The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

If you want some technical tips on how to be the next Warren Buffet, go grab a copy of Ben Graham's Security Analysis from 1934. But if you want a look at the man Warren Buffett, you have come to the right place. Want to know what kind of family man Buffet is? Want to know how a billionaire treats his children? Or how a young millionaire budgets money to his homemaker wife? Fascinating stuff.You can also learn about his early career and how he got started, as well as his father the politician and the impact that had.To many of us Warren Buffet is a billionaire investor who knows the ins and outs of Wall Street way better than most of us. Being a financial celebrity, you would expect to find his whole life online. That though isn’t the case with Warren. Little was known about his personal life until Alice Schroeder wrote this book- The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life. Reading through the book you will realize that you don’t have to be successful after everyone else has failed. Warren, commonly known as the “Oracle of Omaha” is a financial investor who also doubles up as a mentor. For only $13.84, you will get to meet Warren in this 832 pages book. He will endow you with timeless financial wisdom and proper business ethics that aren’t taught in school.His practical approach to life will motivate you to kick start your own. The pity party story that one may tend to propagate as reason as to why they aren’t succeeding will diffuse after reading this book. Warren worked to be where he is currently and was never born with a silver spoon. He is a practical inspiration. As you read along, you will learn that no man is an island and that having a strong support system will go a long way in ensuring you succeed. For example, his associate Charles Munger has been his associate since 1959. It doesn’t have to be the perfect system but rather a unit you can count on.The book is full of insights and it is by reading it that one will be able to grasp and even apply some of the insights in his/her life. Unlike some autobiographies that are boring to tears, this one is different. There are hilarious snippets after every other chapter and with no time you will complete reading the autobiography and even probably re-read it. It will feel just like the first time you opened the book to read. Alice has also included notes to help you understand the book better.The title of the book is a metaphor that depicts the ever growing wealth of Warren. The book is lengthy and has a lot of details some of which one may not find necessary but the conversational writing that Alice has employed in penning this book will keep you glued to the book. This is a must read book that walks you through the life of a legend.

Warren Buffett has interested me for a while now. Of course, everyone knows he is a rich man, but what is interesting is his ability to lead. During my time away, I finished reading this thought provoking book. It is about his life, and his pursuit of wealth and impact in the world. His philosophies are what interests me. He seems to have simple tastes, he has a ethical mindset, though of course, we would probably disagree on some of his stances, but overall, I like his approach to life. I read this book because he has been successful for a long time. What made him not crash and burn like other successful and rich people. The book is interesting because you see his singular focus on understanding businesses and investing. And I believe some of his principles translate to congregational leadership well. One is, trust good people. You have to surround yourself with people who you can trust and are good people. Second, you need to have a bottom to your downside. This is where a lot of churches go wrong. There are changes, but it is too risky, and ultimately fails. Third, be patience, you are not going to get a return quickly, and you need to be patience with people and churches. Fourth, know you will be wrong, but focus on still being right. As leaders, we all make mistakes, but focus not only on the down side, but go for the upside too. There are other lessons that this book dealt with in my context that were helpful too. It is a long read, and it is not a church book, but if you have a interest in this man, and some of his thoughts and background, I truly recommend the book. It was a great read.

A very thoroughly researched and well written book about the life and legacy of a financial genius. A little too long-winded in places. I didn't need so much back story about his family but definitely a book worth reading.

Warren Buffett is world-famous for his success at investing. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, the son of a stock broker who served several terms in Congress, he began in business very young selling candy to neighbors and delivering newspapers but his real passion was reading everything he could get his hands on about investing in stocks and bonds, learning about businesses, and investing according to a carefully thought-out investing philosophy derived from the authors of several books he read who became his mentors at Columbia Business School-Benjamin Graham and David Dodd.This biography, written with the cooperation of Buffett by Alice Schroeder, an author with a Wall Street background, is a thoroughly-researched account of his life and career, beginning with his childhood in Omaha and following him through his education and his career as an investor and money-manager who, through the vehicle of his firm Berkshire Hathaway, made himself and many of his investors very wealthy. Indeed, in 2008 he was named the richest man on earth.The book chronicles his philosophy of business and many of his quirks - he favours Coke over wine and burgers and steaks over almost any other type of food - and delves into numerous accounts of his investments which have spanned cocoa-beans, textile mills, Wall Street investment banks, and railroads, among many others.Buffett comes across as an almost asocial machine constantly sifting through businesses to find the best bargains to invest in. With family and friends he seems remote and absent-minded, uninterested in things that fall outside the world of business. He seems never to have read a novel, for instance, or a poem. When one of his friends points out a Picasso sketch on the wall at his friend’s house he says he hasn’t noticed it even though he’s been going there for 30 years. He’s also kind of funny about money, which I suppose is not surprising given who he is. That said, he does change over the course of his life in some respects and the book does a good job of describing it, showing, for example, how he was persuaded to be more generous towards his children, and describing the way he went from believing that his greatest service to humanity was through amassing a huge fortune to believing that giving money away sooner was preferable.If this book has a limitation it is that it shies away from offering a more definitive interpretation of its subject that would aid the reader in coming to a deeper understanding of the real Warren Buffett. The book offers an account of the complete Buffett mythology: his folksy, Midwestern values, his common-sense voice, his sage wisdom about business. It reinforces his philosophy of investing in undervalued companies with excellent long-term prospects, his injunction, via Graham, to “be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” It charts his growing fame, his circus-like shareholder meetings, his numerous appearances in the business press and on business TV networks, his love for Cherry Coke and Gorat’s steakhouse. And while the mythology is probed and dissected in some ways - yes, he’s lived in the same house since 1958 but Schroeder points out that he has remodeled it since then - I don’t think the reader will come away from this book with a true understanding of what’s driving him, at least not with a view or interpretation of this that has the endorsement and exposition of the author.If I had to take a guess, the primary influence on Buffett seems to be his father, Howard Buffett, a stock broker from Omaha whose civic values led him to Washington D.C. where he served in Congress during Warren’s youth. His mix of patriotism and business seems to have greatly influenced his son whom he took on a visit to the New York Stock Exchange in 1940 at the age of ten. Buffett says he wanted money so he could be “independent” and didn’t like to do manual labor but so do lots of us and he didn’t stop making money once he’d become independent so there is clearly more to it than that. It’s this sort of reading of Buffett I wish there was more of in this book.The book is nonetheless filled with as much superficial detail as you could want about Buffett. At 816 pages there’s tons of information about his whole life and world, it perfectly captures Buffett’s voice, as well as separate accounts of many important times in his life from the perspective of his family and friends. Schroeder has written a good valuation report style biography of the man and I suppose in many ways that’s the type of biography most suited to this life.