The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

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It's a hit!

Life-changer of a book in a worldly sense... Would change the tenor of what caution needs to look like, when investing. Capital allocation gains p... (show more)

Life-changer of a book in a worldly sense... Would change the tenor of what caution needs to look like, when investing. Capital allocation gains perspective for me, for the first time, in a thorough and foundational sense. Extraordinary individual, beautiful, stunning, intuitive and a paper-boy right through and through... I went to sleep last night, imagining him doing his paper route as a teenager, standing on the floorboard on his car, practising that turn of his wrist to fling in the paper just right on the porch - missing the milk bottles if he could! Doing one's homework get an entirely new kind of redefinition, with Warren. Reads Tomes like 10,000 pages of the Moody Mannual thrice to understand businesses in the US... lover of vast tracts of information that would be useless in most people's hands. The book is 840 odd pages long... so it feels deliciously like the infinite tracts of text he has been pouring for seven decades. ... here's to celebrating future discusssions of Warren's inner levers on the sky of emotions that relate to the mind's experience of the earth element.... (show less)

 

 

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No, it's a flop!

If you are looking for a straight goods review of his business dealings this may not be the book for you. I found that there was far too much detai... (show more)

If you are looking for a straight goods review of his business dealings this may not be the book for you. I found that there was far too much detail and almost ran into the territory of a work of fiction. it gives you an understanding of the man and details his frailties as evenly as his strengths. I do think however, there was a lot that was left out in order to lionise the man. For as gifted as he is as a business man he seems wholely unlikable as a person.

In this manner I much prefered Greenspans book because it better dealt with the blend of personal and professional. To be perfectly honest if the personal was condensed it would have been much easier to digest and much more interesting in my view. (show less)

 

 

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  this book is awesome. I loved reading this book even though it took me awhile for it is one of the book that makes a person think. I loved getting to learn about the richest man in Nebraska and how his buisness ethic got him to where he is today.
  
  I thought it was pretty impressive that he started realizing how to save money as a young child for that is usually something one never thinks about at a young age. This one was just way too good to put down and way too good to read al... (show more)

  this book is awesome. I loved reading this book even though it took me awhile for it is one of the book that makes a person think. I loved getting to learn about the richest man in Nebraska and how his buisness ethic got him to where he is today.
  
  I thought it was pretty impressive that he started realizing how to save money as a young child for that is usually something one never thinks about at a young age. This one was just way too good to put down and way too good to read all at once for one can learn things from Warren Buffet as one reads his biography.

  I know that I would definitely recommend this book not only to fellow Nebraskans, to those who love biographies but I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how and what it took for Warren Buffet to become as rich as he is today. I will have to say that it is such a powerful book it leaves one feeling fulfilled after reading it. (show less)

   

   

  by Whitney Cattle on Dec 30, 2009 at 08:24PM

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  Warren Buffett is excentric in unexpected ways. He has been observed to be very frugal, not into material possesions, not historically philanthropic, and not very willing to share emotionally or monetarliy with his children. He openly declares that he does not claim his adopted grandchildren as his real grandchildren, and will therfore leave them nothing of his empire. Despite these quirks, he is highly respected for good reason. He is not mean, or confrontational. He is obsessed with contr... (show more)

  Warren Buffett is excentric in unexpected ways. He has been observed to be very frugal, not into material possesions, not historically philanthropic, and not very willing to share emotionally or monetarliy with his children. He openly declares that he does not claim his adopted grandchildren as his real grandchildren, and will therfore leave them nothing of his empire. Despite these quirks, he is highly respected for good reason. He is not mean, or confrontational. He is obsessed with controlling every dollar, and it pains him to see even one dollar go to something he does not believe in. He may be lucky in the magnitude of his his wealth, but it is no accident that he is rich. He has investing rules, and is succesful when he sticks to those rules. Additionally, he is a very ethical man of very high character, especially for the modern business world.

  He is also surprisingly emotionally needy. He was essentially a polygamist, having a live-in girlfriend, while openly maintaining a relationship with his wife. He had such a large emotional hole to fill, that he needed a team of two women to care for him at the same time. One wife at home, and one wife in public to build his confidence at presentations and social gatherings.

  Buffet never got caught up in the temptaions of easy money in the dot com era, or in the Mortgage/Credit Default Swap craze. It's quite interesting. Regarding the dot com era, he never invested in technology because he didn't understand it. It is very strange considering Bill Gates has been a close friend of his since the early 1990's.

  His criticisms of Mortgage/Credit Default Swap investments are equally surprising being that he is Mr. Insurance and those products are related to insurance. CDS's and mortgage derivitaives were a favorite holding and investment by insurance companies because they were easy money until the financial crisis in 2008. Buffet saw through this hype, and knew that these were toxic investments that would blow up in the owner's face if held long enough. As a matter of fact, one of the first things he did when he bought re-insurance company General Re, was to have them liquidate their portfolio of such investements. The leadership at General Re must have thought he was crazy at the time. He criticised them personally for losing money, all while forcing them to sell off this profitable part of the business.

  Despite his genius, he shyed away from any businesses or investments that were dificult for a layman to understand. He chose instead to focus on businesses that he understood very well, like insurance, or on businesses that were easy to comprehend how they made money. For example, he bought See's Candy, and Nebraska Furniture Mart. These businesses may be management intensive like any other business, but he understood them. -Buy furniture for $1000 and sell it for $2000. Does that model give me enough margin to make a profit? Yes? Then, if I can buy it cheap enough, I'll take it.- That simple.

  I found his early life to be somewhat ordinary, and boring. He was a hard worker, and had several obsessions and collections throughought his childhood and youth. The obsession that won out in the long term, not surprisingly, was his obsession with money.

  The book really picked up when he had to personally intervene into Solomon's problems with the government. in the early 1990's. He single handedly saved that investment bank. That story sounds similar to the cureent banking crisis.

  Snowball gives tremendous insight into Buffet's enigmatic personality. From a business perspective, the book seems to focus equally on Buffet's financial failures as successes. If you had not heard of Warren Buffet before reading this, and stopped reading halfway through, you might assume that he misread many trends, and had limited success. The author likely did this so as not to portray him as a deity.

  Bottom Line: The book had very little compelling business intrigue for it's length. It met it's intent to tell Buffett's life story. Although it did give ample insight to Buffett's personality and business philosophy, it was very dry. However, this lack of excitement indicates that the author set aside hyperbole, and stayed true to the life story. (show less)

   

   

  by Jeff Wilson on Sep 18, 2009 at 04:56PM

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