“…he was offering 35 dollars a share for the stock that we had been buying for 18 and 20. I like that price range.”
It was an overnight tender offer for a stock he and Buffett had been buying. As well as a “fat pitch”. The idiom comes from baseball. It refers to a pitch that’s easy to hit. One that’s right in the batter’s “sweet spot.”
In the context of investing, it means a clear, high-probability opportunity. One that appears especially attractive based on fundamentals and valuation.
“So I called up Warren, ten o’clock, eleven o’clock at night when I got home. I said, ‘Warren, this guy who’s a car dealer is... making this offer on Studebaker.’ So Warren said to me, without blinking at all, without hesitating, he said, “ok.”
Warren Buffett and his friend David “Sandy” Gottesman bought everything. The next morning on the stock exchange, they proceeded to “clean it all off” (in Buffett’s words).
David Sanford “Sandy” Gottesman: founder of First Manhattan Co. and a longtime friend and early partner of Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway.
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Most business owners struggle with financial freedom.
One reason is they think it requires constant motion.
They hunt for more deals, more scale, more risk.
They make it too active and ego-driven.
They treat wealth like something you force into existence.
They don’t realize that wealth is something you cultivate.
They use leverage, hype, and “story” opportunities.
They trade in and out of whatever feels hottest.
They’d rather do that than own durable assets they can understand.
They neglect the quiet superpower of Warren Buffett.
Not David “Sandy” Gottesman.
He was an American value investor, billionaire, and philanthropist.
He was the low‑profile founder of First Manhattan Co.
He was also a longtime friend and early partner of Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway.
He learned from his friend, Warren Buffett.
Gottesman bought sound value, protecting his downside, and let time do the compounding.
He was born in New York City in 1926. He served in the U.S. Army, and, near the end of World War II, studied at college. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School before heading to Wall Street.
In 1964 he founded the investment advisory firm First Manhattan Co., which grew into a multibillion‑dollar asset manager. First Manhattan Co. served high‑net‑worth individuals.
There’s a lesson: serve high‑net‑worth individuals.
Sandy met Warren Buffett in the early 1960s. He became one of the earliest outside investors in Berkshire Hathaway. Later, he was a Class A shareholder and a member of Berkshire’s board of directors from 2003. He and Buffett maintained a close personal friendship over decades.
Gottesman was also a major Jewish philanthropist. He made substantial gifts to institutions such as Yeshiva University’s medical school. As well as Mount Sinai Medical Center and the American Museum of Natural History. He contributed to large cultural and educational projects in Jerusalem.
Sandy Gottesman died in 2022 at the age of 96.
As for you and I, we may not have decades of value investing behind us.
You and I will most likely never meet Warren Buffett.
We didn’t have the rare chance to hold an early Berkshire stake.
Much less the rare restraint against “upgrading” into the next big thing.
But what if we can have this boring, ownership-first discipline?
The kind that works best for builders who want independence.
What if we don’t have to be slaves to our own business?
Yes, you can buy back your time by letting compounding (not adrenaline) do the heavy lifting.
And you don’t have to be friends with Warren Buffett.
But you become who you surround yourself with.
So surround yourself with the kind of people you want to be “like”.
There’s a difference between us and them (the ones who despise wealth).
Instead of blaming “billionaires” for our failures, Warren Buffett inspires us. Any friend of his would be a friend of ours. That’s why David “Sandy” Gottesman is the subject of this week’s Methods of Prosperity newsletter.
I like you,
– Sean Allen Fenn
PS: The purpose of wealth is freedom. You can have financial freedom, but not by yourself. That’s why we’re building our core group of people. It’s a community to help each other achieve financial freedom. One way is by pooling our resources to invest in Multifamily real estate together. Whatever method of prosperity you choose, don’t go at it alone. You can now join our Methods of Prosperity community on Telegram here:
