Coca-Cola

Ben

David, I cannot believe we're about to do a four hour podcast on syrup, sugar, and water. I mean, that's the entire business. It's just syrup, sugar, and water combined, and it's a $300,000,000,000 company.

David

Well, Ben, you know what I'm gonna say to you in response to that. Do you wanna sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you wanna come with me and change the world?

Ben

Oh, save it, David. Save it. Who got the truth? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you? Who got the truth now? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you? Sit me down. Say it straight. Another story on the way. Who got the truth? Welcome to the fall twenty twenty five season of Acquired, the podcast about great companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert.

David

I'm David Rosenthal. And we

Ben

are your hosts. Charlie Munger has a famous thought experiment. It's the eighteen eighties. You wanna build a company from scratch that eventually becomes worth $2,000,000,000,000 starting with just 2,000,000. So you're looking for a 1,000,000 x return, or as Charlie puts it, a Lollapalooza outcome.

David

Of course, he does.

Ben

Very Charlie.

David

Very Charlie.

Ben

The constraint is it must be a nonalcoholic beverage business. K. And another constraint, it must throw off many billions of dollars in dividends along the way to your shareholders.

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