1/ I’ve been looking for this video for over a decade. Until recently, it was COMPLETELY scrubbed from the internet. This is the only interview with Warren Buffett’s wife Susie and it is an rare and remarkable window into understanding Warren.
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2/ Why was it removed from the old Charlie Rose site? No idea but it is a really beautiful interview. Susie seems like an incredible person and she paints a picture of Warren that few have ever seen.
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3/ Susie: “Warren is smarter than you even know. My dad had a mandolin up in the attic. Warren said, “Doc, get out your mandolin and I'll play with you with my ukulele.” So they played together. And my father fell in love with Warren.”
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4/ When they started dating, Susie notes that “the one thing is he makes you laugh all the time. He's so fun. And he also, at that time, he took me dancing a lot. He could dance, and we had a lot of fun going dancing. I think he probably can still dance, but I wouldn't know.”
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5/ Even early on, Warren would “go around saying, I’m going to be the richest man in the world… and the fact that I married somebody who makes just piles of money is really the antithesis of what I ever thought…
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6/… but I know what he is, and there's no finer human being than who he is. So I overlooked the money.” When asked why Warren credits Susie with his success, she replies “It's very private. I think I know what he means. When I knew him in the beginning, he was sort of a genius.
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7/ “I think sometimes geniuses are by default lonely and isolated. He was not really well adjusted. He was just as funny, humorous guy, who maybe had a moat around him, because he was afraid, and he didn't know anyone that he wanted to let in.”
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8/ “He was afraid to trust people. And he's so cerebral, you see, he's so cerebral. My dad, the psychologist, said to me, now you have to understand about him, you're not going to have discussions with him like you would with most normal people…
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9/… there will be a lot of things he won't talk about, because he's thinking big thoughts up here. So when he's ready to talk about those, then you'll have a conversation...
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10/ “… ask these kids. I mean, Susie, our daughter, said to me, "mom, I knew when I talked to Daddy I had to hurry up, because pretty soon I'd lose him." Meaning he can only stay down here mentally for so long, and then something goes on up here”
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11/ How did Warren’s success and money changed him? “I think he has changed as little as anyone possibly could under the circumstances.” Noting that there is nothing pompous about Warren, Susie adds, “I'm lucky if I can get him to comb his hair.”
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12/ It is not about the money: "The crux of it is that it wasn't the money itself. You can see that in the way he lives. He doesn't buy huge paintings or real big houses or anything like that. It's all mental with him. And the money is his scorecards.”
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13/ “He said, “everybody can read what I read - it's a level playing field.” And he loves that, because he's competitive. And he's sitting there all by himself in his office reading these things, and everybody else can read, but he loves the idea that he's going to win.”
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14/ But he’s never spent a lot of money, “simply because of what I said, it’s a scorecard… his brain is going all the time. But an unusual thing about him is he can lie down and take a nap and go to sleep, or he sleeps very well at night. He can turn it off.”
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15/ Eventually Susie moved away from Omaha, noting “physical proximity to Warren doesn't always mean that he's there with you… most of the time, when you're in the same house he is or whatever, he's up reading, and that's why I learned to have my own life.”
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16/ It’s Susie who is responsible for Warren’s second wife, Astrid. “When I moved to San Francisco, I mean, it would have been all right for some other person, but Warren can't find a light switch.”
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17/ Susie tells a remarkable story to further explain: “Years ago when the kids were little, I was feeling really sick so I laid down on the bed and I said to Warren, “will you get me a pan or something from the kitchen. I may not get to the bathroom, I feel so sick…
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18/ … he said, OK. So he trots down to the kitchen, and I hear this bang, bang, biff, boom, bang! Like a five course meal is being fixed. And he comes up, and he puts down a colander. I said, look, honey, this has holes in it, see all the holes?”
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19/ “So he ran down, all this banging and everything, he comes up and he puts the colander on a cookie sheet… so he needs help and [Astrid] takes great care of him, and he appreciates it and I appreciate it.” But when Susie had cancer, “he came [to SF] 26 weekends in a row.”
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20/ While Warren doesn’t receive much criticism, what made Susan most mad was an article that suggested “for all of his success, that people like Gates, who created a company, somehow deserved a higher place in the pantheon of great business people.”
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21/ “Because they're entrepreneurs, and Warren is not an entrepreneur. Well, everybody knows that… But they were comparing apples and oranges to me. And they were making it sound bad that he wasn't an apple and he wasn't an orange… it was rude. I didn't like it.”
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22/ What does Warren want his legacy to be? “I think he wants his letters to be a legacy about business. You know, his annual reports… that’s his book. And I think he hopes that people remember how much he liked to talk about the ovarian lottery...
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23/… He loves that. And I believe that so deeply, like he does, and if he can make young people realize
“I'm lucky I was just born here,” and then take it a step further and “what can I do for people who aren't so lucky,” including people here, I know that means a lot to him.”
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24/ While Susan believes they should be giving away more money, “I understand why we don't, because it's his business, you know, it's not like Bill Gates, it's separated what he gives away. But, so we'll just give it all when the time comes. But it's all going to help people.”
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25/ Susan sadly passed away three months after this interview but we are fortunate for the rare glimpse into who Warren Buffett truly is, and we’re looking forward to the annual meeting this weekend.
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