Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist

"Investment is most intelligent when it is most businesslike", Warren Buffett's teacher, Benjamin Graham, once wrote.
This book is a fantastic biography of Warren Buffett. I think anyone who wants to learn about Warren Buffett or his investment techniques etc should first read this book before anything else (including his essays).
This book is written time-chronogically, from the time around the early 1930s (Buffett was born in August 1930) to around 1994. Here we can observe how Buffett had a great desire to be rich since he was young, but in his teen years, after being involved in several business ventures, he longed for a method which is more consistent in making money.
Meeting Benjamin Graham when he was 19/20 years old solved this longing for Buffett. He became a devoted investor in businesses since then. After working under Graham for several years, Buffett began a partnership (noticed how confident he was, despite his young age, to be successful) when he was 26 years old (in 1956) and achieved a 29.4% compounded annual return in the fund (he dissolved the partnership in 1969). During these 14 years, Buffett learnt which businesses (like those possessing customer franchise - Buffett called these with "Deep moats around the castles") were better than others. He dissolved his partnership in 1969 as he deemed the market to be very overvalued then.
From then on, he used the lessons he had learnt to purchase great businesses at reasonable (or cheap) prices, such as Nebraska Furniture Mart, Washington Post, Cap Cities, etc.
To fully enjoy this book, the reader should stop at certain chapters, and read other - yes, other - related books. For instance, around after I had finished reading chapter 3, 'Graham', I read Ben Graham's 'Intelligent Investor'. Also, when Phil Fisher was mentioned as one of the strongest influencers in Buffett's life, I read his book 'Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits'. The readers can get more insights from reading it this way.
Mr. Lowenstein also took excursions when discussing Buffett to go through discussions about certain business characteristics, to ensure that the readers can fully appreciate Mr. Lowenstein's perceived motivation behind a certain Buffett action etc. Mr. Lowenstein also helped the reader to be more knowledgable about key points about US stockmarket history through interesting dissertations. I found these excursions extremely enlightening.
Mr. Lowenstein's writing style is also very 'flowing' - he changed from one topic to another in a very smooth way. You've got to read it to understand what I'm saying.
Lastly, I just want to say that the readers should have at least a moderate-to-strong knowledge and interest in business (and investing; but business = investing and investing = business) to fully appreciate this book. Enjoy!

For me this was the best of about 6 stock market investment books I bought after selecting from a list of books touted by Morningstar.com as good reading. I read this book straight after reading Ban Grahams book, The Intelligent Investor.
The latter is regarded as essential reading for security analysts, money managers, etc. but I found it relatively heavy going. Seeing Ben Graham was Warren Buffett's inspiration I thought it better to read this first before moving onto Roger Lowenstein's book about Buffett.
Here, I saved the best until last because this book is mind blowing, even though all the principles espoused by the great Ben Graham are detailed in Roger Lowenstein's book. Therein lies the difference - this book is easy to read & Ben's principles, which Warren Buffett endorses, are put in a perspective, which hit you immediately between the eyes-just like a revelation.
The first few chapters I found a bit tedious but once I had past these, the book was riveting. Whilst a biography, it has plenty of "how to" investment information & will certainly make you into a bettor stock market investor. It is the best book one can read if you have not done any investing in stocks yet-merely to avoid the mistakes & bad habits other stock investors have made & I speak for myself.
One understands how Buffet avoided the Dot.com crash & why. Possibly the most interesting thing for me is that Buffet believes that NO ONE can call the market. He says its silly to rely on investment strategies like buying shares on a Monday is better than a Friday & that investing in small caps in December will likely reap you a fortune. And you should watch out for October. Whilst the latter comments are trite, there are huge numbers of books written exclusively about investment cycles & when to make calls - this book puts that technical stuff into perspective & for me this was tremendously thought provoking.
I first read this book in December of 2001 when the tech. stock boom was on the wane. I was a committed "growth" investor until I read this book. I am now unashamedly a "value" investor. This book has completely changed the way I have thought about stock market investments & I am intensely relieved to have come across it before making more baseless investment decisions.
I have read this book three times. I have since read about four other books on Warren Buffett's investment "styles" & this one is still the best.

Buffett is a fantastic biography on one of the 20th century's most well-known investors. Far from being just a financial volume or a how-to-invest-like-Buffett, Lowenstein's work is a genuine biography, and a very well-written one at that. That's not to say one cannot learn something about Buffett's investing style by reading this book; in fact, I believe I learned more about how the man has been so successful from this book than from any other source on Buffett.

The great strength in Lowenstein's biography is that he highlights just what Buffett is-an anomaly. His success on Wall Street is unique, and not merely because that success happened from a couple thousand miles away in Omaha. No, Lowenstein recognizes Buffett for the remarkable man that he is, and analyzes Buffett's character in a way that, if you pay attention, actually explains how to "win" like Buffett has. Lowenstein highlights various attributes in Buffett's personality-his honesty, his amazing ability to keep things simple and find the "inherent value" in companies he analyzes, and his old-fashioned value finding approach to name a few-and examines them both in the context of Buffett's personal life and in his business life. The result is very intriguing, and the resulting impression is that Buffett succeeded on the Street because of who he was, both on and off. While this book may not spell out for you the criteria to invest like Buffett, it certainly shows, with great clarity, what kind of man it takes to be Warren Buffett. The fact that it's a very interesting read and an excellent biography only add to its appeal.

Thorough, thoughtful, well-written biography of the greatest investor in last 50 years. Educational, thought-provoking and entertaining. My only criticism is that it is a little slow. That may be an unfair comment in that I had just finished Liar's Poker and The New New Thing by Michael Lewis. This is more of a traditional biography with deep detail.

That's the return an investor would have if they invested with Buffett at the beginning of his career in 1956 and held until the end of 1995. In 2006 it would be more like $250 million +. Buffett is a patient, disciplined and extremely rational investor who says his favorite holding period is "forever" and once wrote that he would no more take an investment banker's opinion on whether to do a deal than he would ask a barber whether he needed a haircut.

Warren made the comment while still young that he would be a millionaire by the age of thirty or he would jump off the tallest building in Omaha. Throughout his career, even though he had a burning desire to be extremely wealthy he never forgot concepts that were instilled in him from his father and grandfather, such as the belief that your credit and your word is far better than money.

In 1945 while only 14 he was earning $175 a month from his paper route (just under $2000 in today's dollars) and took the profit and bought 40 acres of Nebraska farmland. By the time he graduated high school he was involved in three businesses and had read over 100 books on business.

By 1956 he had turned his $9,800 savings into $140,000. He left his mentor / idol, Ben Graham and his White Plains NY apartment and headed back to Omaha. By 1957 he set up shop and was running $300,000. By 1964 he was managing $22 million and his personal net worth was approaching $4 million and by the time he was 35 years old in 1966 he managed $44 million and was worth $6.8 million.

In 1967 he was 37 years old, worth $10 million and managing $65 million. In 1968 the Buffett partnership had a gain of $40 million or 59% and he was managing $104 million. By 1970 when he wound up the partnership because he felt the market was nuts (extremely overvalued) an investor that started with him in 1957 would have had a compounded annual return of 29.5% compared with 7.4% for the Dow. For those investors that were wise or lucky enough to stay with him by taking their shares in Berkshire Hathaway instead of cashing out the ride was just getting started.

For a more complete timeline and chronicle of events see my blog: [...] I cut it a bit short here for courtesy's sake.

The wisdom packed into this book is priceless, event though its not earth shattering or revolutionary. The ideas are things we have all probably heard before, its just that Warren lived them. Maybe its best describes by Warren's partner Charlie Munger in his recent book, Poor Charlie's Almanak where he describes his decision making process as running an idea through a hundred or so mental disciplines or beliefs before deciding whether to act on it. For example Buffett tells his son one day, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

A few great quotes worth remembering:

"With enough inside information and a million dollars you can go broke in a year"

When asked how he does it, Buffett replies, "By reading a couple thousand financial statements a year"

What counted to Buffett was, "Profit as a percentage of capital invested" he said, "I'd rather have a $10 million business making 15% than a $100 million business making 5%, I have other places I can put the money"

In 1970 with the dissolution of Buffett Partnership, Buffett personally became the owner of 29% of Berkshire's stock and for the first time composed the letters to shareholders. Which I highly recommend reading, as this was Buffett's stage throughout the years to preach his view on investing.

During a Q&A for GEICO executives Buffett said, "An investor should approach the stock market as if he had a lifetime punch card. Every time he bought a stock he punched a hole. When the card had 20 holes he was done-no more investing for life. Obviously the investor would filter out every idea but the best."

In an essay for Forbes in 1979 after a prolonged bear market, and after Business Week ran the celebrated cover story, "The Death of Equities" Buffett said, "The future is never clear; you pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus. Uncertainty actually is the friend of the buyer of long term values."

Interestingly when a friend suggested that Buffett try his hand at real estate, Buffett grinned. "Why should I buy real estate when the stock market is so easy?"

Probably the most memorable and important quote, especially for business owners is on page 245:

"Regardless of price, we have no interest at all in selling any good businesses that Berkshire owns, and are very reluctant to sell sub-par businesses as long as we expect them to generate at least some cash..."

I think I'm going to hang that up in my office under a printout of Berkshire's annual performance.

Again, for a more complete listing of the Buffett Pearls see my Blog :
[...] I cut it a bit short here for courtesy's sake. I also have a list of Buffett's and Munger's recommended reading.

By Kevin Kingston, author of, A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate: A True Story About the Ups And Downs from Wall Street to Real Estate Leading Up to Phenomenal Returns

If you are looking for a romantic story about Warren Buffet's life, this is the right book for you. If you're looking for clear cut investment lessons from a great investor, buy The Warren Buffet Way written by Hagstrom.

Let me start by saying that anyone interested in understanding Warren Buffett needs to read this book before anything else. The reason is simple. This is a pure biography - it doesnt try to influence you to think one way or another - it simply tells you the whole story about Warren Buffett and leaves you to draw your own conclusions.
Though once you have established a knowledgeable unbiased view of WB and if you are interested in knowing more about WB's investment methods and their analyses - you should go on to read other texts by Ben Grapham Phil Fisher among others.
Another important point is that the book is becoming a bit dated (ends in 1994). I think another edition is sorely needed as many important events have taken place in the last 8 years, not to mention the dotcom bubble - a time when WB was said to have lost his art.
Also if the author does come out with another edition he would do well to include some analyses in it. Nothing much but simple charts etc giving a factual account of WB's investments like PE, BV and other ratios and sales, profits etc of companies in which WB invested at and near the time of investment.
Overall I was greatly impressed with the work and recommend it to everyone interested in investing and WB.

The gain in net of Berkshire Hathaway, the company led by Warren Buffet, worth during 2006 was $16.9 billion, which increased the per-share value of 18.4%. Over the last 42 years value has grown from $19 to $70,281, a rate of 21.4% compounded annually. Consider that $16.9 billion is a record for a one-year gain in net worth - more than has ever been booked by any American business, leaving aside boosts that have occurred because of mergers. Of course, Berkshire did not outperform S&P500 constantly. In 1967, 1975, 1980, 1999, 2003, 2004 the S&P gave better performance, and in 2001 Berkshire even was at a loss of 6.2%.

This book, "Buffett: The making of an American capitalist" covers very deeply the values that led Warren Buffet during his life from his early childhood. The book is not only a biography per se, but a good manual on investing, that uncovers most aspects, with the detailed explanations and samples, of investing.

This book also covers very well personal traits of Warren Buffett, his attitudes toward parents, sister, friends, parents, children and wife. For example, Warren bought a farm and rented it to his son Howie on standard commercial terms. The farm was a joyful refuge to Howie, but he couldn't get Warren to share the experience with him. "I can't get him to come out and see how the crops are going", Howie said plaintively. Warren went only twice in six years. He would laugh off Howies's invitations, saying, "Send me a rent check, and make sure it's big enough". Though he had been thoughtful enough to buy the farm, he couldn't give Howie the fatherly recognition that he craved in other than financial terms.

In his investment strategy, Warren uses the concept that he calls "Intrinsic value" of a company. According to Warren Buffet, intrinsic value is an all-important concept that offers the only logical approach to evaluating the relative attractiveness of investments and businesses. Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life.

Here is what Kenneth L. Fisher wrote about Buffet's investment strategy: a quality standing out about Mr. Buffett is his ability to morph. If you read his materials from the 1960s, he said very different things than in the 1970s and early-1980s. Early on he was buying dirt-cheap stocks by simple statistical standards and typically smaller stocks--which would today be referred to as smallcap value (although that term didn't exist until the late 1980s). Later he bought what he called "franchises." Then he entered a period of buying great managements of big companies and being a long-term holder--otherwise thought of as big-cap growth today--that many ascribed to the influence of my father coupled with Charlie Munger. When Mr. Buffett was buying Coke and Gillette, you couldn't quite reconcile those activities with the kinds of things he owned two decades earlier. Then, amazingly, seven years ago, at just the right time, he was buying smaller things dirt cheap again just as value came back into play as the twenty-first century began. I have other comments about Mr. Buffett throughout this book but I'd like you to see, while he never lost the core of what he was doing or what he was looking for, he tactically morphed steadily over the decades. Trying to freeze his tactics from any decade and replicate them in the next few would never have led you to his actual actions.

In addition to this book, I also recommend the letters to shareholders written by Warren Buffet, which can be taken from the website of Berkshire Hathaway. If you take an audio record of this title, it will not be as good as the textbook. The audio is more biographical and pays less attention to the investment education of the listener.

I've read a lot of books about Warren Buffett and this is by far my favorite. If you have to read only one, read this one.

Lowenstein presents us with a book about Warren Buffett, the greatest investor of the 20th century. The book takes us on a trek through Buffett's life, from his childhood interest in money, to his successful investing and business ventures in college, to his partnership, and then to his days at Berkshire.
Through this look at how the 2nd richest man in the world acquired his fortune, we as investors stand to gain a lot. The book is a great look at how prudently selecting stocks and sticking to fundamentals can help us choose the right companies to invest in.
And for those finance nerds like myself out there, this book will prove to be a very fascinating read about Buffett's life and the companies he has invested in (and subsequently made successful). Great book!