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The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
£13.70£16.10 (-15%)
Recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, The Snowball is the most fascinating financial success story of our time. Warren Buffett, the legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but finally has given Alice Schroeder unprecedented access to him and all those closest to his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies and wisdom. The result is this personally revealing and complete biography of ‘The Oracle of Omaha’, indispensable reading for those who wish to know the man behind the outstanding achievements.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, First Edition (16 Sept. 2009) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 848 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0747596492 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0747596493 |
| Dimensions | 12.9 x 5 x 19.8 cm |
by Ms. J. Francis
I think this is the book to end all books on Warren Buffett. Seriously, I don’t think this author left a single thing out.
And I mean everything: on the personal side you’ll get his family history back like 4 generations, his relationships with people and why he had them and cultivated them the way he did, his fears and regrets – getting a strong insight into the kind of man he is, decade on decade on decade. On the business side, you’ll understand the kind of psychology he is hard wired with (and learned) that has enabled him to get to the point he is today, if you analyse enough you’ll understand why he has managed to become so successful and revered, and how through mimicking certain attributes you might catch a snippet of the success he has enjoyed. All very very interesting and useful.
To be fair on this Alice Schreoder, I honestly don’t think she could written this book in any other way, the author HAD to put in this level of detail to be a cut above the rest, but I’m glad she broke it up in places with anecdotes and family dramas because by god it gets BORING. Endless streams of names and people and companies it just becomes one massive blur. Literally hundreds of people must have been mentioned: where he met them, when, what they did, who they were married to, what their daughters’ best friends’ aunt was doing in New York when he sat next to them at some obscure function that really contributes nothing to the flow of the book… but it has to be mentioned anyway as it happened. Then they disappear from the book forever. Streams and streams of companies that he invested in, bought, partially acquired, then the companies that those companies invested in in what proportion and when he shifted his interest from this stock to that stock blah blah blah. It never ends! I couldn’t tell you anything in particular now about how he operated but, in light of the fact I just waded through like 700 pages, it seemed very impressive!
But all in all a good effort, I don’t think any other biography on Warren Buffett could ever match this. It is well written and comprehensive, I’d say the author managed to unravel the complex mind and life choices of Warren Buffett in the best way she possibly could and, in spite of some parts being complicated and dragging, it pulls through very as a unique, successful and intimate exploration of the life of Warren Buffett.
by R. Emmott
Understanding Buffett has become a modern Holy Grail, the pot of gold at the end of a seventy eight year rainbow. How does he do it? How can ordinary people even come close? Having met him first in 2001, Alice Schroeder was first allowed in to the inner sanctum, then granted unfettered access to the man himself “You’ll do a better job than I would, Alice. I’m glad you’re writing this book, not me”. He adds “Whenever my version is different from somebody else’s, use the less flattering version”.
Five years, 960 pages, 62 chapters, 90 pages of notes, 32 pages of photos, 23 pages of index later, Schroeder has brought us The Snowball, Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Berkshire Hathaway put on over $50 billion of market capitalisation whilst she was writing it. That’s over $50 million for each page. No wonder Buffett was happy to entrust the book to Schroeder. Writing books doesn’t usually add value that fast.
Schroeder demonstrates that, after all this detailed research, much from the man himself and other primary sources, there is no silver bullet. This may disappoint critiques of other works on Buffett who seemed to be seeking one and were rather hoping that the official biography would, at last, provide it. Rather, what emerges is a combination of old fashioned focus, discipline, common sense, the ability to get with people, to push them just beyond their comfort zone but keep them onside, to drive hard bargains but still remain popular, to calculate business risks and probabilities with consummate ease, accuracy and success, and to continue to seek great businesses at affordable prices. A complex approach from a deeply complex, old-fashioned yet fully at ease in the moment, extremely well-connected and quite remarkable man who has defied the odds and, in the process, conclusively disproved and outlived the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.
Having read The Snowball, the Shareholder Letters and a number of other books on Buffett, the author of this review is still left wondering how he really managed it. There is plenty of inspiration in The Snowball for would-be investors. Many mistakes are also profiled – and the lessons to be learned from them. The book was worth the wait, but don’t expect it to reveal all the answers. Otherwise we would all be billionaires.
by Mark a pressney
Well written
by ray
You should read about you admire If you’re interested in finance this is a book for you. Great on-site into greatest investor mind
by Richard Bishop
Length book at 800 pages but a good read on business investing in Americs.