Breaking down the career and key investment strategies from one of the greatest investors in history.

RATING: 4/5

CHECK IT OUT: GOODREADS or AMAZON

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Buffet believes that investors must be financially and psychologically prepared to deal with the market’s volatility. Buffet believes that unless you can watch your stock holdings decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.

• “Invest for the long term.” Simpson pays no attention to the stock market and never tries to predict short-term market movements. “In many ways the stock market is like the weather in that if you don’t like the current conditions all you have to do is wait awhile.” 

• “Lethargy bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style.”

• “An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just 20 punches on it. With every investment decision his card is punched, and he has one fewer available for the rest of his life.” 

• Uncontrolled optimism can lead to mania, and one of the chief characteristics of mania is its inability to recall the lessons of history. 

• “Beware of past performance proofs in finance, If history books were the key to riches, the Forbes 500 would consist of librarians.” 

• What Buffet learned from Graham was that successful investing involved the purchase of stocks when the market price of those stocks was at a significant discount to the underlying business value. 

• “You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.” -Benjamin Graham

• Because the availability of attractive business opportunities is limited, Buffet wants Berkshire to be prepared. “If you want to shoot rare, fast-moving elephants, you should always carry a gun.” 

• “In evaluating people you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.“ 

• In 1991, the airline industry lost more money in one year than had been made in aggregate since the Wright brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk. 

• “The reasonable man adapt himself to the world. The unreasonable one persist in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -George Bernard Shaw