Our Journey | Our Team | Never Bet Against America
5:50AM PST
Team –
Our journey together continues – new chapters, amazing markets – but nonetheless a journey. We have climbed from the depths of 2009 returning PUI to a nimble SF Bay Area Company. We extended our reach to Southern California from 2015 to 2018, and in Fall 2018, we joined the Compass family.
This week, the journey gets faster, stronger, and more empowering for each one of you. There are huge investments in our industry focused on reducing friction, driving velocity, and creating more liquidity. Each of these initiatives are empowering. Compass is investing in your business in an enormous manner! Results follow only with time and they are dependent on the way you embrace our technology assets.
Friday, March 5th is National Employee Appreciation Day. We have the best team on the planet and our team has crushed it in the last year. Working remote, like all of you, I have not seen a missed opportunity to outperform our expectations. Amazing!
We are buying dinner Friday evening for all our employees to honor their contributions, passions and amazing dedication. I wish we could do it in-person, but that time too will come!
Please reach out to recognize those that support your efforts and share an amazing thank you. We have been through a lot together, outperformed the competition and maintained our balance of “family first” — I love this team!
On another note, If you have not read the Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. annual letter, it is once again remarkable. It starts [page 1] with facts of Berkshire’s Performance vs. the S&P 500 dating back to 1965. Results count! Berkshire leads with results as nothing else really matters, except people! We have always been a performance-based team!
I read/consumed the letter twice this week – it’s so simple and yet so powerful. The letter speaks to American business [See page 7 of the report], built for the long haul, executives that share values, businesses that deliver values and the classic Buffett theme “don’t bet against America”.
Finally, I so admire the references to the mistakes made, the losses incurred and the momentum they created. The only large investment [by BH standards] made in 2020 was buying back Berkshire’s own stock to the tune of $24.7 Billion. Think about this, reviewing many businesses throughout the year and they decided to buy only their own business/stock. This breeds confidence beyond belief!
Think about your business! Would you buy your personal stock? YES, you would! Investing in us is our competitive advantage!
Back to our team and our people! You have heard me say it before, “if we don’t get the people right, nothing else really matters.”
This is Where We are Now.
Thanks!
Mark
Mark A. McLaughlin