The Importance of Time

We used to pick up a lot of soggy cigar butts. I had a portfolio full of them and there were free puffs in them. But A, it doesn't work with big money anyway. And B, we don't find many cigar butts around that we would be attracted to. Those are the companies that had low returns on equity. If you have a business that's earning 5 or 6% on equity and you hold it for a long time, you are not going to do well in investing even if you buy it cheap to start with.