Warren Buffett and his investment corporation Berkshire Hathaway are the stuff of legends. He grew an investment portfolio from just over $100,000 into a $100+ billion enterprise over several decades. He invested primarily in businesses that were undervalued when he bought them but rose in value in the years after he bought them. His investments routinely outperformed the market, often by double-digit percentages. He lived in a humble house in Omaha, Nebraska, and eschewed many of the trappings of wealth. Like a preacher, he was well-known for his short sayings of homespun wisdom. Schroeder’s book seeks to provide first-hand accounts of his life before the original source material is no more. At 800+ pages (or 38 hours), she provides plenty of primary material that will excite readers and biographers for generations to come.
Buffett’s passion was making money. It was not feeling proud about money or having greed, but rather, it centered on maximizing the value of an investment. This, to him, was an intellectual obsession, much as other academic obsessions can grip noteworthy scientists and inventors. Otherwise, he sought to root for the little guy. Under the persuasion of his wife Susie, he switched early in life from the Republican party to become a Democrat. He bequeathed most of his great fortune primarily with the Gates Foundation for anonymous use instead of endowing educational buildings and institutions with his name on them.
As with most people who make a lot of money, controversy accompanied him. One business ran into trouble with the SEC in the 1980s, and another ran afoul of the SEC in the late 2000s. Seemingly (and Schroeder presents detailed evidence to support this contention), Buffett remained unaware of the wrongdoings until it came up in investigations. He was generally generous with his family, but he believed that their worth should be built around what they did and not who their ancestors were. Schroeder does ding him on being unnecessarily mean to some of his adopted grandchildren. (Perhaps that has resolved after the book was published.) Different readers might reach different conclusions, but Schroeder’s evidence persuaded me that Buffett was – and still is – an upstanding individual.
This biography fills the need for documentation of Buffett’s life while he was still alive. Although it is nearly 15 years old now, it still serves as the best repository of facts and primary accounts about his life. Schroeder seems to have had good access to the inner workings of Berkshire Hathaway and the Buffett family. Although a friend, her objectivity as a biographer seems no more in jeopardy than that of most biographers. Other business writers might attack this or that matter in his legacy, but her comprehensive view of the man will likely never be paralleled or surpassed. This book will likely remain the seminal work on Buffett’s legacy written while he is alive. Business audiences and admirers alike will benefit from learning his principles in the context of his life story. Thanks to Schroeder, we have a nuanced account of what it looked like.
Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
By Alice Schroeder
Narrated by Kirsten Potter
Copyright (c) 2008
Random House Audio
ASIN B001GSJSC6
Length: 37:58
Genre: Biography, Business
www.amazon.com