Why You Should Write Like Warren Buffett
By: Peter Darling
There’s a basic principle behind every piece of marketing writing that a lot of lawyers forget: you have to give the reader a reason. A lot of lawyers don’t know this, or never understood it in the first place. But someone who does, and from whom lawyers could learn a lot, is, of all people, Warren Buffett. Yes. That Warren Buffett.
Reading anything, even the side of shampoo bottle while you’re standing in the shower, takes effort. Although minor, it is a commitment of time and effort, and this is especially true when there are literally thousands of different messages and messengers competing for the reader’s attention. To get someone to read your writing, there absolutely has to be a reward in it for them. This is a simple concept, but it’s also vitally important.
Lawyers struggle with this because legal documents don’t struggle with this. Although it has to be lucid, and persuasive, a motion or a brief doesn’t have to be especially rewarding. It has to clearly express arguments and facts, almost always in a formal, professional voice. But it doesn’t have to make the reader happy he or she read it. Nobody finishes reading a judicial opinion and says to themselves, “Gee, that was great!”
But marketing writing has to produce that response, in some measure. Think about it. Think, for example, of the very best television ad you ever saw, or the best print ad you ever read. Not only did it powerfully brand whatever the product was – it was a pleasure to read, or watch. You enjoyed it. It was fun, or captured your attention, or was an interesting diversion. If it didn’t, the remote is right there in your hand, or the next page of whatever you’re reading is a turn of the page away.
A nice, familiar example is the difference between classes in law school, and classes for bar preparation. I absolutely loved law school, but as anyone who’s attended one can attest, the lectures are often dull, abstract or occasionally require black-belt level tricks to remain awake. This is connected to the fact that in law school, the professor’s job is simply to present the information. It’s up to you to absorb it, and it’s not always a harmonious partnership.
Not so bar review classes. Those are designed to do one thing – drill information into your brain, and make sure you retain it. To accomplish that, they’re engaging. They’re funny, or interesting, or just delivered in a way that entertains while it teaches. I still remember a BarBri instructor telling the class that using the word “technically” in an oral argument was the same as saying, “I give up.” As in, “Your Honor, technically it wasn’t really assault.”
Marketing writing has to do the same thing. The idea isn’t just to convey information, but to do it in a way that rewards the reader for the time and attention of reading. The reader has to finish a piece with a sense of completion, and satisfaction, and of being well-served by his efforts.
How? Obviously, your writing has to be accurate, relevant, well-structured and all that. But there’s one more thing you need to do: loosen up. Legal writing by nature is formal, and has a kind of distant, serious tone. Instead of the formalities, try to make it more personal, more casual, and more energetic, without losing the information.
And the absolute king of this is, in my opinion, Warren Buffet. His annual letters to his shareholders are masterpieces of friendly, accessible, informal writing. The information is all there – boy, is it – but they read more like casual letters from a smart friend than an Official Communication. Here’s an example from last year:
In reviewing my uneven record, I’ve concluded that acquisitions are similar to marriage: They start, of course, with a joyful wedding – but then reality tends to diverge from pre-nuptial expectations. Sometimes, wonderfully, the new union delivers bliss beyond either party’s hopes. In other cases, disillusionment is swift. Applying those images to corporate acquisitions, I’d have to say it is usually the buyer who encounters unpleasant surprises. It’s easy to get dreamy-eyed during corporate courtships.
At this point, I could go on and on with a dissection of why this is great marketing writing, but there’s a better way. Read Warren’s stuff. It’s here. The man is worth $80 billion, and if you ask me, his unparalleled ability to write is a big part of why.