LONG-TERM-THINKING

Most people overestimate how much things will change in two years and underestimate how much they'll change in ten.

Going public was not the finish line. It was permission to think in decades instead of quarters.

Understanding the trajectory of civilization is the only edge that compounds.

India is where China was twenty years ago. The opportunity is generational, and we intend to be there for every decade of it.

If you can't explain why a business will be worth more in ten years, you don't understand it well enough to own it.

Markel is a 30-year project, not a quarterly earnings story. If you need excitement, buy a lottery ticket.

Compounding is the most powerful force in business. My job is to remove anything that interrupts it.

Family-controlled companies can invest for 20 years without turning a profit. Public companies with activist shareholders can barely think past the next quarter. That gap is my edge.

I look for companies with the capacity to suffer — the willingness to sacrifice near-term profits for long-term growth. That is the rarest quality in business.

We build things to last. That is how my husband did it and that is how we will continue.

Own the land. The building can change but the land stays.

Gas will not last forever. What we build with it must last forever. That is the obligation of our generation.

The man who builds for his children builds for one generation. The man who builds for God builds for all generations.

A beautiful building is not an indulgence. It is an investment that pays you back through the quality of the people it attracts.

Real estate in India is not just a transaction. It is a 30-year relationship with the people who live and work in what you build.

You build a team over years. There are no shortcuts. Patience is a competitive advantage.

My father built this franchise. My job is to make sure it outlasts all of us.

We built U.S. Bank Stadium to be here for 30, 40, 50 years. That is how you think about these things — not quarter to quarter.

We are fully committed to keeping the Vikings in Minnesota for generations to come. This community deserves a franchise it can be proud of.

I think of my company in terms of 200 years. When you think that way, you make different decisions.

Wall Street is in the business of making money between now and next Tuesday. We're in the business of building an organization, an institution that we hope will be here 50 years from now.

We are at a critical moment where the decisions we make about capital will determine whether the systems that support life on this planet remain intact.

Regardless of what we find in this initial major two-year experiment, there will be tremendous accomplishments. We'll learn how these systems work, how to build them, and how to operate them.