I like businesses that I can understand. Let’s start with that. That narrows it down by 90%. There are all types of things I don’t understand, but fortunately, there is enough I do understand. So it makes sense to go with things you can understand. Since 1886, Coca Cola is a simple business, but it is not an easy business.

我只喜歡我看得懂的生意，先從能不能看懂開始，這一標(biāo)準(zhǔn)就排除了90%的企業(yè)。我不懂的東西很多，但幸運(yùn)的是，我懂的東西已經(jīng)足夠用了。我們從大家都懂的事情上開始講吧。可口可樂從1886年起就基本沒變過，這是一個(gè)簡單的生意，但不是一個(gè)容易的生意。

I don’t want an easy business for competitors. I want a business with a moat around it. I want a very valuable castle in the middle and then I want the Duke who is in charge of that castle to be very honest and hard working and able. Then I want a moat around that castle. The moat can be various things: The moat around our auto insurance business, GEICO, is low cost.

我可不想要對競爭者來說很容易的生意，我喜歡有護(hù)城河的生意。我希望擁有一座價(jià)值連城的城堡，守護(hù)城堡的公爵德才兼?zhèn)洹Ｎ蚁Ｍ@座城堡周圍有寬廣的護(hù)城河。護(hù)城河的表現(xiàn)形式有很多。我們的汽車保險(xiǎn)業(yè)務(wù)GEICO，它的護(hù)城河是低成本。

People have to buy auto insurance so everyone is going to have one auto insurance policy per car basically. I can’t sell them 20, but they have to buy one. I can sell them .What are they going to buy it on? They will buy based on service and cost. Most people will assume the service is identical among companies or close enough. So they will do it on cost. So I have to be a low cost producer--that is my moat. To the extent that my costs are further below the other guy, I have thrown a couple of sharks into the moat.

每輛車都要買保險(xiǎn)，雖然我們沒辦法讓一個(gè)人買20份車險(xiǎn)，但一個(gè)人必須買1份。人們買車險(xiǎn)的時(shí)候看什么？看服務(wù)和價(jià)格。在多數(shù)人看來，各家保險(xiǎn)公司的服務(wù)大同小異，所以價(jià)格成為了決定因素。因此我們的價(jià)格必須是最低的，這是我們的護(hù)城河。只要我的成本比競爭對手低，就意味著我在護(hù)城河中多放入了幾條鯊魚。

All the time you have this wonderful castle, there are people out there who are going to attack it and try to take it away from you. I want a castle I can understand, but I want a castle with a moat around it.

如果你擁有一座完美的城堡，不管什么時(shí)候，都會(huì)有人對其發(fā)起攻擊，試圖從你手中將其搶走，所以我們要在城堡外面建立護(hù)城河。