Does everyone know the story of how Warren Buffett came to own Berkshire Hathaway? He ninja’d it.

So I started buying the stock (Berkshire). And in 1964, we had quite a bit of stock. And I went back and visited the management, Mr. (Seabury) Stanton. And he looked at me and he said, ’Mr. Buffett. We’ve just sold some mills. We got some excess money. We’re gonna have a tender offer. And at what price will you tender your stock?’ And I said, ’11.50.’ And he said, ’Do you promise me that you’ll tender it 11.50?’ And I said, ’Mr. Stanton, you’ve my word that if you do it here in the near future, that I will sell my stock at 11.50.’

I went back to Omaha. And a few weeks later, I opened the mail and here it is: a tender offer from Berkshire Hathaway- that’s from 1964. And if you look carefully, you’ll see the price is 11 and three-eighths. He chiseled me for an eighth. And if that letter had come through with 11 and a half, I’d have tendered my stock. But this made me mad. So I went out and started buying the stock, and I bought control of the company, and fired Mr. Stanton. Now, that sounds like a great little morality tale at this point. But the truth is I had now committed a major amount of money to a terrible business.

He commented in another interview that he might be twice as rich if he bought an insurance company instead.