Slow and steady doesn't make headlines, but the company can continue to earn excellent returns on invested capital.

CTB operates worldwide in the agriculture equipment field.  Berkshire purchased it in 2002 and by 2009, it has picked up six small firms.

Berkshire paid $140 million for the company.  In 2008, its pre-tax earnings were $89 million.

Vic Mancinellis, CEO of CTB, an agricultural equipment company, one of Berkshire's boring manufacturing businesses, exemplifies another reason for optimism.

Since Buffett bought CTB in 2002, it has earned roughly an average 11 percent annual return, compared to the S&P return of only 3 percent.

How can such a basic business produce eye-popping results?

It wasn't through financial innovations or game-changing acquisitions.   Instead, Mancinelli focussed on "blocking and tackling, day by day doing the little things right and never getting off course:"

Ten years from now, Vic will be running a much larger operation and, more important, will be earning excellent returns on invested capital.

But slow and steady doesn't make headlines.  Investors approaching the stock market continue to put their money in the hare, not the tortoise.

Betting on tortoises can create long-lasting wealth.