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Summary: An exelent account. Could do with slightly more on the deals
Review: A very good book. You feel as though you have listed to a great teacher as you read this account
Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book, found it totally inspiring and full of usefull tips. The content is never drawn out and allows for a good solid pacy read. The insight the reader is given into the family life of Mr Buffet is also very interesting and left me with the warm feeling that just like most families the Buffet's are dead ordinary.
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Summary: Read about an original home-based entrepreneur.
Review: He's perhaps the most successful self-published author in the world. His books cost several thousand dollars and up. He's the world's most successful work-at-homer (he started out in a home office in the 1950s, way before it was cool). That he has entrepreneurial instincts there can be no doubt. We're talking about publishing wunderkind, Warren Buffett. Is it no coincidence that this formerly low-profile investor from Omaha, Nebraska has achieved pop icon status around the same time that working Americans are questioning and re-evaluating their own economic status and security in light of their career investments in time, money, and education? Roger Lowenstein is a Buffet biographer who was somewhat surprised when sales of his book passed the 100,000 mark. "I guess I underestimated the number of people out there who want to get rich in the stock market," he said. His paperback edition of Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, will hopefully begin to pay dividends for Doubleday's Main Street Books imprint this month. Warren Buffet is a well-known author to stockholders in his Berkshire Hathaway investment vehicle. He writes lengthy, folksy, and astutely analytical annual reports that stand in marked contrast to the PR-speak of most such documents. Some pay thousands of dollars for one share of Berkshire so they can read his annual missives. Lowenstein, a Wall Street Journal columnist, was a longtime reader who yearned to write about Buffet at length. Buffett did not share Lowenstein's enthusiasm so did not cooperate with the book. But he didn't try to interfere, either, according to the author. "He was inadvertantly an entrepreneur, "said Lowenstein. "He started out as a guy in Omaha going around trying to raise money from people who were impressed with his self-confidence and brightness, and he worked out of his study. He had a neightbor named Don Keough, who later became president of the Coca-Cola Company. Buffett told him, 'have you ever thought about these great kids you have, w! ho's gonna provide for 'em? Maybe you oughta give me some of your money and let me invest it.' Keough thought about it and talked with his wife about it, and he knew that Buffett was right, but he told me he just couldn't get over the hump of giving money to somebody who sat around all day in a t-shirt. "Buffett spent the day in his study when the respectable folk wore a coat and tie to the office. So Keogh didn't invest...After about 5 or 6 years Buffet got an office and he's in the same office his whole career. It's two miles from his house, so it's almost as if he just lengthened the corridor. He doesn't lose much time commuting." Home officing and entrepreneuring doesn't get much more successful than this.
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Summary: An interesting insight!
Review: An insightful book into an amazing man. My first exposure to the man that is Warren Buffet, that has changed the way I will look at investing. Now all we need is an indepth look at Buffet by the man himself!!
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Summary: A masterful biography!!
Review: The work of a genius about a genius. This book will change your life!
Rating:
Summary: An ultimately excellent book that will change my life.
Review: As a Chinese guy, I have little chance to read latest books about American Big Shots. I was shocked by this book and by this man, Warren Buffet. I will try my best to follow him in the future. Joe Lee Huawei Technology Company Shenzhen, GD P.R.China
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Summary: The best investor of all time.
Review: So many people want to invest for a better future. But so few have patience and willingness to do a research on their stocks. Investing in stocks is nothing like most people think, they only wish to see their investment go up quickly. He looks at stock as a part ownership of a company. Unlike millions other who buy-and-sell their shares to "protect" their profits. He holds on to his shares far longer because he sees it as a part of a business. This is a must for anyone who want to be successful in stock investing.
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Summary: My Review
Review: Warren Buffett is probably the most well known stock investor ever in American history. He is currently second richest person in the U.S. with a net worth of about 17 billion. Buffett is respected and admired by everyone in the investment and business community ranging from amateur investors to the most well known gurus such as Peter Lynch and Bill Gates. He would definitely considered as a benchmark in the investment world and stands alone as being the most successful investor ever.
Buffett's method of investing was and is totally different from that almost every other stock trader. At a time when savvy traders bought and dumped stocks hour by hour, Buffett followed only a few companies, staying with them for years and years. Buffett's methods are in many ways totally opposite from conventional wisdom, which is probably the main reason for his success. His innovative, yet simple ways, and his lack of interest in conforming to the norm has allowed him to build one of the biggest fortunes ever. The story of Warren Buffett almost reads like a fairy tale with him starting out with virtually nothing and no business influence in his family. From his humble beginnings running investment partnerships, to the creation of his vast empire, Warren has always found a way to succeed and to beat all the odds. He outperformed the market during good times and bad, watching his fortunes grow steadly while others where caught in the excitement of a surge, or suffering from the ravages of a crash.
This book is generally a biography of Buffett although it also gives the reader great insights into Buffett's investment strategies. It takes you through a chronological journey of Buffett's life up till now and masterfully traces it event by event. The author of this book was Roger Lownestein who is a well-know columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He wrote the book independent of Buffett's help relying solely on people who knew Warren. This book was a bestseller when it first came out and is probably the best book about Buffett so far.
The book starts off telling about Buffett's background and childhood. We learn of Warren's photographic memory and his capacity for numbers. Buffett's early business endeavors were also recounted from his massive paper route, to his golf ball business, and his pinball machine "monopoly".
One great inspiration and catalyst for Buffett as an investor was Benjamin Graham. He was considered the "father of securities analysis" having pioneered many of the investment strategies of our time. Graham taught Buffett in collage and later employed Buffett for a short period of time. Although Buffett was greatly influenced by Graham, he later developed his own methods, which were quite different from Grahams but still included his fundamental ideas. Warren went on to return to Omaha in 1957 and started his investment partnership with just $300,000 in capital. But success soon came to him swiftly and very dramatically.
The rest of the book explains how Buffett evolved from Graham's ideas to develop his own beliefs in buying solid companies at reasonable prices for the long term. Buffet's investments and influences in such well known companies as American Express, Washington Post, Gillette, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, GEICO, and many others, were explored in the book and acted to inform, as well as educate the reader. Lowenstein also explained how Buffett used the company Berkshire Hathaway (a textile manufacture) as the main vehicle to build his empire. After taking over the company, Buffett slowly converted Berkshire from a manufacturer to purely an investment company. Since 1962, Berkshire shares grew from a measly $8 to the incredible price of over $30 000 a share today. This was a prime example of Buffett's unique methods, showing how he can turn a textile company, to an investment powerhouse. One thing about this book that made it interesting was how the author reveled Buffett's unusual and complex personality. Buffett was portrayed as a person who was modest, overly focused, and extremely conservative. Warren was so set in his ways that even though he was a billionaire; his favorite drink was still Pepsi, and didn't care for life's luxuries. Buffett also doesn't enjoy money the way most people do. He saw money as merely a measure of his success and feared that it would corrupt his family.
I found this book surprisingly easy to read despite its complex subject matter. The fact that it's a biography allows the reader to slowly absorb the business aspect of the book, without getting bored or overwhelmed. It allowed the reader go inside the mind and life the most successful investor and discover his uniqueness and modesty. My interest in business and achieving success first brought me to read this book. But this book went beyond just reveling Buffett's investment strategies and really showed what he was like as a person. I would recommend this book not only for people interested in business but also for anyone who ever wondered how the truly "great" people accomplished their seemingly impossible feats. If nothing else, the reader comes away having learned about the life of a very unique and interesting person.
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Summary: Inspiring- Highlights Strength of Character for Success
Review: An amazing story which leaves in the dust other "Buffett" books, notably "The Warren Buffett Way" (which is more like a Street Analyst trying to "predict" Warren Buffett- albeit after the fact). Roger Lowenstein's book reads like a Harold Robbins novel, in terms of the story and the manner in which it is told. Also, the author never loses sight of the fact that Buffett neither assisted nor obstructed the book. This is seen in the way he writes about Buffett's personal life. Using the knowledge from his years of Wall Street Journalism experience, Lowenstein makes it really simple for a layman such as me, what is unique about Warren Buffett, and how ridiculous almost everyone else on the Wall Street has sounded over the years.
But the wisdom I've gained from this book is that the single most important factor that contributed to Warren Buffett's success was not his mathematical ability or the teachings of Ben Graham, but his own "Strength of Character" - his complete Honesty, Unwavering Adherence to his Principles in the face of contrarian beliefs by the rest of the world and testing times, total Dedication to Work, and Incredible Patience.
Warren Buffett has blown away the common notion that if you believe in and practice honesty, faithfulness, and simplicity, you can't become rich.
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Summary: An amazing American capitalist with principles.
Review: The amazing securities investment analyst Warren Buffett is the focus of this near hagiographic biography that is filled with details about the life of an American capitalist that rivals the likes of Carnegie, Ford, or Morgan. Lowenstein has done a remarkable job in telling the financial story of Buffett's rise to securities fame, although not as much about his actual strategy (that's another story). The early years depict a precocious child adept at numbers in a household rich with a domineering mother and business-minded father. Buffett's early investments, his famous relationship with Katherine Graham of The Washington Post, his role in the Capital Cities purchase of ABC, his rescue of the Solomon Brothers, and his unique personal relationship with his wife all make for a highly interesting, fascinating tale, sure to be a hit in schools of business. Buffett's securities firm stock value has ranged from a meager $7, to an estimated 1994 value of over $20,000 per share, evidence enough of the sagacious leadership of this preeminent securities specialist. During the reckless '80s, Buffett's principle-centered approach to building value never wavered, thus solidifying his fame. James Lurie's powerful reading is dead on, evoking the power of this man's singular character. Highly recommended.
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