Tony James

Similarly, people have been coming to us for years of, you should buy this or you should buy that.

And

And we really, we've always had so much growth in doing just what we do if we do it really well.

We just have never been distracted by that.

So focus, focus, focus, execution, flawless execution of details.

build for the long-term, build quality, and keep driving your prices down.

Keep enhancing your value to your customer.

Never let that be static.

So the more value we give, so whatever, if Costco can go find a new source for batteries and save a nickel, 100% of that nickel gets lower prices.

None of it goes into higher margin.

And so they're always driving down prices.

So their customer value proposition keeps growing.

Most companies-

either nibble away at it because they're tempted to have a little more earnings, or they let it be static.

And Costco's always driving to increase the customer value proposition.

So I think those are all good lessons for any business.

Well, first of all, Charlie never compromises intellectually.

If he doesn't like something, you're never in any doubt what he thinks about things.

And he isn't either, by the way, which I love.

It doesn't mean he was always right, but he was right a hugely high percentage of the time.