Becoming Warren Buffett

Woman:
And now one of the most

respected investors in America

is going to tell you

about his secrets.

Man:
"Warren Buffett."

It's the sound of money.

$9.2 billion...

Woman 2:
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett,

the second richest man

in America.

Man 2:

He's estimated to be worth about $62 billion.

That makes him

the richest man in the world.

Woman 3:
You know,

Buffett is not exactly what you might expect.

Woman 4:

Even though he's in the money business,

he doesn't even own

a calculator or a computer.

Man 3:

He takes the long view,

and it's made him billions,

many billions.

Man 4:

Maybe you can beat the house,

but I don't think you can beat

Warren Buffett.

Man 5:
Buffett filed his first

tax return at 13 years old.

But he's no average

billionaire, Tom.

Tom:

No, he certainly isn't, Matt.

Woman 5:

He's a $44 billion average Joe.

Man 7:

Warren Buffett has an approach

that doesn't make him very popular

with his fellow billionaires.

Man 8:
Warren Buffett,

the boy from Nebraska

who grew up to become

the Wizard of Omaha.

Man 9:
What was it about him

that allowed him to become

the richest man in the world?

How did he do it?

Warren:
70 years ago,

I was in high school.

Almost a third as long

as the country has been around.

And when I was

in high school,

I really only had

two things on my mind...

girls and cars.

And...

and I wasn't doing very well with girls,

so we'll talk

about cars.

But lets just imagine

that when we finish,

I'm going to let each one of you

pick out the car of your choice.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Pick it out,

any color, you name it,

it'll be tied up with a bow,

and it'll be at your house tomorrow.

And you say,

"Well, what's the catch?"

And the catch is...

that it's the only car you're

going to get in your lifetime.

Now what are you going to do,

knowing that that's the only car

you're ever going to have

and you love that car?

You're going to take care of

it like you cannot believe.

Now what I'd like to suggest

is that you're not going to get

only one car in your lifetime,

but you're gonna get

one body and one mind,

and that's all

you're going to get.

And that body and mind

feels terrific now,

but it has

to last you a lifetime.

I'm on the way

to the office.

It's all

of a five-minute drive.

Been doing it...

for 54 years.

One of the good things

about this five-minute drive

is that on the way there's a McDonald's,

so I'll pick up something.

Woman on speaker: Good morning,

thank you for choosing McDonald's.

Go ahead and order

whenever you're ready.

I'll have a Sausage McMuffin

with egg and cheese.

Woman:
Anything else?

That's it, thank you.

Warren:
Yeah,

and I tell my wife as I shave in the morning,

I say either $2.61,

$2.95, or $3.17,

and she puts that amount

in a little cup by me here

and that determines

which of three breakfasts I get.

Hi. 2.95.

Okay, 2.95.

There's the two.

How you doing, sir!

Hey, great!

You're on "Candid Camera"!

I see. Hello, everybody!

Warren:

When I'm not feeling quite so prosperous,

I might go with a 2.61,

which is two sausage patties,

and then I put 'em together

and pour myself a Coke.

Hi, how are you?

Hi. I've been good.

3.17 is a bacon, egg,

and cheese biscuit,

but the market's

down this morning,

so I think I'll pass up the

3.17 and go with the 2.95.

Warren:

I like numbers.

It started before

I could remember.

It just felt good,

working with numbers.

I was always playing around with

numbers in one-way or another.

And it was fun to have

a bunch of guys over

and have them betting on which

marble would reach the drain first.

I had a lot

of energy as a kid.

I... I was inquisitive,

and I was the youngest one

always in the class,

'cause I'd skip.

I've always been competitive.

I liked to read

more than most kids.

I really like

to read a lot.

My Aunt Edie gave me

a copy of "The World Almanac"

and that was heaven to me.

And I can still tell you that Omaha's

population was 214,006 in 1930.

Some numbers

just kind of stick with you.

And very early,

probably when I was seven or so,

I took this book out

of the Benson Library

called "A Thousand Ways

to Make a $1,000."

And one of the ways

in this book

was having

penny weighing machines.

And I sat and calculated

how much it would cost

to buy the first

weighing machine,

and then how long

it would take for the profit

from that one to buy another one,

and I would sit there

and create these

compound interest tables

to figure out how long

it would take me to have

a weighing machine

for every person in the world.

I had everybody in the country

weighing themselves ten times a day,

and me just sitting there like John

D. Rockefeller of weighing machines.

The allowance when I was a

little boy was a nickel a week,

but I liked the idea of having a little

more than a nickel a week to work with,

and I went

into business very early.

I started selling Coca-Cola

door to door.

I sold gum door to door.

I sold

"Saturday Evening Post,"

"Liberty" magazine,

"Ladies Home Journal," you name it.

I think I enjoyed the game

almost right from the start.

But I like being my own boss.

That's one thing I liked

about delivering papers.

I could arrange

the route I wanted.

Nobody was bothering me

at 5:
00 or 6:00 in the morning.

I was delivering

500 papers a day,

and I made a penny a paper,

but in terms of compounding,

that penny's turned

into something else.

Einstein is reputed to have said

that "Compound interest

is the eighth wonder of the world"

or something like that,

and it goes back to that story you probably

learned when you were in grade school

where somebody did

something for the king,

and the king said,

"What can I do for you?"

And he said,

"Well, lets take a chessboard

"and put one kernel of wheat

on the first square

"and then double it

on the second

and double it on the third."

And the king readily agreed to it,

and by the time he figured out

what two to the 64th

amounted to,

he was giving away

the entire kingdom.

So it's a pretty simple concept,

but over time,

it accomplishes

extraordinary things.

Berkshire is an amazing company.

Fourth largest company

in the "Fortune" 500.

He is the only person

who has ever, from scratch,

built a company that is in the

top 10 of the Fortune 500.

Woman:
Berkshire Hathaway.

Fine, thank you.

Warren:
Well,

Berkshire is a holding company of sorts.

It owns a large number

of separate businesses

that operate

independently of each other

and, to a great extent,

from the parent company, Berkshire Hathaway.

All right, well,

we're going to get more from you in a second.

Warren:
So we have maybe 70,

maybe 80 businesses,

and we ask them

to behave in a way

that doesn't hurt

our reputation

at Berkshire Hathaway,

but they run their own lives.

Other people do most of the decorating in

the office, so various things come in.

Originally,

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