Warren Buffett is one of those amazing CEOs, who is down-to-earth, well-respected, and not always known to the masses. Indeed, he owns some of the most recognizable companies in North America like Dairy Queen and Fruit of the Loom, but many people, in fact, do not know this. They do not readily recall his personal name, nor the name of his company, Berkshire Hathaway. That is probably the most special thing about Buffett, what makes him endearing to the general public. He is a billionaire icon in the business world, but to people around him, he is an everyday person doing his job.
Born in 1930, Warren Edward Buffett, like many other hugely-successful entrepreneurs, was something of a genius as a child. Buffett's forté was figures, and he was capable of adding up numerous columns of numbers right in his head. Onlookers often thought that he was a mathematical wizard. His father was a stockbroker, and this permitted Buffett to learn the inner workings of the stock market, which he embraced wholeheartedly. His father allowed him to write the stock prices on the blackboard at work, and by the time Buffett was only eleven years old, he wanted to try trading.
Warren Buffet: CEO From Berkshire Hathaway
Apparently, he purchased three shares costing him thirty-eight dollars each, but the price abruptly fell to twenty-seven. He hung on a little longer, and when the price recovered at forty dollars, he sold. He had indeed made a profit on his first trade, but was somewhat dismayed when later the stock increased to two-hundred dollars per share. To this day, he still recounts the story as the one that taught him about "patience in investing", and knowing when to buy and sell.
When Buffett was thirteen he bought a paper route, which is not all that surprising or innovative, since many children delivered newspapers for their first jobs. But, what separated Buffett from the others, was that he actually was required to file an income tax return. In addition to his earnings from the paper route, he also sold racing tip sheets that he made, and understanding the mechanics of a profit and loss statement, he used his bicycle as a tax deduction. During Buffett's high school years, he persisted in looking for opportunities to earn an income. One of his more profitable ventures was three pinball machines, which he placed around town, and eventually sold, making a tidy profit.
Unlike other students, Warren Buffett went to university at the age of sixteen, enrolling in the business program at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his degree at the University of Nebraska, graduating when he was twenty. Again, unlike other students who come out of university or college with a mountain of debt, Buffett was said to still have about ten thousand dollars remaining from the businesses he undertook in earlier years.
Buffett, then carried on his higher education at Columbia University and immediately upon graduation, he created another company in 1956, this one called Buffett Partnerships. This is where he truly shined, and this is how he made a considerable of amount of money in the early days, making him a millionaire by 1972. His philosophy was simple. Buy stocks for the long-term.
He also had an innate ability to choose the undervalued stocks of solid companies. It was not long before people recognized Buffett's success, and began listening to his advice regarding investments. It is also how he received the moniker "Oracle of Omaha", which refers solely to Warren Buffett and his no-nonsense strategies. He was also honest in how he did business, using the interest rate on government bonds as his earnings' indicator. He forfeited his fees if his investments did not exceed the going rate of the bonds, and only made money when his clients succeeded financially. After about thirteen years, though, Buffett felt that he could do no more with Buffett Partnerships, and decided to look elsewhere for new opportunities.
Interestingly, although Buffett Partnerships Limited made him rich (twenty-five million dollars when the partnership was dissolved), it is not the way in which he acquired the bulk of his wealth. It was from being the CEO and largest shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway Holdings, which is considered to be the most profitable investment firm in history. Basically, Buffett and an associate looked at purchasing a defunct milling operation. When he finally took over the enterprise, it would become the holding company that was the foundation for his future success.
Another incredible tidbit about Buffett's wealth is, he is the only person to reach the position of one of the wealthiest people in the US by investing in shares. His adept expertise in arbitrage investing catapulted him and many others to extreme wealth. The way in which he acquired Berkshire Hathaway is the blueprint to his business model. Look for undervalued companies and seek controlling interest.
Warren Buffett may be one of the richest men in the world, yet his signature meal is hamburgers and Coke. To this day, he still lives in the same house that he originally purchased for just over thirty-one thousand dollars, and he owns one car. He does not believe in squandering money, and certainly does not believe in showing off through possessions.