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The Snowball
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The Snowball (2008) (edit title/settings)

Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

by Alice Schroeder (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to... read more

Summary edit see section history

Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world’s richest man, all from the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of this fits the term “simple.” When Alice Schroeder met Warren Buffett she was an insurance industry analyst and a gifted writer known for her keen perception and business acumen. Her writings on finance impressed him, and as she came to know him she realized that while much had been written on the subject of his investing style, no one had moved beyond that to explore his larger philosophy, which is bound up in a complex personality and the details of his life. Out of this came his decision to cooperate with her on the book about himself that he would never write. Never before has Buffett spent countless hours responding to a writer’s questions, talking, giving complete access to his wife, children, friends, and business associates—opening his files, recalling his childhood. It was an act of courage, as The Snowball makes immensely clear. Being human, his own life, like most lives, has been a mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be, Buffett’s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth; it will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people’s lives. This book tells you why Warren Buffett is the most fascinating American success story of our time.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Whenever my version is different from somebody else’s … use the less flattering version.”
    Warren Buffett to Alice Schroeder
  • “The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard. I always pose it this way. I say: ‘Lookit, Would you rather be the world’s greatest lover, but have everyone think you’re the world’s worst lover? Or would you rather be the world’s worst lover but have everyone think you’re the world’s greatest lover?’ Now, that’s an interesting question.”
    Warren Buffett
  • “About the only way a human being competed with the classic authors for Graham’s attention was to be female and beddable.”
    Warren Buffett about Ben Graham
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • “Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.”
    Highlighted by 236 Kindle customers
  • One lesson was not to overly fixate on what he had paid for a stock. The second was not to rush unthinkingly to grab a small profit.
    Highlighted by 208 Kindle customers
  • “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
    Highlighted by 199 Kindle customers
  • The method was the same: estimate an investment’s intrinsic value, handicap its risk, buy using margin of safety, concentrate, stay in the circle of competence, let it roll as compounding did the work.
    Highlighted by 179 Kindle customers
  • “Praise by name, criticize by category” was Buffett’s rule.
    Highlighted by 150 Kindle customers
  • Munger’s favorite construct was to invoke Carl Jacobi: “Invert, always invert.” Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward. What’s in it for the other guy? What happens if all our plans go wrong? Where don’t we want to go, and how do you get there? Instead of looking for success, make a list of how to fail instead—through sloth, envy, resentment, self-pity, entitlement, all the mental habits of self-defeat. Avoid these qualities and you will succeed. Tell me where I’m going to die, that is, so I don’t go there.
    Highlighted by 142 Kindle customers
  • Now Howard’s struggles branded three principles even deeper into his son: that allies are essential; that commitments are so sacred that by nature they should be rare; and that grandstanding rarely gets anything done.
    Highlighted by 127 Kindle customers
  • “No. Stocks are the things to own over time. Productivity will increase and stocks will increase with it. There are only a few things you can do wrong. One is to buy or sell at the wrong time. Paying high fees is the other way to get killed. The best way to avoid both of these is to buy a low-cost index fund, and buy it over time. Be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy, but don’t think you can outsmart the market.
    Highlighted by 117 Kindle customers
  • “People ask me where they should go to work, and I always tell them to go to work for whom they admire the most,” he said. He urged them not to waste their time and their life. “It’s crazy to take little in-between jobs just because they look good on your résumé. That’s like saving sex for your old age. Do what you love and work for whom you admire the most, and you’ve given yourself the best chance in life you can.”
    Highlighted by 113 Kindle customers
  • “The snowball just happens if you’re in the right kind of snow, and that’s what happened with me. I don’t just mean compounding money either. It’s in terms of understanding the world and what kind of friends you accumulate. You get to select over time, and you’ve got to be the kind of person that the snow wants to attach itself to. You’ve got to be your own wet snow, in effect. You’d better be picking up snow as you go along, because you’re not going to be getting back up to the top of the hill again. That’s the way life works.”
    Highlighted by 112 Kindle customers
Show all 13 quotes from this book

Organizations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

Warren Buffett rocks back in his chair, long legs crossed at the knee behind his father Howard’s plain wooden desk.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part 1 - The Bubble
The Less Flattering Version, Sun Valley, Creatures of Habit, Warren What's Wrong?
Part 2 - The Inner Scorecard
The Urge to Preach, The Bathtub Steeplechase, Armistice Day, A Thousand Ways, Inky Fingers, True Crime Stories, Pudgy She Was Not, Silent Sales, The Rules of the Racetrack, The Elephant, The Interview, Strike One, Mount Everest, Miss Nebraska, Stage Fright
Part 3 - The Racetrack
Graham-Newman, The Side to Play, Hidden Splendor, The Omaha Club, The Locomotive, The Windmill War, Haystacks of Gold, Folly, Dry Tinder, What a Worsted Is, Jet Jack, The Scaffold Sways the Future, Easy Safe Profitable and Pleasant, The Unwinding
Part 4 - Susie Sings
Candy Harry, The Sun, Two Drowned Rats, Newshound, Spaghetti Western, The Giant, How Not to Run a Public Library, And Then What?, Blue Ribbon
Part 5 - The Kings of Wall Street
Pharaoh, Rose, Call the Tow Truck, Rubicon, White Nights, Thumb-sucking and It's Hollow-Cheeked Result, The Angry Gods, The Lottery, To Hell with the Bear, Chickenfeed
Part 6 - Claim Checks
The Genie, Semicolon, The Last Kay Party, By the Rich for the Rich, Oracle, Buffetted, Winter, Frozen Coke, The Seventh Fire, Claim Checks
Afterword

Notes
A Personal Note about Research
Photo Credits and Permissions
Acknowledgments
Index

Glossary edit see section history

  • Arbitrage: The purchase of currencies, securities, or commodities in one market for immediate resale in others in order to profit from unequal prices.
  • Hedge fund: A flexible investment company for a small number of large investors (usually the minimum investment is $1 million); can use high-risk techniques (not allowed for mutual funds) such as short-selling and heavy leveraging.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Alice Schroeder (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Bantam
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2008
ISBN: 0553805096
Page Count: 976

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: HG172.B84
  • Dewey: 332.6092

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs
  • Goldman Sachs : The Culture of Success
  • The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means
  • Hot, Flat, and Crowded

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements
  • The Warren Buffett Way
  • Warren Buffett's Management Secrets
  • Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha
  • Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist
  • The New Buffettology
  • The Real Warren Buffett: Managing Capital, Leading People
  • The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets From the Berkshire Hathaway Managers
  • Even Buffett Isn't Perfect: What You Can---And Can't---Learn from the World's Greatest Investor
  • Warren Buffett - The Oracle of Omaha (Biography)
  • Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffet
  • Warren Buffett: An Illustrated Biography of the World's Most Successful Investor

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • The Intelligent Investor
  • The Intelligent Investor
  • Benjamin Graham on Investing: The Early Works of the Father of Value Investing

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