As reported in the Wall Street Journal, at one time, David Sokol, CEO of MidAmerican Energy (a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway) had to face Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO—Warren Buffett—with some highly disturbing news. It appeared that the Iowa utility needed to write off some $360 million for a zinc project that had gone south. Sokol braced himself to be fired, but he was totally unprepared for Warren Buffett’s response. “David,” he said, “we all make mistakes. If you can’t make mistakes, you can’t make decisions. I’ve made a lot bigger mistakes myself.” The entire meeting was over
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