Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,000+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor
When he was eleven years old, Warren Buffett made his first investment. He’d saved $120 from entrepreneurial endeavors like selling soda and peanuts. So he studied the price charts and confidently made his purchase. But as it often happens, the stocks dipped, immediately losing value. When they rose again to slightly above what he paid, Buffett panicked and sold at a profit of $5. Shortly after that, the stock value skyrocketed.
He’d learned two tough lessons: He would never again obsess over what he paid for a stock. And he would never sell for anything less than a substantial profit.
After that, everything Warren Buffett touched seemed to turn to gold. Not that he didn’t work for it – he graduated college and then fought for a position at Graham-Newman Corporation, where he got his real education in trading. Then, at the age of 25, he started his first limited liability partnership with a $100 investment and the simple goal of beating the Dow Jones by 10 percent a year. He ended up beating it by 22 percent – and, over a 12 year period, grew his investment to $25 million.
In 1965, four years before ending the partnership, Buffett bought Berkshire Hathaway, which had begun in 1889 as a cotton manufacturer. As the textile part of the business was slowly dying, Buffett made a decision that would shape the rest of his life. In 1967, he bought up the outstanding stock in two decently healthy firms: National Indemnity Company and National Fire & Marine Insurance Company. It was a dramatic departure from textiles – and it took Berkshire Hathaway from $2.9 million in securities to $5.4 million in just two years. This decision set the company on course to becoming the investing giant it is today.
From his first limited liability investment of $100, Warren Buffett is now worth over $100 billion. Many people consider him to be a systemic anomaly. There’s a long-accepted school of thought in the investor world called the Efficient Market Hypothesis that says you can’t beat the market. And Buffett himself expresses that he won a genetic lottery, having the right skills in the right moment in time to flourish.
That said, the rest of this Blink will explore Buffett’s ability to beat the market not with chance, but with skill.
The Warren Buffett Way (2013) chronicles the unprecedented success of one of the world’s greatest investors. From his first $120 investment to his ultimate $120 billion net worth, it focuses on the history and strategies of the man who seemed to do the impossible: beat the market.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,000+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trialBlink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma