by Richard J. Connors
Business principles distilled from decades of Warren Buffet's letters to shareholders.
- If you want to invest like Warren Buffet, "Buy either Berkshire Class A or Class B stock."
- "Buffett also says that most individual investors should purchase stock index funds because they are very low cost and they outperform most professional investment managers."
- This book was born from a course presented by the author at WUSTL
- It's not about Buffet's investing, but rather his business management style, practices, and principles
- Mostly a compilation of Buffet's own words from Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters from 1977–2008
We both insist on a lot of time being available almost everyday to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. We read and think. So Warren and I do more reading and thinking and less doing than most people in business. We do that because we like that kind of life.
—Charlie Munger
- Buffet has constructed a life doing what he loves in a way that's comfortable and productive
- Wakes up ~6:45 am, reads the papers, sometimes the web
- Arrives at the office ~8–9 am, but no set schedule and no meetings first thing in the morning "I don't want to live that way."
- He wouldn't want to head a company like IBM or General Motors because your life becomes taken up by things you don't have a choice about
- 75–85% of the day is spent reading, the rest is on the phone buying/selling, then he goes home to play bridge or read more
- Doesn't leave at a set time "I don't like to be structured."
- Plays bridge online (as "T-Bone") with Bill Gates ("Chalengr"):
I would pay $5 million a year for the ability to play on-line bridge 12 hours a week. It's worth it to me. If I compare it to the cost of a second home, that would mean nothing to me. If I deliver 12 hours of enjoyment playing bridge with my sister in Carmel, or whomever, doing it in a few seconds, clicking it on, I would pay it. They can't figure it out, so I'm paying about $95 a year.
- His son Howard never saw him mow the grass, wash a car, etc; when he got older, he understood the value of time better and how valuable Warren's time is
- "Though in the public spotlight, Buffett was standing guard over a still uncommonly private life. So unlike the modern CEO, he did block out his time in advance, preferring to keep it unencumbered."
Richard Simmons, president of the Washington Post Co., was amazed by the quiet in Buffett's emerald green sanctum. He did not have an electronic calculator, a stock terminal, or a computer. "I am a computer," he noted to an interviewer.
- Compared to the average CEO, Buffet is time rich:
His day was a veritable stream of unstructured hours and cherry colas. He would sit at the redwood horseshoe desk and read for hours, joined to the world by a telephone (which he answered himself) and three private lines: to Salomon Brothers, Smith Barney, and Goldman Sachs.