as he did but I—I think that’s one of the things that makes him really unique and I think that’s a trait that I’ve really kind of inherited or learned or however you do it from him. I love pressure, I love being under pressure. You put me under pressure, I’ll respond better than if I’m not under pressure, and I learned that from him. I watched him do that his entire life. I mean this is a guy, you just keep throwing stuff at him and he won’t slow down, and he won’t—he won’t let it deter him from what he’s trying to accomplish and—and I watched that and I love that characteristic. I think it is—it’s an amazing characteristic to have and—and I don’t know if that’s a learned characteristic or if that’s part of your DNA or what it is but it’s something I think he helped me learn how to do and I love it and my wife will tell ya that. Ya know, I’m that way and I think he’s very much that way.  

他大概跟我说过晚上七八点以后再打之类，我已记不清。但光是这一点就令人惊叹；换作许多人早已崩溃，无法承受那般压力。我认为这是他真正独特之处之一，也是我从他那里习得的品质。我喜欢压力，置身压力会让我表现更好，这正是向他学习的。我看着他一生如此：不断有事情砸向他，他却从不放慢脚步、不让任何事阻碍目标。我欣赏并喜爱这种特质——无论天生还是后天培养，他教会了我如何做到，我也乐在其中，我妻子会证实这一点。我就是这样，而他也正是如此。  

标题  霍华德·G·巴菲特基金会  

11:22:29:13  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well it’s got this amazingly unique name, the Howard G Buffett Foundation, which actually it came from when my parents set it up; they set it up under our names and Susie’s changed hers, which is an interesting story because she stole the name from me. And then Peter changed his, I just never changed mine but you know, we have evolved over time but one thing we have been consistent on is agricultural development, particularly in developing countries although we do some here in the United States. We’ve worked pretty consistently on the preservation of water resources or the impact of water resources in particularly more specific to agriculture and then we’ve really, the last five or six, seven years, we’ve worked a lot on conflict mitigation.  

它有个非常独特的名字——霍华德·G·巴菲特基金会。这名字源于父母当初为我们三兄妹各自设立基金会时使用的姓名；后来苏茜改了她的名字——有趣的是，她算是从我这里“偷”走了名字——彼得也改了，而我一直没变。多年来我们的方向不断演进，但始终如一的重点是农业发展，尤其聚焦发展中国家，虽然在美国也有项目。同时我们长期致力于水资源保护，特别是与农业相关的水资源影响。此外，过去五六七年里，我们投入大量精力于冲突缓解工作。

标题  走出舒适区  

11:23:24:23  

HOWARD BUFFETT:  

霍华德·巴菲特：  

Well you know, I think my farming is kind of a funny thing ‘cause my—my—it’s not something that you would think I would’ve ever do. It’s not something I thought I would’ve ever done growing up. My mom used to say I didn’t have enough Tonka toys when I was little and I think that actually may be true so you know, I love big equipment. Again, farming is a huge challenge. I love challenges and it’s something—I had no idea how you farm. At—at—at twenty years old when I rented a farm for the first time, I had no idea what I was doing. But that’s—that’s my life. I mean I—I—I have done—most things I’ve done in my life, I’ve had no idea how to do them in the beginning and I’ve had to learn how to do them.  

嗯，你知道，我的务农经历有点有趣，因为这并不是人们会认为我会去做的事，成长过程中我也从未想过要务农。小时候妈妈常说，我的 Tonka 玩具不够多，我想那或许是真的，所以我喜欢大型机械。同样，务农是一项巨大的挑战，而我热爱挑战。二十岁第一次租地种田时，我完全不知道该怎么做。但那就是我的人生——我做过的大多数事情，起初都一窍不通，只能边做边学。  

11:24:20:08  

And I think something people don’t understand; you know my dad always says stay in your circle of competence. But that doesn’t mean stay in your comfort zone. That’s very different. My dad would go outside his comfort zone I’m sure all the time and I go outside my comfort zone all the time and it’s what challenges you to learn and do better and to be able to expand what you do do in your lifetime and so you know, you should never confuse those two things and—and so farming for me was totally getting outside my comfort zone. I had no idea how to do what I was doing but I learned it and today it’s a huge part of what I do in my lifetime—in my life and it’s a huge part of what our foundation does and I think it’s a great lesson. And—and obviously I would never have done it without those kinds of things, without the encouragement from both my mom and dad and—and—and my dad as a role model, watching him do all these things as he goes, not—there’s not a textbook for what he did. There’s not a textbook for what I do. I don’t want a textbook. Alright, I want to write part of the textbook and that’s what he’s done in his lifetime, is he’s wr—he has written a whole new book about business, about philanthropy and some of those things are successful and some of them aren’t.  

还有一点常被误解：我爸总说要待在自己的能力圈里，但那并不意味着待在舒适区，这两者完全不同。我父亲经常走出他的舒适区，我也一样。这促使你学习、进步，并拓展一生能做的事，所以千万别混淆这两个概念。对我而言，务农就是彻底走出舒适区——我当时完全不懂，却硬是学会了；如今它占据了我的生活核心，也成了基金会工作的重心，这是一堂宝贵课程。当然，如果没有父母的鼓励，尤其没有父亲树立榜样，我不可能去做这些事。父亲所做的没有教科书可循，我也一样；我不想照本宣科，我想写属于自己的章节。父亲一生都在“写书”——关于商业、关于慈善——有些成功，有些则不尽如人意。  

11:25:45:00  

But you know, when he—when he wrote the letter to us, saying here’s the money I’m going to give you and here—here’s how it’s going to work and here’s the process and here’s what I think what you should do. He put something in that letter that was incredibly important to me which is exactly how our foundation behaves. You know, “If you’re gonna try to bat .1000, you won’t do many things that are important but if you’re willing to basically strike out a couple times, you can really change something big.” And he did—that’s a paraphrase; he said it a little differently than that but that—that’s what it was. It was basically a license to go take a risk. It was a license to go out and try to take on some really big issues and it was his way of saying, it’s ok to fail. You don’t have to succeed every time. And one of the biggest problems in philanthropy is everybody feels they have to tell a success story and I start by telling people what we did wrong, what we failed at because those are the lessons. It’s easy to talk about the things you got right; it’s hard to talk about the things that you got wrong. And that—that is ex—that’s another trait that my dad taught me, is you know, it’s not about, you know just talking about the success. It’s as much as talking about what didn’t work and what went wrong and how—how do you help other people not make the same mistake or how do you use that in your future decision making. 

不过，当他写信告诉我们要给这笔钱、说明运作方式和流程，以及他认为我们应当做什么时，他在信里写了对我极为重要的一段话，也成了基金会的行事准则： “如果你想每次都击球率一千，你就做不了多少重要的事；但如果你愿意偶尔被三振，你就能真正带来重大改变。”——我只是意译，他的原话略有不同，但意思如此。这封信本质上给了我们冒险的许可证，去直面重大的议题，也是在告诉我们：失败没关系，不必事事成功。慈善的一大难题是人人都想讲成功故事；而我开场就说我们哪里做错、失败了，因为那里蕴含着教训。谈对的事容易，谈错的事难。这又是父亲教我的一课：不仅要谈成功，也要谈没奏效、哪里出错，以及如何帮助他人不再犯同样错误，或在未来决策中加以利用。

No, no, no, no, no it goes hand in hand with your mothers core—your—her core principles and philosophy of life, so thank you so much, you really—you really—oh room tone sorry.  That was awesome.