Your Need to be Where Your Chances of Success are Greatest

Barnett Helzberg could not have sold his business to Warren Buffett had he not been in New York City at the right time. By 1994 Helzberg had built up a chain of highly successful American jewelry stores with an annual revenue of roughly $300 million. One day he was walking past the Plaza Hotel in New York when he heard a woman call out "Mr. Buffett" to the man next to him. Helzberg wondered whether the man might be Warren Buffett - one of the most successful investors in America. Helzberg had never met Buffett but had read about the financial criteria that Buffett used when buying a company. Helzberg had recently turned sixty, was thinking of selling his company, and realized that his might be the type of company that would interest Buffett. Helzberg seized the opportunity, walked over to the legendary investor and introduced himself. The man did indeed turn out to be Warren Buffett and the chance meeting turned out to be highly fortuitous because about a year later Buffett agreed to buy Helzberg's chain of stores. And all because Helzberg just happened to be walking by as a woman called out Buffett's name on a street corner of New York.