Warren Buffett

“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No.1.”

It is true that Buffet is known as one of the greatest investors. Yet take a closer at youth attributes, instinct and activities. You may agree at the end of this tribute, he is indeed an entrepreneur. Multi-billionaire, Warren Buffet does not hide the fact that his goals are to amass wealth. In fact, it is his mission and his skill is the reason that investors back him and the holding company he manages.

In 2008 Warren Buffett was ranked the richest person in the world. He made his fortune from investing in the stock market and buying out companies.

"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."

Even as a child Buffett displayed an interest in making and saving money. He went door to door selling chewing gum, Coca-Cola, or weekly magazines. For a while he worked in his grandfather's grocery store. While still in high school, he carried out several successful money-making ideas: delivering newspapers, selling golfballs and stamps, and detailing cars among them. Filing his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route.

Buffett's interest in the stock market and investing also dated to his childhood, to the days he spent in the customers' lounge of a regional stock brokerage near the office of his father's own brokerage company. On a trip to New York at the age of ten he made a point to visit the New York Stock Exchange. And about this same time he purchased shares of Cities Service for himself and his sister.

He tried to get a position with Graham’s firm and was at first unsuccessful. He finally got the job and, as he generously acknowledges, learned a lot about stock investment from The Master. Graham eventually retired and Buffett started a limited partnership in Omaha, using capital contributed by family and friends. The partnership was a great success and Buffett is said to have averaged an annual rate of return for the partnership in excess of 23 per cent, far in excess of the market.

Buffett, after several years, decided to wind up the partnership, returning the lucky investors their capital and their share of the profits, and bought an interest in Berkshire Hathaway, a textile company, giving his original investors the chance to invest. The smart ones did so. Buffett’s early days at Berkshire Hathaway were not great. The company was in an industry facing real challenges from exports and high manufacturing costs. Warren Buffett had not, however, forgotten what he had learned under Graham, and arranged for the company to buy out two Nebraska insurance companies. This was the start of Buffett’s interest in insurance and the rise to financial fame of both himself and Berkshire Hathaway.