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POWER IN Business/Entrepreneurship: Warren Buffet
Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
By: Andrew Fiouzi
It is clear that any discussion regarding individual success begins and ends with the name Warren Buffett.  He has created a legacy that outstretches even the wildest dreams of success.  Ranked by Forbes as the second richest person in the world, Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors in history.  Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett from an early age displayed an aptitude for money and business along with an amazing ability to calculate numbers off the top of his head. At only six years old, Buffett purchased six packs of Coca Cola from his grandfather's grocery store for twenty five cents and resold each of the bottles for a nickel, pocketing a five cent profit. While other children his age were playing hopscotch and jacks, Warren was making money. Five years later, Buffett took his step into the world of high finance.  Buffet states, “I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute.”  

Buffett began his studies at the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and then went on to the Columbia University to do a Masters in economics where he met the influential value investor Benjamin Graham. Buffett began working at his company, Graham-Newman, and it was here that he developed many of his stock market investing skills that have now become legendary. In 1956, at the age of twenty five, Buffett returned to Omaha and began a limited investing fund partnership with a group of friends, family and associates. The Buffett Partnerships Ltd. fund racked up amazing returns for its investors over a ten year period, with returns 10 times higher than the Dow Jones Industrial average for the same time. Buffett then liquidated the fund and took control of the textile company Berkshire Hathaway.

His investment successes, particularly in buying undervalued companies whose stocks shortly began to rise, made him extremely rich and gained him the sobriquet, "Oracle of Omaha."  Today, as Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffet has created an empire that will surely be remembered for years to come.  Berkshire Hathaway now owns more than forty companies employing more than 150,000 people. “It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price,” suggests Buffett.  It is clear Buffett’s determination and creativity has made him the success story he is today—along with 2 simple rules: “Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget Rule No.1.”  In 1999, Buffett was named the top money manager of the twentieth century in a survey by the Carson Group.   

In the case of Warren Buffett, the phrase “givers gain,” has also never been truer.  Claiming, “There's nothing material I want very much. And I'm going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity.” Warren Buffett is a strong advocate of using wealth and power to induce change.   In 2006, Buffet announced a plan to give away his fortune to charity, with 85% of it going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  This donation became the largest act of charitable giving in United States history. Furthermore, Buffett’s children will not inherit a significant amount of his wealth; rather Buffet will have his wealth passed to his own charity called the Buffett Foundation.  


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