The Snowball summary

If there’s one thing that fascinated Warren more than numbers, it was money.

When he was nine years old, Warren was already making money by selling packs of gum and bottles of Coke to his neighbors. A year later, he was selling peanuts at football games at the University of Omaha.

Considering Buffett’s all-consuming interest in money and numbers, it’s unsurprising that his classmates labeled him as a “Future Stockbroker” the high school yearbook.

It was also unsurprising that Buffett chose to study accounting and business at the University of Nebraska.

Throughout college, Buffett was uncomfortable around girls. His shyness was so severe that he even enrolled in a public speaking class, hoping it would boost his confidence and make him feel less awkward.

When he took this class, there was one young woman in particular that Buffett wanted to impress.

In his first year as his own boss, Buffett began a series of eight partnerships based on different sets of friends who gave him anywhere between $50,000 to $120,000 to invest.

Each time Buffett started a new partnership, he made sure everyone understood his philosophy.

One person who recognized Warren Buffett’s talents early on was Californian lawyer and part-time investor, Charlie Munger. The two like-minded individuals became fast friends after a long lunch in 1959 – a friendship that inevitably led to a fruitful business partnership.

Munger’s perspective opened Buffett’s eyes to bigger possibilities and helped him realize that you could still play it safe while moving beyond those “cigar butt” stocks.

Even though Buffett is closely associated with Berkshire Hathaway now, the company was so problematic that Buffett would come to regret ever getting involved with it.

But Buffett isn’t the kind of investor who likes to cut his losses, a philosophy that goes back to before his involvement with Berkshire Hathaway.

Even after Buffett became a millionaire, he remained a notoriously shabby dresser, a man utterly unconcerned with his outward appearance. Far more important to Buffett were the details and characteristics of the people who were in charge of his businesses.

Reliable businesses have reliable management, so when Buffett made his acquisitions, he made sure they were being run by good people.

Back when Buffett was delivering newspapers in Washington, DC, he dreamed of one day owning his own paper. And when he made $16 million in earnings in 1969, he was finally in a position to realize that dream.

That year, Buffett purchased a controlling interest in the Omaha Sun. Not only did this fulfill one of Buffett’s dreams; it would eventually lead to a cherished award.

When you’re as active an investor as Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, you’re bound to pick up a couple of troublesome companies.

When Munger noticed Blue Chip Stamps, it was 1968 and it was common for housewives to collect trading stamps – which functioned much like coupons – when they were at grocery stores and gas stations.

The increasingly close relationship between Warren Buffett and the Washington Post’s publisher, Kay Graham, initially upset Susie. But she eventually began a romance with her tennis instructor, and wrote a personal letter to Kay, telling her that she was free to have her own relationship with Buffett.

However, in 1977, with the children out of the house, Susie decided it was time for a radical change and made arrangements to move to San Francisco.

Another company that Buffett is now closely associated with is GEICO, an auto insurance company that Buffett first noticed back in college. It was actually one of the first stocks he recommended to clients during his brief time at his father’s old firm, but it wasn’t until the 1970s, when the company was in crisis, that he became closely involved.

In 1976, Buffett joined GEICO’s board to help it out of bankruptcy by revitalizing its management.

Warren Buffett’s reputation took a downward turn in the 1990s. As technology stocks became all the rage, Buffett remained utterly uninterested in the NASDAQ. People began saying he was behind the times, an irrelevant old man.

Remarkably, Buffett never concerned himself with these opinions, as he was doing just fine without technology stocks.

Buffett’s predictions about internet companies being a disappointment to investors were already coming true in the early 2000s, and the publications that called him irrelevant in 1994 were now rebranding him as a prophet.

But this turnaround wasn’t much comfort in 2001, when his dear friend and companion Kay Graham passed away.