From the beginning, one principle has guided us: we invest for the long term. We are deliberate in what we take on, and patient in holding it, as much at ease with a new enterprise as with an old building. We are content to let time do its work, and to remain when others would move on.

We have seen many cycles, and learned to respect them. Not everything we have tried has worked. We give as much weight to the character of a partner as to the promise of a business, and many of our partnerships have lasted far beyond the first investment that began them.