At a glance
- Age
- 96
- Born
- August 30, 1930
- From
- Omaha, Nebraska, United States
- Lives in
- Omaha
- Nationality
- United States
Biography
If you have come across a quote about patience, or about not needing a high IQ to invest well, it likely traces back to Warren Buffett. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, on 30 August 1930, he built a reputation as an investor and entrepreneur whose name now stands as shorthand for value investing and a rational temperament — the habit of keeping judgement steady when conditions are not.
His early work showed a knack for turning what was technically possible into something that actually ran day to day. The method came together slowly, through small improvements that compounded rather than any single stroke, and through the friction supplied by mentors, partners and opponents. From the beginning he treated scale as something to be designed for rather than something that simply happens, which is part of why the approach held up over time.
In his middle years the emphasis shifted to running teams and to decisions about capital allocation, organisational structure and culture — the sort of choices that later get studied rather than merely copied. He wrote and spoke about his reasoning in memos, interviews and talks, which turned public communication into a form of teaching. Mistakes were recorded as experiments that produced lessons, not as episodes to be quietly buried, and regulatory and ethical questions were folded into the design work rather than handled afterwards.
Later on he put more weight on mentorship and on building institutions that could outlast him. The record of his talks and notes suggests that what reads as intuition is usually rigour applied consistently. His influence shows up less in any single product than in the working habits and organisations that carried his approach into new areas.
His early work showed a knack for turning what was technically possible into something that actually ran day to day. The method came together slowly, through small improvements that compounded rather than any single stroke, and through the friction supplied by mentors, partners and opponents. From the beginning he treated scale as something to be designed for rather than something that simply happens, which is part of why the approach held up over time.
In his middle years the emphasis shifted to running teams and to decisions about capital allocation, organisational structure and culture — the sort of choices that later get studied rather than merely copied. He wrote and spoke about his reasoning in memos, interviews and talks, which turned public communication into a form of teaching. Mistakes were recorded as experiments that produced lessons, not as episodes to be quietly buried, and regulatory and ethical questions were folded into the design work rather than handled afterwards.
Later on he put more weight on mentorship and on building institutions that could outlast him. The record of his talks and notes suggests that what reads as intuition is usually rigour applied consistently. His influence shows up less in any single product than in the working habits and organisations that carried his approach into new areas.
Known For
value investing and rational temperament.
Quotes 7
“Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.”
“Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don't expect it from cheap people.”
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”
“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.”
“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”
