Reflections on Mentors and the Value of Irreverence

Today’s teacher is Todd Combs, Investment Manager at Berkshire Hathaway and CEO of Geico. In this episode, Todd will share lessons learned across the full arc of his career, beginning in the halls of the Florida state regulator and all the way through to the great plains of Omaha, Nebraska, home of the eternal compounder.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are two of the greatest business minds in history with an eye for talent and character. If we were to sum up this class into a single topic, it would be exploring what these two investing giants saw in Todd to select him out of the almost 8 billion other people in the world.

Todd is a compounding machine and a terrific storyteller, full of insights and advice that all of us can benefit from. Please enjoy this class with Todd Combs. 

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

-----

This episode is brought to you by Summus. Summus is a revolutionary health benefit solution, driving superior employee engagement while dramatically lowering your company's enterprise level healthcare spend. They're completely transforming the world of health benefits by providing employers and their employees in any location with fast access to over 5,100 of the top medical specialists from America's very best medical centers for support across all health questions. No bot interactions, just the best doctors, helping you through whatever health obstacle is in your path. If you're looking for a benefit that drives your employee engagement, truly takes care of your people in their most scary and vulnerable times, all while improving your healthcare ROI, visit GoSummus.info/AOI.

This episode is brought to you by Hunt Club. Hunt Club unlocks relationships and helps companies grow. Whether it's recruiting your next hire, landing your next big partner, or financing your business, a trusted introduction always works more effectively. Hunt Club’s tech enabled search model leverages the largest community of its kind to refer amazing talent on your behalf. Additionally, its software program, Atlas, helps organize the entire network of a company or fund and assisting in streamlining the right introductions. If you're looking for the ideal solution for all of your talent needs, visit HuntClub.com/AOI.

-----

Art of Investing is a property of Pine Grove Studios in collaboration with Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Art of Investing, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @ArtofInvest | @Buhrman_Rick  | @PaulBuser | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

(00:06:36) - (First question) - How Todd’s pre-college life helped shape him

(00:09:36) - Reflecting on past curiosity and how it was directed

(00:12:10) - Undergrad years and memories he holds dear to his heart

(00:13:57) - Specialization versus generalization  

(00:16:48) - Creating greatness in all fields through patience

(00:19:18) - Why Todd attended business school 

(00:26:27) - The numerous job avenues students can take to become successful investors

(00:30:53) - Rick tells the history of Blue Ridge and Tiger

(00:35:53) - How Todd's experience in short selling shaped him as an investor today

(00:41:18) - Meeting Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger 

(00:43:15) - Finding the motivation to succeed in your early career life

(00:46:38) - Todd's experience building Castle Point 

(00:55:29) - The will to keep pursuing his career after years and decades

(00:60:48) - What he thinks Buffett and Munger saw in him

(01:09:57) - What it’s been like to be mentored by Buffett and Munger through the years