YouSaid · the spoken record

Thomas S. Gayner

lines on the record: 128
first: 2021-11-05
most recent: 2021-11-05
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It's hard, and people who are good at it don't be so quick to abandon them when they go through a rough spot. Again, going back to Shad Rowe, he has the sayings in the investment business, you're never... Smart people Generally speaking, don't become stupid. And stupid people almost never become smart. So if you find smart, hardworking, intelligent, creative, dedicated people, stick with them because they're going to accomplish things over time that will amaze you and give them the leeway, give them the grace to make mistakes when there are mistakes of learning and non-fatal that you can recover and learn from. And just having grace for that is something that's easier when you're older. Than it is when you're younger. So those are things I wish I knew as a 29 year old instead of having to be 59 to know them.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If I look at the mistakes that I've made, the ones that have been most costly have been those of a mission. So, to look at Berkshire when I was 22 years old and have it so obvious to me as an accountant that this is good and yet not buy it, that's stupid. And I think I make that mistake less than I used to. When you find something that's really good, I mean, here's another thing that Buffett said that has profoundly changed for me over time. He says, you know, being an investor made him a better businessman and being a businessman made him a better investor. I can tell you through the responsibility of what's involved in Markel Ventures and operating real businesses, I know from firsthand experience that operating a real business and doing well at it is hard.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I would go away and then I would come back a couple days later or something. And I said, you know, Steve, I think actually you were right about that. And he would say, no, I think you were right about that. And then we would argue with the other way. And that was just the technique to get more robust understanding of what might in fact be the case. And usually it's not the polar extreme in either case. The answer is to be found somewhere in the middle. And as one of my digitally cool friends says, people have forgotten the fact that there are some numbers that exist between zero and”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So the run is how he feels his grace. That was what he was made to do. So I think if you really are fascinated by finance and investments, and I know as a kid, I always have been. Doing it every day, reading something, talking to somebody, arguing a case back and forth, both sides. In fact, one of the things that I joke with Steve Markell about had this sort of rabbinical style about him where at any given point in time his office was next to mine for many years. And if I had an idea, I would go into his office and I would tell Steve this idea and he would say, you know, that's just the dumbest thing I ever heard. And we would argue it.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I think the number one thing as you're coming up is just always be developing your mind, be developing your creativity, and be developing those feedback loops and don't ever think you've arrived at the answer. This is not a problem to be solved. It's a problem to be worked at. And it's fun to work at. It's exercised in your mind. It's free. And it's like that scene from Chariots of Fire. Where the sister is telling the runner, she shouldn't run on Sundays and it was a person of deep faith. And he responded to his sister that, well, yes, the Lord gave me faith, but he also made me fast”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there's a guy named, here's a book I read, Robert Hagstrom, who has written a lot of books about Buffett. I think he wrote a book, if I'm remembering the title exactly right, called Investing the Last Liberal Art. And it really is the concept and the notion of using both the right and left side of your brains, both of them to analyze and be disciplined and do your work, but at the same time never lose your sense of imagination, creativity, curiosity, wonder about what else might be true, what's the other side of the argument. I have one friend Shad Rowe from Texas who has Texas ways of saying things. And one of his statements that I always remember is that you must remember that any pancake, no matter how thin, has two sides.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I remember as a kid, I spent a lot of Saturdays in my youth at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, which is their science museum. And I can remember the first telephone that had video attached to it. And you would stand in one room and your friend would stand in the other room and you would talk to yourself over this amazing thing. And of course, it died because network effect at that time, it was so expensive. All right, you got one. Well, who are you going to call? There's nobody else who has one, but it has become pervasive. And your point is well taken.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“of a broader society and to be able to see things from somebody else's point of view i can't think of anything that's really more powerful than that so i think the tool of reading fiction just to just to teach yourself how to do that is a really good way of doing things”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think one of the reasons I enjoy fiction is fiction by definition creates muscles of empathy. To read a good work of fiction, what's going to happen is you're going to find yourself sort of inhabiting the character. And you're going to find yourself in that setting and in that circumstance. And what you're doing without even realizing is you're figuring out and learning how to put yourself in someone else's shoes. And I think that is a very underappreciated skill in today's world where we, it's so easy to just get inside your own head and live in your own world remotely, to have your groceries delivered. You kind of forget what it means to be part.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's the Lincoln Highway by Ameres. And I thought his book, Gentleman in Moscow, was a spectacular book, so I eagerly awaited his next book that has come out recently. I think it might be even better written than gentleman in Moscow. So it's a wonderful book. And I will say one thing about reading. I mean, obviously connects to role models. Charlie Munger is about as good as they get at the top of the list. Munger talks about not reading fiction, and he thinks it's a waste of time. That's something that I would disagree with.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, funny, you should ask that, and I read all the time. That's what I do in spare moments, and I love traveling for so many reasons, not the least of which is always have a book in my hand and a bag of stuff to read. And it's like asking me, what did I eat last Tuesday? I don't know, but I'm sure I ate something. So I always draw a blank when people ask me that question. I know what I'm reading right now. Tell us what.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, so many of the things I learned about life in business was just hanging around with my dad through the early years of my life.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And in the house where I grew up, among other things, in addition to just adoring my father and liking him and hanging out with him, at the farmhouse we grew up in, there were only two rooms that were air conditioned. One was my parents' bedroom and the other was his office. So for all kinds of reasons, I hung out at his office and he read the Wall Street Journal. So I read the Wall Street Journal. And as a kid, doing my homework or just sitting in his office coloring books or reading whatever, I would hear him as he was talking to people on the phone, or people would be in and out and he was kind enough. I came along a little bit later in his life where I was just allowed to be an observer and through osmosis pick up the idea of business without formal instruction, but that was the case from an early age.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there was Mr. Douglas and Mr Haney as the polar opposites, and my father was somewhere between the two. So he had practiced with the predecessor firm of Deloitte in Philadelphia, but left the big city to return to where he was born in Salem County and became an accountant there. And he had a very interesting practice. So he would do people's tax work. He did business consulting. He owned a liquor store, among other things. He would put together deals and as opposed to taking a fee, would take a percentage interest in the business. So a little bit of carry of interest. And his office was in our home.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, clearly, my father probably occupies a singular spot in that. He was a CPA in Salem County, New Jersey. In Salem County. Compared to most parts of New Jersey is very rural. He would have started his CPA practice in Salem County probably in the early 1950s after serving in World War II and finishing up his Education at Temple on the GI Bill, just to give you some insight into my father and the way he did things. So he became a reasonably successful businessman over time. And when people would ask him where he went to school, he would say Temple O. And I observed my father doing that all the time. And I kind of one time asked him, Dad, when people ask you where you go to school, you say Temple, oh, why do you do that? He said, well, when I say temple, people say oh. So I figured I'd save them the time.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“him I look to do so. One of the artists that during the pandemic said he's not touring anymore is Aaron Neville. He's probably a little more well known than Scott Miller up until the pandemic. That's the artist who I had seen the most times and absolutely. Love his music and just being in a room where Aaron Neville is singing, that's a good thing.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there's a particular artist in Virginia. I'll give him a plug here. His name is Scott Miller. He's from Swoop, Virginia, which is outside Stanton. And neither one of them sounds the way it's spelled. And I'll let your viewers Google that map and figure out what I'm saying there. But Scott, I would describe as someone who has sort of a definitive Virginia voice. So listen to his music. It's a singer-songwrote or folk stuff. And I think I've heard him about four or five times since the pandemic has ended first live shows started. He had one in Stanton, Virginia and then one up in Natural Chimneys, which is near Harrisonburg, Virginia. So he had done two shows in two weeks. And I'd been to both shows. So I was telling people I had been to 100% of the Scott Miller concerts that had been since the pandemic. And I'm not still at 100%, but anytime I get the chance to hear.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out who didn't he record and who didn't he do over the last 30 years. It's a fabulous way of learning history when you have somebody as knowledgeable as what Recruiben is and has been connected to so much music. I mean, music reflects the zeitgeist of the times. And whether it's reflecting it or causing it, it's right there. So for these artists to talk about their craft and talk about their art with Rick, I find those conversations to be things that I really learn from and have been just sort of as I go out and walk listening to that podcast quite a bit. It's my favorite one.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're there. We're good for that. So it's fun to be back at live sporting events and live music. In terms of podcasts and streaming, I'll tell you one that has really captured me. Is broken record with Rick Rubin. I don't know if you know Rick, music producer with complete diversified portfolio. Everybody from Jay-Z to Johnny Cash.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Unfortunately, my children are old enough that I don't have to dress them anymore. And when they were young enough to have to be dressed, pretty much my wife did that. So I'm not much of a way.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's football season, and with a college football guy, but to be able to go back to UVA and be in person for those games over the last 40 years, but I've missed no more than five home football games at UVA. And it's what my family does. So I went to UVA. My wife went to UVA. I have three children who went to UVA. You dress it.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, sure, I am completely grateful for the return of live sports and live music because those are both things that I just love immensely.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know whether the cancer had been disclosed at that point or not. That was a first class individual doing first class things. I still have every epic regard for the business. Given their circumstances and our circumstances, I needed to make the painful but difficult decision to eliminate that portfolio. And tactically, you could say, and I'll admit, made a mistake that stock price is higher today than it was when we sold it, but we sold it for different reasons than just what the stock price was at that point.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and my goodness. I mean, Arnie Sorensen, who did a spectacular job as the leader there, if you saw the video that he put out in the early days of the pandemic, The emotions that were there”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I want to listen. I want to hear it. I want to get that sense of what the people with boots on the ground who are there doing it have and that feedback loop of just staying connected to that is a fundamentally important philosophy and way of doing things.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you hear their stories and the tragic circumstance of what was involved. And if the people who were in charge had listened to the people who were on the ground, we would have done things differently. And when you see that so vividly explained there, it puts me in the situation where we have 20-some thousand people working for Marquel. I feel responsible for them and I feel responsible for the decisions that I make that affect them with no control or ability to influence their fate by themselves sometime. So I always want to personally guard against being that expert who thinks he knows.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is a really good book. And if you think about that, just picture it in your mind for a second. So those kids, and they were kids when they started, would have been the entering West Point in 1962, the height of idealism and JFK and Moonrace and all that sort of stuff. And the author does this great job of connecting you to this kid from Wisconsin and this kid from Tennessee and this kid from upstate New York. And they're girlfriends and their family and their situations and you really felt like you got to know them. And then you got to follow them through their four years at West Point and who was the rule follower and who was the rule breaker and the... Branches of the army that they decided to go to, so on and so forth. And then they finish in 1966. And they get dumped into Vietnam”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, financial services groups, and this is a really important notion. The idea of feedback loops and awareness and tying that to humility and just always being willing to listen to other people, where people get themselves in trouble is where they don't pay attention to feedback loops. And there are some things that I put in the category. These are mistakes that only experts can make. Because people were so sure of themselves. And I read a wonderful book recently called The Long Gray Line, and it's by a gentleman named Rick Atkinson. It is about the West Point class of 1966.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it's not. Stuff right. So, if you look at sort of anything in the financial services businesses, by and large, it's like our body temperature that we had to check before we got into coming into the building today. 98.6. And look, if you're at 101.6, I'm betting they wouldn't have let me in here today.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think there's always been competition competition is just the nature of things all to bring in a different topic, the idea of theology. They said, Martin Luther's great gift to the world was not the theology of Lutherism. It was competition. So the Catholic Church had some competition. It's been going on for a long time. It is the nature of creativity and freedom, and this is a wonderful thing, that you hope somebody somewhere is saying, you know, I could do that better than that. Our rural progresses on account of that. And here's the other advantage in financial services. There's not a lot of sunk costs. When you have a financial operation. So if something is not profitable, you don't have a plan that you need to generate. Exactly.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I think it's fundamentally historically been a very good business for a long time. I think that'll continue to be the case. Now a lot of”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I'm going to give credit to my colleague Dan Gartner for that particular stock. That is his pick and the way our system works. He has a sleeve of money that he manages. He gets a portion of that flow as well. And part of his job for me is to signal. Through his purchases, what he has conviction about. And Regeneron is his idea and something that he has conviction about. And again, if you look at Regeneron's performance over the last five, ten years, I mean, it's especially...”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. I mean, that needs to be true for you to be able to power through the valuation problem. If the growth doesn't happen, then you've got a problem on your hands.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And again, the ultimate return that you earn if you really have a long-term horizon is the intrinsic return that the business itself earns, not the trading returns from the more volatile stock price. It's the underlying returns on capital that the business itself earns. So dollar cost averaging and flow and time enables you to get to the point where You can power your way through evaluation error, especially.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. Exactly. And if I make a mistake, among the mistakes you can make are valuation. Where, look, this is a great company, but it's just really high priced. And so you paid too much for it. Or you can make a mistake about the business itself. It's not as good a business as you thought it was. Well, if I'm right about the second thing, that this is really a good business, I get to solve for the valuation problem a little bit by dollar cost average, you just nibble, nibble, nibble, nibble, nibble, nibble, nibble over time.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's more green than red on that one. And here's the other thing that really matters so one of my hiccups or concerns about Amazon would have been the idea of the valuation at that instant. What is it if I pencil out numbers? And because Markel has been a profitable insurance underwriting organization for so long, what that creates is regular periodic cash flow and the ability to do dollar cost averaging. So I've been in Markel a little over 30 years. Well, times four for a quarter, that's 120 quarters. And I would say of those 120 quarters that I've been there The insurance operations and now the ventures operations as well have deposited cash into the investment account, maybe 116 out of those 120 quarters.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. No, I understand that completely. And there's no mystery or subterfuge about that. You say, look, what is wrong with you? I get that. So I can absorb that and not take it personally. But by the way, Josh is a kind and gentle person, but he really walked me through thinking about Amazon and helping me to come to understanding in a much more productive way than I had in the past. So that's point number one.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, let me take each of those two because I think Yes, they are instructive. Take Amazon as an example. I talked earlier about the importance of the shareholders of Markel and the desire that we have at Markel to have great shareholders who are thoughtful and intelligent and really contribute ideas and thoughts to me and to Markel that make us better. And specifically with Amazon, I have a friend named Josh Terraceoff who runs his own investment management firm and he's done extraordinarily well. So Markell shareholder, friend. And so we had a relationship. We talked back and forth. And Josh noticed that if you went back, and I can't, again, I lose track of time, a decade or more, whatever, our holdings in the world of technology were pretty slim. Call it, let's round it to zero, not much.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As I wrote in last year's annual report on the whole discussion of the pandemic stuff, we did not see that coming. So it's a long list of stuff we did not see coming. So add those to the list as well.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I thought, you know, at that point in time, 50% of the locations were closed. Who needs a new car? Who needs a used car? Well, it turns out everybody did. But I did not foresee that coming and just given the time and facts of the. Circumstances. There were several things we sold at that point. In retrospect, they all went up and they all went up a lot. since thence that sale. But at the same time, our capital basis has never been questioned. The integrity of the business is there. And we kept 80% of what we owned at that point across the board in aggregate. And that's done great. So we're in good shape.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To make sure we keep going, so we would have re underwritten, and here's what we did. We re-underwrote every single security we wrote And by the way, in that environment, we also re-underwrote our thinking on every insurance policy we wrote because it was clear that this was a Fundamental change that had overtaken all of us. So let's make sure that we're adaptable and think and that we're able to answer the bell for the next round of the fight. So in looking at each and every security that we own and recognizing, look, I want to take a little bunny off the table and I wish to make sure that the capital footings are impeccably sound and unquestionable looking at each and every one among the decisions that we decided to sell was Carmax.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That jet engine was flying in reverse during the first quarter of 2020. As such, and I think even independent of that, there were kind of a combined set of forces at work where, look, we got to make sure that the insurance business is on firm capital footings. It's a regulated business. And we always want margin of safety, margin of air, that humility, look, let's not pretend we're the smartest. So if we were the dumbest, what do we need to do to protect ourselves from us?”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was not a great quarter. And the model where we were using the profits from the insurance company. Create the flow, to create the funds.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, no, and I would admit an error on my part in this. And in fact, the gentleman who runs Carmax, the CEO, I mean, we'd owned it for a long time. It had been an absolutely great holding. When we sold it, I called him and I said, Bill, that was our circumstance, not yours. Carmax is a great company. It's very well run. I have epic respect for what you do. We enjoyed being a shareholder for a long, long time. When we go back to the initial days of the pandemic, And the shock losses from event cancellation insurance, business interruption, which was uncertain. In the first quarter of 2020, I'll lose track of years and time these days. We reported a combined ratio of 118. So, as compared to our historical record of underwriting profitability, where that combined ratio number would always be below 100.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Actually, oak tree is no longer with us. That's part of Brookfield Asset Management, which is our second largest holding that we have. And we are no longer owners of Carmax”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Big insurance company because you got to be creative and you got to figure out how to solve this problem of some risk that's not going to be priced.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The quips, the use of humor and laughing and joking and going back and forth, it's really hard to do in a virtual world that I think there is a place for everything in this world. It's not right or wrong. It is just different. So we run the gamut of where just the physical reality, whether we're making wood floors or lifting a thousand tons, you got to be present to win. So you got to do that in person. And that creates some aspects of the culture by itself of doing so. There's some that's creative. So you may not think of us as a creative business, an insurance operation or white collar work, but it's something it's almost like an advertising agency. So there are some parts of our business which are actuarial and formula and mathematically driven. But there's a lot of our insurance business, which is more like an advertising agency than it is a”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Our business, you do both in the $15,000 frontline workers. And I would argue in a second derivative sense, even the white-collar workforce that can work remotely, there's something about being together in person. The water cool of a conversations, the coffee cup conversations.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“By doing these are not theoretical exercises. There are some theories that guide you. But the very act of doing itself is what creates the learning of how to do it. So there's been a lot of that going on where we've been learning how to move differently and lift different weights of what we had. And in and of itself, that act has reinforced culture where you could choose. And I believe there is a great choosing going on, not just in Markel, but really sort of society writ large of whether you really want to do that or not. And there are some professions and some circumstances where you don't have to quite do that so much.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so it's our job to figure out: look, if you want to work and you can work, and by the way, our society needs you. We must find a way to figure out how to do that as safely and as effectively and as sufficiently as possible. That's our job. So that's really what we have been about. And the very act of doing that, it's almost like exercising. So if you want to lift a lot of weight, I would suggest, and that weight is just too much for you right now, but it's within the realm of theoretical possibility. I would suggest to you, well, let's lift a little bit. Let's lift 25% of that. Now, let's do it a couple times. And then when we can do that and do it a couple times, well, let's lift 35% of that. You build muscle.”
2021-11-05 · Masters in Business · Thomas S. Gayner on Things That Matter in Markets (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source