by Andre Sanchez

The ‘Oracle of Omaha’, Warren Buffet, was born in Nebraska on 30^th August, 1930.  Only his friend Bill Gates can beat his fortune, and Buffet is one of the most successful investors of all time. 

He was the only son born to his parents, Leila and Howard, and started his career by buying bottles of cola and selling them on at a profit. Even as a child his eyes were on profit. He first dabbled in the stock market at the age of eleven.  These early entrepreneurial activities were simple indications of what was to come in a life and career that became the epitome of the ‘American Dream.’ 

Warren Buffet was educated at the Wharten School of Finance at Pennsylvania University then passed through Nebraska and then Columbia University Business School, having been rejected by Harvard, on the way to a fateful meeting with the investor Benjamin Graham. He was so impressed by him that he agreed to work in Graham’s company, Graham-Newman.  

While working there he did a lot of studying and learned a great deal about investing.  He developed a method of optimizing his investment decisions by calculating the intrinsic value of a company and comparing the stock price with the intrinsic value.  In 1957 he returned to Omaha after Graham’s retirement, and started to make money by means of his thorough research into the value of companies, an art he learned from Graham.  As he said, “Valuing a business is part art and part science.”   

He was probably the first investor to combine science with the so-called art of investment, and did so exceptionally successfully.  It is difficult to imagine what he would have done, or where he would have ended up, had he not met with Benjamin Graham. Perhaps he would have been just as successful, though it is said that there is a time in every man’s life that he meets an opportunity. That was his and he grasped it with both hands.  

His Buffett Partnerships Ltd fund made fantastic profits during its first few years, and after liquidating some of his assets, took control of Berkshire Hathaway, a textile company that may have been one of his failures, though it is difficult to read into his mind and decide what his motives were. 

The textile industry took a dive, and he wound up the company but retained the name for his investment portfolio.  He had major successes in the insurance industry, and the profits from these were used to purchase investments in some undervalued large companies, such a Coca Cola and American Express. His company Berkshire Hathaway still holds significant shareholdings in these plus companies such as Gillette and Fruit of the Loom.   

His friend, Bill Gates, joined the board in 2005, and at the annual general meeting Warren Buffet played the ukulele and cracked jokes.  He was a bit of a rottweiller, so we do not know if he played or joked badly. Nobody was going to criticize his playing!  

He seems to be a man who keeps his innermost thoughts private and his humor perhaps portrays a slight need for acceptance or for people to accept him as a human being rather than as an investment giant.  It is very easy to look at the image and ignore the man behind it.

Whoever the real Warren Buffet is, he has become an investment legend, and that is how he will remain in the eyes of those who know him and of those who would like to know him, but are unable to get close enough. There is, and always will be, only one Warren Buffet.  

A Short Biography of Warren Buffett was originally published at http://www.businessmannow.com