Once, a man who had just arrived in a small town wanted to get to know the locals. He walked over to the town square, where he spotted an old man who looked like a long-time resident, sitting next to a German shepherd with a mean look on its face. As he approached, the man glanced nervously at the dog and asked, "Does your dog bite?" The old resident replied: "No." So the newcomer leaned down to pet the dog — and the dog attacked him, nearly tearing his arm off. Furious, his jacket sleeve in shreds, he turned to the old man and complained: "I thought you said your dog didn't bite." The old man replied: "That's not my dog."

I've always been someone who thinks more about questions than answers. Some teachers hated me for it, others loved me for exactly the same reason.

It's funny that I'm only realizing today that when we want to teach something, we also need to think more about asking than about answering.

Buffett once agreed to take an apprentice into Berkshire, so the young man could learn as much as possible from him. To the hopeful Daniel Grossman's disappointment, the experience didn't go far. Although Buffett had an extroverted, welcoming side in the outside world, he became introverted and closed off in his own headquarters. I think Grossman didn't know how to ask the right questions, and Buffett didn't even bother worrying about it.

If I could ask Buffett one question today, it definitely wouldn't be about how he invests or how he became a billionaire. Maybe I'd ask...

Hey chief! How's it going?! Having studied all your phases as an investor — from the early days buying despised and cheap assets, then abandoning Graham's constraints, through to the big acquisitions above market value on the confidence of improving management, and now given my current situation as an investor — what would your approach be in my place to grow at the same pace you grew, given my timeline?

OK... it's a long and complicated question. But it would put him in my current situation to think through the best approach, not in his current one.

The moral of the story at the opening of this letter: It's important to ask the right question!

João Homem