What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett


Book Description

Expert advice for those who want to create a solid company Through hard work and determination Barnett Helzberg built his small family owned business-Helzberg Diamonds-into a successful company that caught the attention of Warren Buffett. Buffett was so impressed with the business that in 1995 he decided to purchase Helzberg Diamonds through his holding company Berkshire Hathaway. Helzberg shares his thirty years of experience in running a successful business and outlines the steps needed to prosper within a challenging business environment. Through "helpful hints" and words of wisdom, Helzberg offers a proven road map for entrepreneurs and business owners looking to build a solid company that will stand the test of time. What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett is a comprehensive guide that will help readers get their businesses on the right track. Barnett C. Helzberg Jr. (Kansas City, MO) was President of Helzberg Diamonds, Inc. from 1962 to 1995, a period during which he expanded his family-owned business to 143 stores in twenty-three states. His business practices have been a key ingredient to the success of Helzberg Diamonds.




One Thousand Ways to Make $1000


Book Description

First published in 1936, One Thousand Ways to Make $1000 is the long out-of-print book that Warren Buffett's biographers credit with shaping the legendary investor's business acumen and giving him his trademark appreciation of compound interest. After pulling a copy of One Thousand Ways off a library shelf at age eleven and devouring F.C. Minaker's plucky and practical business advice, Buffett declared that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 35. Written in the immediate, conversational style of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, this book is full of inventive ideas on how to make money through excellent salesmanship, hard work, and resourcefulness. While some of the ideas may seem quaint today-goat dairying, manufacturing motor-driven chairs, and renting out billiard tables to local establishments are among the money-making ideas presented- the underlying fundamentals of business explained in these pages remain as solid as they were over seventy years ago. Covering a wide spectrum of topics including investing, marketing, merchandising, sales, customer relations, and raising money for charity, One Thousand Ways to Make $1000 is both a durable, classic business book and a fascinating portrait of determined entrepreneurship in Depression-era America. Every effort has been made to reproduce the content exactly as it was originally presented.




How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy


Book Description

Foreword by Warren Buffett Develop a Highly Successful Business How do you take a good company and transform it into one that even the billionaire Warren Buffett would buy? Any entrepreneur will appreciate – indeed, love! – this fascinating story sharing the life lessons that Bill Child learned as he built R. C. Willey, a highly successful furniture business eventually bought out by the legendary Warren Buffett. Lessons on leadership, frugality, honesty, integrity, innovation, and customer service will inspire and motivate readers. Bill’s philosophies speak about how: • Character and work ethic carry more weight than resumes • Change is an essential ingredient for success in the retail industry • Companies that don’t adapt don’t last • Delegation is vital to growing a small business Jeff Benedict is considered one of America’s top investigative journalists. He has published several critically acclaimed books, and his articles have been published in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on ESPN, NBC Nightly News, CBS’s 60 Minutes, and ABC News. Currently, Jeff teaches creative writing at Southern Virginia University. He lives in Virginia with his wife and their four children.




The Essays of Warren Buffett


Book Description

The year 2015 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Berkshire Hathaway under Warren Buffett's leadership, a milestone worth commemorating. The tenure sets a record for chief executive not only in duration but in value creation and philosophizing. The fourth edition of The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America celebrates its twentieth anniversary. As the book Buffett autographs most, its popularity and longevity attest to the widespread appetite for this unique compilation of Buffett's thoughts that is at once comprehensive, non-repetitive, and digestible. New and experienced readers alike will gain an invaluable informal education by perusing this classic arrangement of Warren's best writings. The fourth edition's new material includes: Warren's 50th anniversary retrospective, in what Bill Gates called Warren's best letter ever, on conglomerates and Berkshire's future without Buffett; Charlie Munger's 50th anniversary essay on "The Berkshire System"; Warren's definitive defense of Berkshire's no-dividend practice; and Warren's best advice on investing, whether in apartments, farms, or businesses. "Larry Cunningham has done a great job at collating our philosophy." -- Warren Buffett "Larry Cunningham takes Buffett's brilliant letters to a still-higher level by organizing them into single-subject chapters. The book begins, moreover, with an excellent introduction by Larry." -- Carol Loomis "This is a very important book. I recommend it to everyone who is interested in learning about investing, corporate governance, and business judgement." -- Bill Ackman "The book on Buffett--a superb job." -- Forbes "Extraordinary--full of wisdom, humor, and common sense." -- Money "A classic on value investing and the definitive source on Buffett." -- Financial Times "Cunningham has done a truly commendable job distilling and organizing the essence of Buffett's letter to Berkshire shareholders...While the essays reviewed in the latest edition of this volume range across a broad assortment of topics, for most readers the most valuable part of this book will be Buffett's lessons and insights on investing. It is extraordinarily rewarding to be able to survey the accumulated wisdom of one of the world's most successful investors." -- Kevin M. LaCroix, The D&O Diary




The Mega Deals of Warren Buffett


Book Description

In THE MEGA DEALS OF WARREN BUFFETT, we trace Warren Buffett’s journey as he made Berkshire Hathaway the largest company in America. In this enthralling account, we follow Buffett’s investment deals over the decade from 1989 to 1998, as Berkshire shares jumped 14-fold from $4,700 to $68,000 and its market cap grew from $5 billion to $100 billion. This was a period of Buffett’s career when he was approaching normal retirement age. But far from slowing down, he was just hitting his stride. Buffett was as driven as ever to seek out great companies at good prices. By studying the decision-making that went into his investment deals, and the successful and unsuccessful outcomes, we can learn from Buffett and become better investors ourselves. In this decade, Buffett made investments in Wells Fargo, USAir, American Express, The Shoe Group, Helzberg Diamond Shops, RC Willey, FlightSafety International, Dairy Queen, NetJets, and General Re. For each of these deals, investing expert and Buffett historian Glen Arnold dives into unprecedented detail to analyse the investment process and the stories of the individuals involved. Arnold’s engaging, lucid style transports the reader to the time and place of the deals, to truly appreciate how Buffett was operating.




How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett: Profiting from the Bargain Hunting Strategies of the World's Greatest Value Investor


Book Description

A $10,000 investment in Warren Buffett's original 1956 portfolio would today be worth a staggering $250 million ... after taxes! What are his investing secrets? How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett contains the answers and shows, step-by-profitable-step, how any investor can follow Buffett's path to consistently find bargains in all markets: up, down, or sideways. How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett sticks to the basics: how Buffett continually finds bargain stocks passed over by others. Written by an actual financial analyst who uses Buffett's strategies professionally, this tactical how-to book includes: Comprehensive financial tools and information Strategy-packed "Buffett in action" boxes Buffett's own stock portfoliocontinually updated on the author's website!




The Essays of Warren Buffett


Book Description

In the third edition of this international best seller, Lawrence Cunningham brings you the latest wisdom from Warren Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. New material addresses: the financial crisis and its continuing implications for investors, managers and society; the housing bubble at the bottom of that crisis; the debt and derivatives excesses that fueled the crisis and how to deal with them; controlling risk and protecting reputation in corporate governance; Berkshire’s acquisition and operation of Burlington Northern Santa Fe; the role of oversight in heavily regulated industries; investment possibilities today; and weaknesses of popular option valuation models. Some other material has been rearranged to deepen the themes and lessons that the collection has always produced: Buffett’s “owner-related business principles” are in the prologue as a separate subject and valuation and accounting topics are spread over four instead of two sections and reordered to sharpen their payoff. Media coverage is available at the following links: Interviews/Podcasts: Motley Fool, click here. Money, Riches and Wealth, click here. Manual of Ideas, click here. Corporate Counsel, click here. Reviews: William J. Taylor, ABA Banking Journal, click here. Bob Morris, Blogging on Business, click here. Pamela Holmes, Saturday Evening Post, click here. Kevin M. LaCroix, D&O Diary, click here. Blog Posts: On Finance issues (Columbia University), click here. On Berkshire post-Buffett (Manual of Ideas), click here. On Publishing the book (Value Walk), click here. On Governance issues (Harvard University blog), click here. Featured Stories/Recommended Reading: Motley Fool, click here. Stock Market Blog, click here. Motley Fool Interviews with LAC at Berkshire's 2013 Annual Meeting Berkshire Businesses: Vastly Different, Same DNA, click here. Is Berkshire's Fat Wallet an Enemy to Its Success?, click here. Post-Buffett Berkshire: Same Question, Same Answer, click here. How a Disciplined Value Approach Works Across the Decades, click here. Through the Years: Constant Themes in Buffett's Letters, click here. Buffett's Single Greatest Accomplishment, click here. Where Buffett Is Finding Moats These Days, click here. How Buffett Has Changed Through the Years, click here. Speculating on Buffett's Next Acquisition, click here. Buffett Says “Chief Risk Officers” Are a Terrible Mistake, click here. Berkshire Without Buffett, click here.




The Great Mental Models, Volume 1


Book Description

Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.




Even Buffett Isn't Perfect


Book Description

A contrarian look at how Warren Buffett thinks about investing and related issues Warren Buffett is the most successful and revered investor of all time. His ability to consistently find undervalued companies has made him one of the world’s richest men. Despite many previous books about him, it’s rare to find an objective assessment—one that praises him when appropriate, but also recognizes that even Buffett makes mistakes. For instance, is he right to call for higher taxes and an end to earnings guidance? Should Buffett fans copy his avoidance of technology stocks? In this penetrating look at how Buffett thinks, Vahan Janjigian shows readers how to learn from the master’s best moves while avoiding strategies that don’t apply to small investors. And he explains Buffett’s favorite valuation methodology, the discounted cash flow model, and how it can significantly reduce the odds of overpaying for a stock.




The Snowball


Book Description

Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Prize 2008 The Snowball is the first and will be the only biography of the world's richest man, Warren Buffett, written with his full cooperation and collaboration. Combining a unique blend of "The Sage of Omaha's" business savvy, life story and philosophy, The Snowball is essential reading for anyone wishing to discover and replicate the secrets of his business and life success. Warren Buffett is arguably the world's greatest investor. Even as a child he was fascinated by the concept of risk and probability, setting up his first business at the age of six. In 1964 he bought struggling Massachusetts textile firm Berkshire Hathaway and grew it to be the 12th largest corporation in the US purely through the exercise of sound investing principles - a feat never equalled in the annals of business. Despite an estimated net worth of around US$62 billion, Buffett leads an intriguingly frugal life taking home a salary of only £50,000 a year. His only indulgence is a private jet, an extravagance he wryly acknowledges by calling it "The Indefensible". In 2006, he made the largest charitable donation on record, with most of it going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Snowball provides a comprehensive, richly detailed insight one of the world's most extraordinary and much loved public figures.