For some strange reasons I could not make myself to like the book and the guy. Buffet is not an average Joe, but the book becomes so exhausting about boring life of Buffett that I had to stop. I expected that this book would inspire me. Instead I see this form of money loving as something perverse and not healthy. Author tries to convince us that Buffet is not greedy, he just likes frugality and simplicity. I do not agree. The kind of obsession Buffet has over his money is repulsive, even wrapped into soft whispering propaganda that tries to inverse the meaning of words.

I know that I am being subjective writing this, but it's more for the future me that for others. And this book is biased as well. It is biased from the point of the people living in the privileged world of white man, upper-middle class. Some people will like this book and might even find some wisdom about managing the business or "money-making". I do not see any wisdom in this book for myself and for an average industrial worker trying to pay his bills to survive. At this moment I am so disgusted at my former self, when I was working as programmer, ignorant of the life around me, the context I work in. I had a good salary but I was not doing very ethical work myself. But many programmers are fine with that as long as paycheck is heavy and so called financial independence is not far away. Not many people in our world are so privileged like programmers are. Unfortunately, some programmers are paid to be ignorant.

This book was not for me. I am kinda happy that I am so different from Buffet and have very different goals. On that note, I am going to spend more time with my family.

What a remarkable person!

Reading this book was like eating a delicious and unpretentious home cooked meal. You savour every morsel and you don't want it to finish. You know you have your best ice cream waiting as dessert, followed by your favourite tipple by the fireplace. Its snowing lightly outside.

Knowing from the start what has to be in the afterword (the world's biggest ever charitable gift, and a share price in excess of two hundred thousand dollars ten years after the afterword was written) may be an anticlimax, but helps add context to everything you read. It is like a time traveller reliving history.

Yet, the time traveller, reliving a past he thought he knew, discovers surprising details and insights.

Cuốn này mình đã đọc về warren bufett mình hiểu rằng ông là người biết kinh doanh đã tìm hiều chứng khoán từ khi còn bé, ông rất thích đọc sách, dành nhiều thời gian cho việc nghiên cứu tài chính mà không biết chán không biết mỏi mệt là gì, mình nghĩ để bây giờ ông có một tài sản lớn như vậy thì ông đã gặp biết bao thăng trầm, có sự nghiên cứu tài chính tỷ mỷ, có bản kê khai tài chính rõ ràng, khả năng nhìn người. Mình cũng muốn tìm hiểu sơ lược về chứng khoán nên muốn tìm hiều về người nổi tiếng này nên muốn đọc xem thế nào, mình đã đọc một lần nhưng cũng không hiều nhiều lắm, chủ yếu là quá trình lớn lên của ông từ khi còn bé, ông có tài, có khả năng tư duy phán đoán kinh doanh.

Truly learned a lot about this famous man. I enjoyed learning about his investments, but I was even more fascinated by the author’s analysis of what drives Warren’s commitment to the companies he invests in; namely that Warren, not being a religious man, fears death and sees his investments as his lasting legacy.

An excellent book. I almost didn't read it as I've read a few Buffet books and usually find them quite tedious. Not this one! I loved Lowenstein's perspective as a long-time investor of Buffet's and a well regarded value investor/author himself. The result is an intimate but outside look at what made Buffet into the investor and man he is today.

Buffet is a mess of seeming contradictions, his obsession with accumulating money yet his refusal to spend any of it, his remarkable self confidence yet his apparent shyness, his analytical approach yet his refusal to use a computer or even a calculator to analyze investments ("if I don't understand the number in my head, then I won't understand it from a computer!"), his outspoken criticisms of modern CEO behavior yet his numerous CEO friendships, his hatred of all things wallstreet yet his continual close relationship to it. This man contains a multitude!

Lowenstein gets to the core of these contradictions in a revealing narrative of Buffet's formative years. We're let in on his distant yet highly principled congressman-father, his unfulfilled raging-mother, his intense desire to be rich from an early age, his love of numbers, his conservatism and loss-aversion, his unyielding resistance to change, his shy but outspoken style of showmanship (he honed this by taking classes), and probably most important in explaining his success, his disciplined adherence to the Graham-and-Dodd value principles (although applied in his own unique way).

He comes across as incredibly intelligent and widely read on current affairs but able to distill things down to a deceptively simple narrative. His consistent valuation framework allows him to cut through the cacophony of Wall street chatter that leads to short term thinking, herd mentality, pie-in-the sky valuations, and eventually undersized returns. As a result he blows away the market for five decades, virtually every single year. There has never been anyone with close to his record, nor will there be for many, many generations to come.

One thing I realized is that Buffet has spent a LOT of time reading stacks of annual reports all alone in his study. This is where he put his 10,000 hours and where he derived the insight behind his decisions. He has a wide network and makes a lot of calls but these are usually performed after he has an idea. He also keeps a quiet clutter-free office (none of his staff even know what he's cooking up next) and cuccoons himself in with piles of raw information - no computers, bloomberg screens or endless meetings and calls typical for a money manager. It reminds one of the Flaubert advice, “be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.” His relationship with west-coast-based Charlie Munger seems to have provided the perfect sounding board for his ideas. Just enough of a wise outside council to give him the confidence to act aggressively without over-analyzing or diluting his ideas. When things are cheap, Buffet acts quickly and aggressively (no investment committees here). He uses his numerical margin of safety in place of extensive discipline. A scan of the numbers, a quick call to Charlie, and Bam! $10 billion ready to go to action. Buffet's mantra.

"Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy."

Simple as that, really!

In summary, I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in investing. This is up there with the Intelligent Investor, the book that changed Buffet's own life when he read it in high school...

I read the Snowball by A. Schroeder but wanted to see how this earlier Bio compared. Many of the details of his story are similar and dealt with in the same chronological order. Even though the Snowball gives a lot more personal almost intimate details about WB's life, there are some good different insights here too.

The value principles resurface as expected. In random order some of my takeaways are as follows. Have the purchase price so attractive that even a mediocre sale would do. Put all your eggs in a basket and watch that basket. Have the proper temperment set. Keep a margin of safety. Be detached from the daily market moves. Look at statistics not so much subjective analysis. Save your credit for that is better than money. Stay rational, a horse than can count to 10 is a great horse but not a mathematician. Choose the right heroes.

But there was also a few other insights that I haven't seen detailed anywhere else so far. Munger desperatly wanted yo get rich not to buy ferraries but for the independance. I had never heard about the mba student that tried to learn from him, Daniel Grossman, the tenis star in omaha. He was just overwhelmed. The solomon case is much more detailed than in Alice Schroeders' book and I didn't t realise he respected and admired Gutfreund. I don't remember that it was that obvious in the Snowball. It's funny also to learn that Samuelson the nobel laureate on market efficiency theory, eventually bought a big stake in Berkshire just in case he was wrong lol. Finally I had no clue that B. Greenwald said he is not really a Graham and Dodder, but that he is more into speculating not investing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, finding it entertaining and informative, which when you think about it, is unusual when talking about finance and boring stuff of that nature. In reality, it’s a character study of the man himself—and he’s interesting. Buffett’s genius is largely genius of character—of patience, discipline, rationality and resourcefulness. He appears to be one of the few capitalists who got super rich without leaving a trail of victims and suicides (as one would find in a bleeding Hemingway novel). Hey, he said 'Writing’s easy—all you do is sit at your typewriter and bleed!' Back to Buffett…

n  Unlike the modern portfolio manager, whose mind-set is that of a trader, Buffett risked his capital on the long-term growth of a few select businesses. He once wrote that he would no more take an investment banker’s opinion on whether to do a deal than he would ask a barber whether he needed a haircut.n

But just imagine investing $10,000 with Buffet in 1956 and it being worth $550 million today! What I learned from this book was that Buffett looked for two things in particular: companies that were well run by hardworking, dedicated people and then above all else, after careful study of financial documents—intrinsic value!

One example of this is the famous Mrs. B. She’d arrived penniless from Russia as a very young woman. She settled in Omaha and started selling bits and pieces and then, furniture.
Due to hard work, her American dream materialized. Buffett had had his eye on Mrs. B’s business for years. She’d grown it into a mammoth undertaking, so big, she needed a golf cart to tour her store. In the end, Buffett leaves his office and strolls in to see the ninety-one-year-old lady. The conversation goes something like this:
‘Hey, d’you wanna sell this business?’
‘Sure.’
‘How much d’you want?’
‘Sixty million!’
‘Done. I’ll have it drawn up by tomorrow,’ Buffett said.

There are many nice little quotes throughout—or what we might call ‘Buffettisms’. Buffett spoke of about an oil prospector, and I can almost hear him saying it:
n   He arrived at heaven’s gate only to hear the distressing news that the “compound” reserved for oilmen was full. Given permission by Saint Peter to say a few words, the prospector shouted, “Oil discovered in hell!”—whereupon every oilman in heaven departed for the nether reaches. Impressed, Saint Peter told him there was now plenty of room. The prospector paused. “No,” he said, “I think I’ll go along with the rest of the boys. There might be some truth to the rumor.n

But n  ‘Character—not money—was the basis of credit’n was one of Buffett’s strongest beliefs, according the author Roger Lowenstein. This fact, along with his success, certainly seemed to win him a lot of admirers.

He became very close to Katharine Graham of the Washington Post. She seemed to depend on him in the end. Who could blame her!
n  Graham estimated that she talked to Buffett ‘maybe every other day or so, several times a week.’ When Graham had to give a speech, which she found frightening, she would call Omaha, and Buffett would deliver a perfectly metered response, off-the-cuff. She actually began taping their conversations. He speaks in finished paragraphs. I’d say, ‘What?—Could you say that again?’ He can’t do it. It comes so fast he can’t retrace it. It takes your breath away…. After Buffett had been on the board awhile, he began to push her to be more self-reliant. One time, she asked him to come to Washington to negotiate a swap of the Post’s television station in Washington, plus some cash, for a station in Detroit. ‘No,’ Buffett told her. “You do it.” “Okay, tell me how much to give them,” Graham said. “No—you figure it out.” n

Like many a multi-millionaire, one understands his mindset and how he got to be one!
n   Another time, when they landed at La Guardia, Graham was in a hurry to make a telephone call and asked if he had a dime. Buffett fished a quarter out of his pocket. Not wanting to waste fifteen cents, he started outside to change it, like any other multimillionaire from Nebraska. Graham hollered, “Warren, give me the quarter!”n

His marriage to Susan, was unconventional and his devotion to her, touching. She decides to become a nightclub singer and he encourages her. Then she goes off to live by herself. But still they remain close somehow, often attending functions together.
n  Even then, she would nestle next to him and take his hand in public, as though they were teenagers, knowing that she was his muse.n

His devotion to Susan is touching.
n  When Susie was onstage, Buffett would watch with a beatific expression, as if overcome by rapture. He told a friend, “When Susie sings, it is so beautiful I can’t breathe.’n

The numbers Buffett deals in are staggering. He becomes interested in Coca-Cola. Keough the CEO calls Buffett:
n  “You don’t happen to be buying any shares of Coca-Cola?” “It so happens that I am,” Buffett replied. By the next spring, Berkshire had acquired $1.02 billion worth, or 7 percent of the Coca-Cola Co., at an average price of $10.96 a share….In a mere three years, Buffett’s stake in Coca-Cola would soar to an astounding $3.75 billion—roughly the value of all of Berkshire when it had begun investing in Coca-Cola.n

The episode with Salomon was amazing and worthy of a movie. Some misdeeds by Salomon employees had come to light with a bloodbath ensuing. Buffett, with no real experience of handling a large Wall Street firm, took control and did well. His common sense and honest dealing stood him in good stead.

n  Instinctively, he shrank from confronting his adversaries, but he was superb at winning them over without a fight. …He did not so much convince; he disarmed, he co-opted. …He had to assume, very publicly, as only Buffett could, a personal responsibility for the scandal—to show that the stain was not only purged but deeply and sincerely regretted. The congressmen ascended to spasms of telegenic outrage.n

Buffett’s was tough on those who failed the public and the firm.
n  …As far as I am concerned, those responsible deserve absolutely nothing from Salomon Brothers, not a dime in severance pay, not a dime in remuneration of any kind, and not a dime to pay for their defense, either … nothing but a swift kick in the butt out of Salomon Brothers and onto the street.… ‘I would like to start by apologizing for the acts that have brought us here. The Nation has a right to expect its rules and laws will be obeyed. At Salomon, certain of these were broken.’n

Buffett thought that executes were overpaying themselves in bad times.
n  Buffett decides to act boldly. On October 29 he took out a remarkable two-page ad in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, reproducing Salomon’s third-quarter report. The heart of it was a letter from Buffett denouncing the company’s pay scale. He emphasized that he had no problem with extraordinary pay for extraordinary performance. But Salomon’s “share-the-wealth” system was subsidizing all—even the mediocre—at the shareholders’ expense. Having said this, Buffett dropped a bomb. He was lopping off $110 million from the pool set aside for bonuses for 1991. As a result, although profits that year (earned before the scandal) were double those of 1990, bonuses would be slightly less than in 1990. Those who didn’t like it could walk…No one on the staff saw him waver, even in the slightest. This was Buffett’s essential virtue—the courage to stick to his course.n

I wish I’d been born with a fraction of the wisdom of Warren Buffett. As an atheist he bears out the fact that you don’t need to be a Christian to be honest and possess integrity. He has all that built in. His wealth has been derived by careful study of the facts and having a computer-like brain helps. (He doesn’t own a computer or an adding machine). He is also a man of downhome ordinariness who enjoys Cokes or Pepsis and hamburgers for dinner.

I find his politics interesting. When I grew up, people with money, were said to be right wingers and conservatives—‘filthy capitalists!’ Lately, I’ve wondered how come most billionaires seem to be left wingers, ‘progressives’ and communists. This book, to some degree, helped clear up that mystery.

A great insight into the life and thinking of one of the greatest investors of all time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this journey into a highly original and principled mind.

The detailed look into his thought processes, values and the passion of his life - investing - was complemented by lowensteins insightful commentary on Buffet's nature - a task rendered all the more difficult by Buffets private nature.

This is the best Buffett biography I have read. The funny thing is it was written in 1995, and it’s amazing how little has changed about the man, the way he approaches life, investing and business. The universal admiration is already there, although it’s hard to imagine nowadays how he would throw himself out there like he was with Solomon. There is something serene about reading Buffett. It just gives you a sense of calm, and a drive to be deliberate and thoughtful in everything you do. You want to reassess things , and look at everything in longer term. At least it’s how I feel about it. It’s very helpful. For the book itself, Roger Lowenstein is a terrific writer , I pick this up partly because i saw that he wrote it, and also the one by Alice Schroeder is just not that great. The portray of the man is definitely on the more flattery side but there are aspects of him which surprises me and didn’t know about. Overall a very good read not just about him but the financial history from the 50s to the 90s.

This biography was actually a delightful read. Lowenstein documents Warren Buffet from his early years selling used golf balls and organizing newspaper deliveries through to the 90s when he saved Salomon Bros. It was interesting to read how Buffet was influenced by the economist Benjamin Graham, and their long association with each other through the years. Buffet's wisdom has become legendary, and the biography is full of his pithy sayings about saving money and investing. If you'd like to learn about investing but don't want to get too technical, this is an enjoyable read.