[pinky1417]

Buffett has talked about looking for "elephant" sized acquisitions. Berkshire is so large that it becomes difficult to find good investments of a sufficient size to move the needle. As a smaller investor, I can buy portions of a few $1B market cap companies and make a difference in my portfolio. Buffett, even if he bought such companies outright at a 20% premium, would need to find about 100 of them.

> How he got his initial money is not a particularly nice story of success...

The actual purchase of the failing Berkshire Hathaway textile company perhaps (unless this is about Buffett doing something allegedly unethical)? The textile operation ultimately failed in the mid 1980s, but Buffett was able to, in the meantime, reallocate its cash flows to more promising ventures.