Warren Buffett

Looking at the list of the richest people in the world, you can easily come across such a world- famous name as Warren Buffett.

Buffett is the living embodiment of the dream of every investor and trader; he is the person who, thanks to his mental abilities and ability to choose potentially profitable stocks, was able to reach world heights.

Today his net worth is estimated at over $72 billion, but if you met this man on the street, you would never mention his wealth.

Warren Buffett is not just a successful person, but an example of a true long-term investor who breaks all possible myths about the weak effectiveness of long-term investments in favor of speculative operations.

By the way, Buffett has an extremely negative attitude towards speculation, so you can repeatedly hear him calling such people “Thieves”. He may be wrong in some ways, but once you get acquainted with his success story, you will find out what circumstances shaped his principles and how he achieved dizzying heights.

Warren was born into a prosperous family of a future Republican congressman in the small town of Oklahoma, Nebraska in 1930. His father was engaged in brokerage services and was an active member of the Republican Party, so his father’s profession speaks of the family’s wealth.

Even in his early childhood, Buffett was called a child prodigy because he had a strong memory and could solve complex equations in his head. Looking ahead, it can be noted that Buffett has never used a calculator and even now, when he is turning over millions of transactions, he does not need it.

Warren made his first attempts to earn his own money at the age of six. His grandfather owned a small grocery store, where a very young investor bought six cans of Coca-Cola for 25 cents and sold them at retail for 6 cents per can. Thus, Buffett earned 5 cents for the first time and understood what the world of finance and business consists of. When Warren was 11 years old, he tried himself as an investor, buying two shares of stock for $38 for himself and his sister.

He got this opportunity thanks to access to the stock market through his father's brokerage company. However, literally the next day the stock price collapsed to $27 per share, and here for the first time Warren began to fear for losing not only his own money, but also his sister’s. After waiting a couple of days, when the price per share rose to $40, Buffett sold all the shares, earning $2 on each.

The most interesting thing is that a couple of days later the stock price soared to $200 and it was from this incident that Warren learned the lesson that there is no need to panic, but to wait and be confident in your investment. Afterwards, the boy retired from stock exchange business and got a job as a newspaper delivery boy. Buffett was so smart and enterprising that he began to earn twice as much as his boss by delivering newspapers, thanks to the fact that he was able to optimize his route and distribute to more addresses.

Having accumulated his first capital, Buffett began to deal with slot machines, and to be more precise, he bought broken machines, restored them and installed them in various establishments. This is how Buffett was able to establish a successful business and earn his first 10 thousand dollars.

At that time, the successful businessman entered Columbia University, where the famous investor and stock exchange business shark Benjamin Graham taught. These two people could never find a common language; constant disputes and confrontation only caused negative attitudes towards each other. However, Graham appreciated Warren's knowledge and gave him the only excellent rating.

After graduating from university, Warren tried to get a job with Graham, but he did not want to tolerate the upstart and refused him. However, a year later, Graham himself invited Warren to work, and he, in turn, over the six years of working for him, proved that his vision of investing was much better and more productive.  

In a short 6 years of work, Buffett earned 140 thousand dollars and opened his own fund. The fund was so successful that money flowed in like a river, and its main principle of investing in companies where a strong management team paid off with interest.

After 12 years, the fund's assets were valued at $102 million. Buffet invested only in companies that he personally liked. For example, if he liked Coca-Cola, he purchased a block of shares; if he liked to read the Washington Post, then he purchased its shares.

The most successful purchase that made Buffett a billionaire was investing in the insurance business. He acquired 5 largest insurance companies, thanks to which he became one of the richest people in the world. Buffett is not only a great businessman, but also a philanthropist, since in his will Warren ordered 99 percent of the inheritance to be given to charitable companies.