This is the home page for Warren Buffet’s company, Berkshire Hathaway:
And this is the home page for the Blackstone Group:
Where would you rather be an investor?
Looking only at the webpage and branding, most folks would say Blackstone. It’s fancier. It sounds powerful, “Blackstone.” On the surface, it looks like a better investment.
But that’s the thing about surfaces; they conceal what’s underneath.
Fortunately for investors, there are better ways to determine which stocks to purchase. Here’s the 10-year return for Berkshire:
And here’s the 10-year return for Blackstone:
Turns out, it doesn’t matter that Berkshire’s home page layout was last laid-out in 1987. We don’t look to Uncle Warren for fancy websites. (For crying out loud, the man doesn’t even trim his eyebrows!)
Looks don’t matter to Warren. Results do. Warren has figured out what business he’s in, and he’s delivering value.
A lot of people look up to Warren. They fall into two camps: (1) the “He’s-Stinking-Rich!” camp, who admire him because he’s worth a gazillion dollars, and (2) The “He’s-A-Genius!” camp, who admire his plodding, studious, focused methods. The first group is probably pissed that Warren doesn’t have a better website. The second group loves that he doesn’t.
I belong to the second tribe. We know - in our plain-spoken, minimalist (and often Midwestern) way - that if we nail a few of the right things, the rest will come.
Warren Buffet has become an American business icon because he has what so many American businessmen want: wealth. But he’s acquired it in an assiduous, simple-living way that most of his admirers would - or could - never adopt.
And that’s why I love him. In my house, I refer to him as “Uncle Warren.”
Jason Fried is probably a member of Warren’s Tribe, too. He’s a plain-spoken, convention-questioning Midwesterner. Fried runs his tech company, 37Signals out of Chicago. He ignores the altars of sparkle, SEO, and page rank that so many of his peers pray at. His is a voice of sanity in a sea of mindless busy’ness…where pleobs over-focus on things that don’t matter and neglect true results.
Fried’s advice? “Dump half your projects to focus on the core of your business.”
Preach. On. Brother.
But it’s not easy. The American business press loves bigness, not simplicity. Left too long with Fortune Magazine, small business owners may start doubting their value, or their worth. I’ve fallen into this bigger-is-better trap myself. In 2009, we spent a lot of money developing a website that - I’ll say it - we underutilize. It’s like purchasing a too-big home with a too-big lawn and then realizing you have to mow.
Simple is often better. Smaller is certainly more manageable. More is gross .
Buy Fried’s new book, Rework, here or read his blog, Signals vs. Noise here .
