Buffett’s desert island question: How CEOs spilled their secrets to a young Warren Buffett

“If you're going to walk into somebody's office and you say you want ten minutes of their time, take an hour glass and stick it on the desk… and turn it on," he suggested.

When it comes to finding opportunities and reaching out to CEOs when starting out, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett recalled how, as a young man, he travelled across the country visiting small companies — often gaining access to CEOs by asking two simple questions. He was speaking as a part of the Berkshire Hathaway's Annual General Meeting.

“I would drive around to various companies all over the country,” Buffett explained. “And because I was very young… almost every CEO would see me, because they figured they'd never see me again.”

Buffett offered a practical tactic for these  time-limited meetings: “If you're going to walk into somebody's office and you say you want ten minutes of their time, take an hour glass and stick it on the desk… and turn it on," he suggested.

He would then ask two key questions to draw out honest insights about their industry: “If they were to be stuck on a desert island, and they had only one of their competitors’ stock during the ten years they were going to be on that island, which one would it be and why?… And if you were short your net worth while you were on that island, which would it be and why?”

Buffett found that executives often opened up freely when asked about competitors. “Every manager likes to talk about their competitors. They're like a bunch of school kids,” Buffett said with a laugh. “I probably learned more about various industries by just making sure that they didn't think I'd stay too long.”

And in the meantime, he added that they would have the floor and talk about their competitors. "I kept my own mouth shut in those days. That's a lesson I've lost somewhere along the line,” he said.

He concluded by reiterating - “Do a little of your own work your own way".

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