Finance · Investment
CEO, Berkshire Hathaway · Born 1930, Omaha (USA)
He built one of the world's greatest fortunes by essentially doing one thing: nothing. Waiting. Refusing. Letting things compound. Buffett's patience is not passivity — it is the most difficult discipline in finance.
Who is he?
Warren Buffett buys his first stock at age 11. By 14, he is already filing his tax return. But it is not his precocity that defines Buffett — it is his consistency. While Wall Street chased every trend (dot-com, subprime, crypto), Buffett applied the same principles decade after decade: buy exceptional businesses at a fair price, and hold them forever.
A student of Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, Buffett transformed Berkshire Hathaway — a failing textile mill — into a conglomerate worth hundreds of billions. He still lives in the house he bought in 1958 in Omaha. His simplicity of lifestyle mirrors his investment philosophy: eliminate the superfluous, focus on the essential.
His core principles
Only invest in what you truly understand. Better to miss an opportunity you don't understand than to lose on a bet you don't control.
"Be fearful when others are greedy, greedy when others are fearful." His biggest wins were made during crises, when everyone was selling in panic.
His preferred holding period: "forever." Compound interest only works if you let it run. 99% of his fortune was earned after age 50.
Never buy at fair value — buy below intrinsic value. The gap between price and value is your protection against mistakes and surprises.
"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it." Buffett has always refused dubious deals, even very profitable ones.
Buffett studies hundreds of opportunities and retains only a few per decade. Saying no to almost everything is the secret of concentration.
Memorable quotes
"The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."Warren Buffett
"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."Warren Buffett
Key timeline
Actionable lessons
Define your circle of competence. Write down in black and white the areas you truly understand. Refuse any investment or project outside it.
Automate your patience. Invest a fixed amount every month, regardless of market conditions. Regularity beats market timing in most cases.
Keep a decision journal. Note why you invest before each purchase — you will see if your logic was sound, independently of the outcome.
Use the 20-slot rule. Imagine you only have 20 investment decisions for your entire life. This mental constraint eliminates 95% of bad ideas.
Read every day. Buffett spends most of his day reading. "Knowledge compounds, just like interest." Start with 30 minutes a day.
His mistakes & limits
Buffett himself calls buying Berkshire Hathaway (the textile mill) his "worst investment ever" — it took him years to admit that American textiles were doomed. He also missed Amazon and Google for years through excessive caution about tech, a substantial missed gain he acknowledges publicly.
His most honest lesson: even the world's greatest investor is wrong regularly. What distinguishes him is that he sizes his bets to survive his mistakes — and admits them publicly in his annual letters.
Resources
How he made it
Son of a stockbroker turned Congressman in Omaha. At 6, he buys packs of Coca-Cola for 25 cents to resell the bottles for 5 cents each.
Rejected by Harvard — the best thing that happened to him: he discovers that Benjamin Graham teaches at Columbia and enrols to study under his idol.
Paper delivery boy at 13: he already earns more than his teachers and files his first tax return, deducting his bicycle as a work tool.
At 11, he sells his first Cities Service shares at $40 after buying them at $38. They then go to $200. A life lesson in patience.
Reading Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" at 19: "It was like seeing the light." Buy businesses, not lottery tickets.
Reading 5 to 6 hours a day — annual reports, newspapers, books. "Knowledge compounds, just like interest." No unnecessary meetings: his calendar is almost empty.
McDonald's for breakfast (menu depends on the market), 5 Cokes a day, bridge online in the evening. He lives in the house he bought in 1958.
The Intelligent Investor (Graham), Security Analysis, biographies of business figures, and every annual report he can get his hands on.
Rule #1: never lose money. Rule #2: never forget rule #1. Invest within your circle of competence — and in yourself first.
"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
The great interviews
Every year, tens of thousands of people make the pilgrimage to Omaha for 6 hours of Q&A — the "Woodstock of capitalism."
Watch on YouTube →In the middle of global panic, he announces in the New York Times: "I am buying American stocks." The market holds its breath — he was right.
Watch on YouTube →The two richest men in the world talk philanthropy and announce the Giving Pledge — to donate more than half their fortune.
Watch on YouTube →