I like businesses that I can understand. Let’s start with that. That narrows it down by 90%. There are all types of things I don’t understand, but fortunately, there is enough I do understand. So it makes sense to go with things you can understand. Since 1886, Coca Cola is a simple business, but it is not an easy business.

我只喜欢我看得懂的生意，先从能不能看懂开始，这一标准就排除了90%的企业。我不懂的东西很多，但幸运的是，我懂的东西已经足够用了。我们从大家都懂的事情上开始讲吧。可口可乐从1886年起就基本没变过，这是一个简单的生意，但不是一个容易的生意。

I don’t want an easy business for competitors. I want a business with a moat around it. I want a very valuable castle in the middle and then I want the Duke who is in charge of that castle to be very honest and hard working and able. Then I want a moat around that castle. The moat can be various things: The moat around our auto insurance business, GEICO, is low cost.

我可不想要对竞争者来说很容易的生意，我喜欢有护城河的生意。我希望拥有一座价值连城的城堡，守护城堡的公爵德才兼备。我希望这座城堡周围有宽广的护城河。护城河的表现形式有很多。我们的汽车保险业务GEICO，它的护城河是低成本。

People have to buy auto insurance so everyone is going to have one auto insurance policy per car basically. I can’t sell them 20, but they have to buy one. I can sell them .What are they going to buy it on? They will buy based on service and cost. Most people will assume the service is identical among companies or close enough. So they will do it on cost. So I have to be a low cost producer--that is my moat. To the extent that my costs are further below the other guy, I have thrown a couple of sharks into the moat.

每辆车都要买保险，虽然我们没办法让一个人买20份车险，但一个人必须买1份。人们买车险的时候看什么？看服务和价格。在多数人看来，各家保险公司的服务大同小异，所以价格成为了决定因素。因此我们的价格必须是最低的，这是我们的护城河。只要我的成本比竞争对手低，就意味着我在护城河中多放入了几条鲨鱼。

All the time you have this wonderful castle, there are people out there who are going to attack it and try to take it away from you. I want a castle I can understand, but I want a castle with a moat around it.

如果你拥有一座完美的城堡，不管什么时候，都会有人对其发起攻击，试图从你手中将其抢走，所以我们要在城堡外面建立护城河。