The Journey of Warren B.
By: Muna Abubakr, Halal Incorp
Warren Buffet’s full name is Warren Edward Buffet. His date of birth is the 30th of August 1930. He is an American Business magnate, philanthropist, and investor, as well. Warren was born in Omaha, Nebraska also is the second out of three children. He is the only son of his mother named Leila and Father Howard Buffet, whose profession is a congressman. Warren attended elementary school at Rose hill. In the year 1942, his father was elected to the first of four terms, and this is in the united states congress and around the time he finished elementary school when his whole family moved to Washington. D.C.
After this Warren started to go to school at Alice deal junior high school and officially graduated from Woodrow Wilson high school in the year 1947. When he completed and graduated from education, he started finding success with his investment ventures and side entrepreneurial which is why he decided to not attend college but instead go into business, but his father prevented him from being able to do that.
Buffet showed an interest in investing and business from a young age. His inspiration was from a book that was borrowed from the Omaha public library at the age of seven years old. The book was called ‘one thousand ways to make $100’. Most of Buffet’s childhood years were enlivened by entrepreneurial endeavours. In fact, in one of his first business endeavours Buffet sold things like Coca-Cola, weekly magazines which required going from door to door, and lastly chewing gums to individuals as well.
Buffet additionally worked in his grandfather’s grocery store and while he was still in high school, he made income by detailing cars, selling golf balls and stamps amongst doing other things to make a profit. Buffet took a deduction of 35dollars, and this is to pay the tax return on his first income during the year 1944 to utilize his bicycle and watch whilst he is delivering papers on his paper routes.
During the year 1945 as a high school sophomore, Buffet and his friend spent 25dollars and he aimed to buy an already used pinball machine, the location where this pinball machine was placed is in the local barbershop. A couple of months later Buffet and his family-owned several machines in three different barbershops across Omaha, Nebraska. However, it was decided by his family to sell the business later in the year for 1,200 dollars, it was sold to a war veteran by the family.
The Journey of Warren B.
Buffet showed a particular interest in investing and the stock market a reminder of the schoolboy days that he spent in the customer’s lounge of a regional stock brokerage, and this was near his father’s own brokerage office as well. When Buffet was in high school, he decided on investing in a business that is already owned by his father and purchased a 40-acre farm worked by a tenant farmer. This land was bought by Buffet at the age of 14 years old with his savings of 1,200 dollars mentioned before. Going to college and completing college did not mean that Buffet did not have any money left and urgently needed to find work.
This is because he had a mind that was all about longitudinal gratification rather than thinking about the now, he also thought about the future. He saved a decent amount of money for himself, and this was approximately 9,800 dollars. Today that money would amount to 107,000 dollars it just goes to show he had that business mindset from a young age that grew in his adult life later.
During the year 1947, Buffet attended the University of Pennsylvania called Wharton school. His father pressured him greatly to enrol in university although his personal preference was to focus on his business endeavours. After this, he studied there for two years and later joined the alpha sigma phi fraternity. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration degree at 19 from the University of Nebraska.
Buffet suffered a minor setback when he was rejected by the University of Harvard business school which lead him to enrol at Columbia University called Columbia Business school. The reasoning behind this is because Benjamin Graham taught them and Buffet was very fond of him as to speak. Their Buffet managed to earn a Master of Science in economics from Columbia in the year 1951. Buffet decided on attended the New York Institute of finance once he graduated from Columbia. Buffet learned various things from Graham Benjamin and from his own words he said he was taught by Benjamin ‘that the basic ideas of investing are to look at stock business, use the market’s fluctuations to your advantage, and seek a margin of safety.
In terms of Buffet’s investment and early business career, in 1951 Buffet had uncovered that Graham was on the board of the Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO). This leads him to personally take a train to Washington D.C. on one Saturday where he knocked on the door of GEICO headquarters until this caught the attention of a janitor who then admitted him as a result. Their Buffet met GEICO vice president called Lorimer Davidson who talked about the insurance business that lasted hours on end. Their Buffet made a friend for life out of Davidson and a lasting influence on him. He found Davidson to be an ‘extraordinary man just after fifteen minutes, meaning he left a long-lasting impression on him. He was adamant about working for wall street but was prevented by Ben Graham who had advised him not to which made him want to work for Graham for free but was refused.
Additionally, Buffet returned to Nebraska, Omaha where he worked as a stockbroker while taking a course in public speaking. In doing so, he utilized what he had learned and felt confident enough to be able to teach an “Investment in Principle’s” night class. This took place at the University of Nebraska where he was once a student himself. Interestingly, the average age of his students was more than twice his own. He bought a Sinclair gas station as a side investment but unfortunately, it was unsuccessful, and this was during the time he was teaching at the University of Nebraska. In the year 1954 Buffet accepted a job offer presented to him by Benjamin Graham at Graham’s partnership.
His first start salary was 12,000 dollars a year and today it would be around 116,000 dollars. Another thing is that he was working closely with a man called Walter Schloss. His boss was tough on him and in the year 1956 the partnership was closed by Graham since he decided to retire. It was during this time that Buffet’s savings were over approximately 174,000 dollars which would amount to a total of $1.66million today. There he took on the initiative to start his firm called Buffets partnership Ltd.
The Journey of Warren B. He operated three partnerships by the year 1957. In the year 1958 Buffet had gone from operating three partnerships to operating five partnerships within a year. His company grew in the year 1959 to operating six partnerships and met his future partner at the same time called Charlie Munger. By the year 1960 Buffet operated on a total of seven partnerships. Buffet personally asked a doctor who is one of his partners to go and find ten other additional doctors who can invest 10,000 dollars each in his partnership and eleven were agreed upon after much discussion. He had combined all their money with a 100-dollar investment of his own that is original as well.
The Journey of Warren B. In the year 1961 Buffet decided on sharing that 35percent of the partnership assets were invested in a company called Sanborn map. He explained the reasoning behind this was because Sanborn stock only sold for about 45dollars per share in the year 1958 but the interesting thing was that the company’s investment portfolio was worth per share about 65 dollars. Sanborn map business as a result was being valued at minus 20 dollars. Eventually, Buffet bought 23 per cent of the company’s outstanding shares as an activist investor which resulted in him gaining a seat on one of the boards of directors. Other shareholders were dissatisfied, and Buffet allied himself with them to control 44 per cent of the shares himself.
The Journey of Warren B. During the year 1962 Buffet had become a millionaire and this was thanks to his partnerships in the year 1962, in January, he had an additional $7,178,500 which over approximately $1,025,000 was Buffet’s money. He had merged all these partnerships into one. The textile manufacturing firm was eventually controlled solely by Buffet, and he had invested in it, Berkshire Hathaway. He started buying shares in Berkshire from Seabury Stanton the owner. His partnerships began purchasing shares and this was approximately $7.60 per share.
Moreover, Buffet worked at a place called Buffet-Falk&CO from 1951 till 1954. His role there was being an investment salesman and for two years he worked at a place called Graham -Newman Corp from the year 1954 till 1956. He worked as a securities analyst and from then, Buffet again changed his job and decided to work at a place called Buffet Partnership as a general partner which ups the ante. He worked there for three years, and this is from the year 1956 till 1969. Buffet then got the position of Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc in the year 1970. From changing his jobs Buffet eventually managed to work his way from the bottom to the top leading him to become CEO and Chairman. Buffet managed to become a billionaire when Berkshire Hathaway began selling class A shares in the year 1990, this is with the market that closed at a share of $7,175.
Buffet married Susan Buffet in the year 1952 and had three children with her. They are called Susie, Howard, and Peter. Susan died in July 2004. Warren Buffet lives in a modest house that is worth about 001 per cent of his absolute wealth. It is in Nebraska, Omaha. Buffet has lived in this house for a prolonged amount of time as he purchased it in the year 1958. He still lives in that house and neighbourhood to this current day. He purchased the house for $31,500 and today it amounts to $250,000 in today’s dollars. It has been said that it is now worth $652,619 in total. Buffet states that this is “the third-best investment he’s ever made”. It has a square foot of 6,570 and 2.5 bathrooms alongside five bedrooms. The exterior of the house is very secure as it has security cameras that guard the property with concrete fences as well.
The Journey of Warren B.
An interesting fact about Buffet is that he eats like a six-year-old. He has stated that the secret to staying young for him is ice cream and Coca-Cola. What he does every day is drink at least five twelve-ounce servings of Coca-Cola. His logic behind this is that he is “one-quarter Coca-Cola and so if he eats at least 2,700 calories a day then a quarter of that is Coca-Cola. We can say that he is a Coca-Cola addict and has no problem gulping that down. He is very fond of McDonald’s as he is a frequent customer of theirs, especially at the time when it is breakfast hours. He loves having eggs, bacon, and cheese biscuit and this is mainly if the market is up, or he would have another alternative which is sausage patties, and this is specifically if the marker is down as well.
Most days he loves his ice creams and so he will get himself one of those. He was one time asked how he was able to stay healthy considering he eats foods high in dairy and salt, his response is ‘I checked the actuarial tables, and the lowest death rate is among six-year olds’, so it is fair to say this Is his motivation behind his diet. To be healthy as much as possible and have a high life expectancy rate.
The Journey of Warren B. Another interesting fun fact about Buffet is that people will pay millions just so that they could personally have lunch with him and enjoy his company. A bid is placed on him by people who are so very eager to sit down with him and this bid is approximately$4.57million to have lunch with him. This is of an anonymous bidder, and it occurred in 2019. Very bizarre but interesting at the same time, some people are just so invested in the oracle of Omaha. The money that was raised benefited the based anti-poverty charity Glide in San Francisco. The winner even gets to invite seven of their friends to lunch with Buffet at the Smith and Wollensky steakhouse that is in none other than New York City. Buffet has held out many annual fundraisers and auctioning ever since 2000.
In recent years at the end of 2013, Buffet’s total net worth of $59billion which is staggering considering at the start of that year it was at 46billlion. On average Buffet made $37million a day in the year 2013. The reason for this is because of his stock prices which continue to rise. Almost approximately ninety-four per cent of his wealth was earned only after he turned the age of 60 years old. This displays that success indeed can come at any time or age unexpectedly. With Buffet, it is a special case as he was very rich before that because when he was 52 years of age his net worth was around $376million. It is factually correct that ninety-nine per cent of his wealth came just after he had turned the age fifty years old. At eighty-nine years old Buffet has a net worth of, $81.7billion.
This demonstrates that over the years his net worth has gone up and increased significantly. Another fun fact is that Buffet has Twitter although the funny thing is that he has never actually tweeted anything. This illustrates he is on-trend and keeps up with the youth. However, he does have nine published tweets in total, but it turns out that none of them was done by him. He has a following of more than a 1.25million. Buffet does not follow anyone on Twitter although he has a substantial number of followers.
The Journey of Warren B.
Buffet owns twenty suits that are also all designed by the same designer, but it is interesting as he never paid for any. The name of the designer is called Madam Lee. The story behind this is a rather adventurous one. The buffet was on a trip to China and upon arriving at the hotel two guys came out of nowhere into the room he was staying in and started sticking tape measures around him. They even showed him a book of samples and told him to pick a suit of his choosing. This is because Madam Lee wanted to give him one. This happened without him meeting her, he picked out a suit and then another one to his liking. Once he finally met her Buffet ended up developing a professional relationship with Madam Lee and as a result of their developed relationship, she ended up continuously sending him suits.
Buffet has so far, the best track record for beating the market when it comes to investments. The ninety-one-year-old is the best when it comes to this field. Another fact about Buffet is that he hardly emails. He also reads about eighty per cent of his day in his estimation. He was once asked about what the key to success was. He then pointed out to a whole stack of books that were piled up and said to read five hundred pages like he does every day. He said that that is how knowledge operates. It builds up like compound interest. From the moment Buffet is awake his favourite thing to do is to have a newspaper right under his nose.
The popular TV series breaking bad is about a chemistry teacher who discovers that he has cancer and decided to go into the meth-making business to repay his medical debts. He does this with his former student who ends up becoming his partner. This is what Buffet’s favourite TV series is. In fact, in the year 2013, he dressed up as a chemistry teacher called Walter white. The buffet is also very comical and a fan of joking around a lot. He is very much still a child at heart. An example was when he first joined Twitter, he decided to announce it and the first-ever tweet made from his account was ‘Warren in the house.
The Journey of Warren B.: The buffet was bound up for success because just at the age of eleven years old he had already bought stock whilst his peers at that age were reading comic books and playing basketball. During the year 1942, Buffet who was age eleven years old purchased six shares of something called cities service now known as CITGO, and this is for 38 dollars apiece. By the age of sixteen years old he had accumulated more than an estimation of $53,000 and this was for investments and business ventures as well.
He surpassed his peers from an early age and already had that business acumen mindset and knew exactly what he was working towards. He faced setbacks but was strong enough to work through them and preserve them through hard work and dedication. Today he has well known, and his achievements are very much appreciated. He also utilizes his money for a great cause by doing humanitarian work and donating money to the less fortunate, feeding the poor, and aiding in covering costs for victims of natural causes. Being involved in different charity foundations means that he is using his money for the greater good.
Disclaimer: The view of the author does not necessarily represent the views of Halal Incorp