The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Investors and Managers
Buffett, the Bard of Omaha, is a genuine American folk hero, if folk heroes are allowed to build fortunes worth upward of billion. He’s great at homespun metaphor, but behind those catchy phrases is a reservoir of financial acumen that’s generally considered the best of his generation. For example, in an essay on CEO stock options, he writes, “Negotiating with one’s self seldom produces a barroom brawl.” This is his way of saying that an executive who can give himself compensation totally di
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The Warren Buffett Way
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Gives an introduction to Warren Buffett.
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Essence of sage,
Cunningham has done us a great favour. Buffett doesn’t talk to the press and most books claiming to be Buffett bibles are re-hashes and interpretations, so this book of essays is the closest you will get to hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth. This is Buffett’s wisdom distilled from annual letters to shareholders in his company, which Cunningham has strung together seamlessly. Although that means alot of passages refer to Buffett’s own firm and its shareholdings, the lessons for investors are universal, and the “value investing” philosophy shines through. If that was all there was to recommend the book it would still be a must-have for anyone interested in making money. But it is also a great read.
Buffett comes across as the most genial, honest and no-nonsense guy in the financial world. He also has a wonderfully impish sense of humour and had me chuckling out loud (and then trying in vain to explain the joke to my girlfriend…) The only bits where he slightly lost me was when comparing investing with baseball, but I think I got the gist of it. Anyway, Buffett writes as clearly as he thinks and is as modest and self-deprecating as he is authoritative. He treats his readers like the investors they are, so this is not an “entry level” book and it might be a struggle if you don’t know the difference between a fixed asset and a preference share, but otherwise it is a book that you won’t regret buying.
I can’t recommend it highly enough.
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|Learn about investing from the best investor in decades.,
I think studying Buffett’s investment philosophy is one of the best ways to understand investing (succesfully). And in that case, what gives you a better opportunity to do this than reading explanations written by Buffett himself? Cunningham did a very good job in reflecting Buffett’s investment philosophy by summarizing the annual letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway and some other essays from Buffett’s hand. Therefore, you don’t have to read the hundreds of pages that these letters make up, to get a good view of Buffett’s insights and thinking. The summary is done in a very good way; it doesn’t read like one and looks complete.
The undertitle of this book says that Buffett’s observations also contain lessons to managers of corporations. I think this is correct; the book is a must read for both investors and managers.
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|Top 10 Book Ever,
Buffett’s shareholder letters were cited in the list of The FInancial Times’ 10 best books ever written on investment, as selected by Richard Lambert, editor. In turn, The Wall Street Journal notes this collection of those letters is rated among the 5 books one must read on investment, as selected by J.P. Morgan. Common sense says it all, doesn’t it, when you realize these writings are the wisdom of the richest man in the world and the only who made his wealth via investment. On top of it, the writings here are in plain English, witty, wry, an absolute delight (the word essays to describe these is a bit misleading, as these are a treat and joy to read not a chore at all).
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|Amazed by good reviews of this book,
I am continually amazed by the good reviews this book receives; so I finally felt compelled to write. There is nothing in this book that Warren Buffett hasn’t already said in his annual letters. Robert Hagstrom revealed his true reason for writing this book when the first paperback edition came out and in it, in fine print, was a notice stating that Hagstrom had started an investment fund designed to invest using Warren Buffett’s principles (read: way). That is, he wrote the book so you would learn his name, become confident in his ability to analyze investments like Buffett does, and invest in his fund (which has a hefty expense ratio and has performed quite poorly I understand). So he writes this page book, in which he recommends that if you ever have the chance to read Buffett’s annual letters, you should, since they “read like a book on his investment philosophy”. I took his suggestion, ordered the back annual letters (sold by Berkshire Hathaway for $15) and found they repeated everything in this book – sometimes word for word (now how could Buffett have known what Hagstrom was going to write?). I get the feeling that Hagstrom has never met Buffett and never discussed investing with him (unlike Lowenstein, Lowe, Train, etc.) and his only research for this book was Buffett’s annual letters. I learned more about Buffett’s style from Roger Lowenstein’s biography. Take Robert Hagstrom’s advice and purchase the annual letters; they say the same thing – except Buffett’s sense of humor is better.
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|A poorly written precise of Buffett’s annual reports.,
Far from giving the reader an insight into the investment strategies of the world’s greatest investor this book simply summarises selected comments from Buffett in his annual reports of Berkshire Hathaway. Having read the book and the annual reports I can honestly say that Warren Buffett does it better! You can download the reports free of charge from the Berkshire Hathaway web site. Don’t waste your time with this book.
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|The Warren Buffett Way,
This is an excellent look at the investment style of Warren Buffett. It is extremely well written and very clear, I’d even go so far to say that you don’t need an in-depth knowledge of maths to understand the principles outlined in this book as they are explained so clearly, with many examples based on Buffetts own techniques and actual stock/business purchases. It has a slight biographical quality about it as well, which is great for that deeper understanding of Buffett and what has motivated and shaped his thinking. Of all the investment books i’ve read, this is one of the most accessible and useful. A great introduction to Buffett and value investing. Highly, highly recommended. If this piqued your interest try ‘The Essays of Warren Buffett’ by Lawrence Cunningham for some brilliant examples of Buffetts own clear and entertaining writing style and investment wisdom.
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