Warren Buffett’s much-anticipated annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders was released on Saturday, February 22. As has become tradition, h

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2021-08-17 22:30:08

Warren Buffett’s much-anticipated annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders was released on Saturday, February 22. As has become tradition, he spent three hours on CNBC’s Squawk Box the following Monday morning to discuss a wide range of topics.

One minor topic that caught my attention was his response to a question about why he has leased office space all these years rather than buying the 15-story building where Berkshire is headquartered. In part, he responded by saying, “If we had a big headquarters office, we’d fill it. Believe me. I mean, if we had 15 floors of our own, we’d have 15 floors worth of people.”

This short exchange reminded me of a quick conversation I had with Jason Fried in 2017 when I had the privilege of attending “The Basecamp Way to Work” workshop in their Chicago office.

I was impressed to hear what they were accomplishing with “just” 50 people, and I was even more amazed to hear that they had only one net new hire planned for that year .