A friend of Jeremy and I recently shared a tweet with us from Andrew Kuhn, a partner at the investment firm Focused Compounding, that I found fascinating. It mentioned an interview Warren Buffett did with the Wall Street Journal in 2018 where he explained his reasons for rejecting Lehman Brothers’ plea for financing during the 2008-09 Great Financial Crisis. Prior to its bankruptcy in September 2008, Lehman Brothers was a storied investment bank that was founded more than a century ago in 1847. Lehman first approached Buffett for help in March 2008. After studying Lehman’s then-latest 10-K – for the financial year ended 30 November 2007 (the 10-K is the annual report that US-listed companies have to file) – Buffett discovered multiple red flags and decided to turn the bank down. During his interview with the Wall Street Journal, Buffett showed a physical copy of Lehman’s 10-K that he read and made notes on. I managed to find a copy of Buffett’s 10-K and thought it would be...