Warren Buffett, the newly anointed "world's richest man," claims he has never been to bed with an ugly woman, but admits: "I've sure woken up with a few." In truth, the famously conservative Buffett was quoting a favorite country and western song at the time and, as usual, he was talking about his investments, not the women in his life.
Even though Buffett only made the number one spot in the annual Forbes Rich List last week, as his personal fortune swelled by US$10 billion in a year to more than US$62 billion, he has dwelt among the world's richest for decades.
What is remarkable about Buffett and his wealth, though, is his steadfastness in its accumulation. He is a plodding tortoise in a world of racing hares, whose slow and steady tactics have beaten every boom and bust Wall Street has endured in 30 years.
In 1979, aged 49, he first appeared on Forbes' directory of the moneyed, with a personal wealth of US$620 million. It is typical of Buffett that in his journey to the top his fortune has increased exactly 100 times since then. He likes to keep his calculations simple enough to do on the back of an envelope.
What is his secret? And could you or I do the same if we wanted to?
He claims not to have one. And, yes, you or I should be able to do what he has spent his lifetime doing -- that is, making a lot of money by making a lot of very sound investments. He is an entirely self-made man about whom nobody ever seems to have a bad word to say. It's a bit sickening, really.
The middle child of three, Buffett was born on Aug. 30, 1930. His father, Howard, came from a family of grocers, but set himself up in business as a small-town stockbroker in Nebraska.
Born: Warren Edward Buffett, Aug. 30, 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska.
Married: Susan Thompson in 1952. Began an open relationship with Astrid Menks, a Latvian waitress, in 1977 after Susan separated amicably from him. Married Menks in 2006, two years after Susan's unexpected death.
Best of times: Becoming the richest man in the world as a champion of "value investing'' -- finding solid, household-name investments that make money in good times as well as bad.
Worst of times: The death of his wife Susan brought home a sense of his own mortality. It did, however, lead to his decision to give away US$30 billion in shares to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest charitable gift in history.
What he says:"The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money.''
What others say:"If he doesn't understand something, he doesn't go there. I believe that is why, even though Bill Gates is on the board of Berkshire Hathaway, is a close friend and Buffett has given all his money to the Gates Foundation, he still has never bought a share of Microsoft.''
Roger Lowenstein is the author of Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist.
At the age of 11, Warren was already out to make a profit, selling fizzy drinks door-to-door with a friend. The pair developed an arithmetical system for picking winning race horses and set up a tip sheet called Stable Boy Selections with their drinks profits. When Buffett Sr found out, however, their little scheme was shut down.
Warren was an earnest child. He filed his first tax return aged just 13 in 1943, listing his bicycle -- used on the drinks delivery round -- as a deductible expense.
The family moved to Washington a few years later, as Buffett's father was elected to the US Congress, but young Warren did not rest on his laurels. Like a lot of kids his age, he donned the customary newsboy cap and took to hawking papers in the wealthy Washington suburbs. Buffett added magazines and comics to his bag on the days that he collected the money so he could offer something extra to the servants or the lady of the house.
Again, he didn't fritter away his earnings, but invested what he made in pinball machines that he leased to local barbers' shops. Most people in DC took the Washington Post, still the US capital's favored journal, and Buffett grew to love the paper. Even though he was only one of hundreds of delivery boys, he managed to strike up relationships with the paper's management and many years later its owner Katharine Graham.
In 1973, Buffett bought a large shareholding in the Washington Post, which he still holds today, as one of the central investments in his Berkshire Hathaway holding company. It has increased in value more than 100 times and is typical of a Buffett tip.
"The Washington Post is the stock he has held the longest," said Roger Lowenstein, author of Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist. "And really it typifies his constancy. The key to understanding him as a man is that he is so constant in everything he does."
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