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The Life Of Warren Buffett Essay

Warren Buffett is widely regarding as one of the greatest investors of all-time. As the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, he commands an empire that encompasses railroads, candy, homebuilders, and underwear. His company now has a market cap of over $ billion and is widely considered one of the best run companies in the world. Every year, Warren holds his annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Here over 100,000 participants fly from around the world to listen to Warren Buffetts advice. During this over 6 hour sessions, participants ask a litany of questions that range from investment advice to life advice. Much of this advice is almost always posted on prominent financial websites and publications.

Warren Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1930. He developed an early interest in investing through his father, who was a stock broker and an eventual congressman. Warren often read books in the public library related to investing and finance. He has often said that he read every book related to finance in the Omaha public library. Eventually, Warren eventually attending the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania eventually transferring to the University of Nebraska. Warren eventually graduated for the University of Nebraska at the age of 19. After graduating Warren went on to attend and graduate from Columbia Business School. Here, Buffett molded his value investing approach while learning under Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing. Eventually, Buffett began to partner with Graham on other ventures and partnerships. He eventually founded the Buffet Partnership in 1956, which eventually acquired the struggling textile mill Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway at the time, was failing to make an adequate profit and return on invested capital. He later turned the struggling textile mill into the massive conglomerate it is today.

Buffett is widely known for his value investment principles. Here Warren uses discounted cash flow analysis to identify undervalued stocks in the public markets. He looks for companies with a strong competitive advantage in their respective industries, a management with integrity, a business he understands, and trading at an attractive price. He typically purchases stock of companies that are out of favor or are experiencing mass pessimism in the public markets. He researches the company heavily reading annual reports, quarterly reports, and any other information related to...

…advice giving, he is believable. Due in part to his ability to provide real world examples of both successes and failures. These two concepts have very strong implications for the advice-giving field as it runs counter to many of the more academic approaches. First, Buffett utilizes both his successes and failure to illustrate his points. Many in the advice-giving field only emphasize their successes while downplaying their losses. Others simply omit their failures altogether to make their past track record to seem more attractive than it otherwise is. Second, Buffett provides his advice for free. His annual reports can be read online with no charge at all. His interviews can be viewed freely. All of which provides valuable advice that often stays with an individual forever. Further, this advice is timely in the sense that it can be passed down for generations. Wealth in particular, can be passed down from generation to generation. As a result, the advice giving today, could impact an individual that has yet to be born in regards to their overall lifestyle and well-being. This has strong implications for the advice-giving field as Buffetts advice is very long…

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References

1. Robert G. Hagstrom, Jr.. The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1994. 274pp.

2. Robert Heller. Warren Buffett. New York: Dorling Kindersley. 2000. 112pp.

3. Andrew Kilpatrick. Warren Buffett: The Good Guy of Wall Street. Donald I. Fine. 1995. 304pp.

4. Andrew Kilpatrick. Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett. Andy Kilpatrick Publishing Empire. 1996. 730pp.

5. Roger Lowenstein. Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist. New York: Random House. 1995. 473pp.

6. A. M. Panrolling. Warren Buffett: An Illustrated Biography of the World's Most Succesful Investor. John Wiley & Sons. 2004.

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