Menu
Editor’s Note: Welcome to the 17th review in our Get Paid to Read contest series! Last week, we featured Tom Vouvoudakis’ review of Against the Gods by Peter L. Bernstein.
Curious to see what else made the cut? You can explore the rest of the reviews we’ve published in our Reading List section.
This week, we shift gears from the abstract to the personal, as Ross offers an insightful review of The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Ross Brittain, a qualified architect and real estate developer, fell in love with the sensibility of fundamental analysis and is passionate about value investing, he currently resides in South Africa.
The Snowball biography, penned by Alice Schroeder, goes beyond Buffett’s financial empire to reveal the man behind the money, offering readers a rare glimpse into the life philosophies that have guided one of the greatest investors of our time.
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is arguably the greatest investor of all time. His legendary annual shareholders’ meetings are packed like a small stadium of devout fans. Not completely camera shy, the internet is packed with information about him. However, once you’ve combed through most of it, you realize that it’s limited to his investments and their principles. You’re left questioning who is the man behind the public facade and what characteristics really brewed the ‘Oracle of Omaha’.
There is very little on Buffett’s private life, declining numerous requests from biographers, journalists and publishers to collaborate on a detailed account of his life. The author, Alice Schroeder, secured the coveted role of writing Warren Buffett’s only biography, with his full cooperation. Leaving her job at Morgan Stanley in 2003 and moving to sleepy Omaha she captures his life through 2000 hours of interviews with him and 250 friends and family. He opened his files to the author contributing to an unparalleled level of personal detail. Not for the faint hearted at over 900 pages and a #1 New York Times Best seller, you’re in good hands for answers on Warren Buffett.
The Snowball masterfully interweaves his public image and private persona, reading like a grandfather reminiscing over his childhood stories and edifying investments ending at the financial crisis of 2008. The author starts by painting a picture of the Buffett household, his family life is laid bare in wonderful tales peppered with sadness, relatable to all of us. While he is a genius, there are examples of his success that the rest of us could apply, like when he read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), he started to incorporate the lessons immediately and intensely. Through an emotional and detailed account we slowly see his character unfold into the man he is to this day.
Poignantly titled, “Snowball” refers to Warren Buffett’s consistent accumulation of money, knowledge and reputation which has grown into an unstoppable force decades later. The book draws out Warren’s apt characteristics with catchy titles like “circular saw” and “Buffetting” which he uses generally in business and life. Each story builds upon the previous one creating rich context for Warren’s later decisions giving the reader a deep understanding that may have seemed counterintuitive from the outside. For example, Warren Buffett started making many deals where he knowingly lost out on more money just to keep it fair for the person on the other side of the table. A number of Warren’s investment mistakes are laid bare and endearingly told with his feelings on the matter. Learned lessons from early mistakes and the compounding reputation elevate him into the go-to person others called on to salvage large catastrophic financial situations, and there is an excellent behind the scenes retelling of the Goldman Sachs investment during the 2008 financial crisis.
His character really shines in his investments; each retelling is an example of his investing principles and their evolution from arbitraging cocoa beans to buying into a furniture store. The book also does a wonderful job of giving us a peek into his relationships with some of his famous friends, like Bill Gates. Slowly retelling story after story of how they met and how their friendship grew, nested in a dichotomy of quite unpretentious meetings taking place in exclusive locations, like the sprawling Gates family compound.
This biography not only sheds light on his investment strategies and decision-making processes but also explores his character, relationships, and the values that have shaped his journey.
What the book is not:
The book is comprehensive and by the time you’re done you will feel that you know him a lot better and perhaps you’ll be a little wiser. While you may not get a step by step guide on how to invest like him, you will get surprising insight into how he actually became rich.
Some of Warren Buffett’s flaws are depicted in a neutral or even positive way and the effects on those around him leaves some unanswered questions. This book is not a judgment on Warren’s stranger life choices and as such doesn’t go into those details but in reading this book you will learn what makes him financially tick.
The book remains laser focused apart from his father’s politics as a congressman. New readers may find it odd that it glosses over how he went from a successful fund manager to the famous ‘Oracle of Omaha’ and it would have been beneficial to provide a bit more context. I suspect the new generation of readers engaging with the material are more distanced from those events and might lack the background knowledge that original audiences had.
Overall, “The Snowball” is a comprehensive and compelling exploration of Warren Buffett’s life, offering readers a better understanding of the man, his motivations, and the principles that have guided his remarkable journey. Excellent storytelling gives continuity to Warren Buffett’s most famous events, beautifully packaging his investment philosophy and giving us a peek behind the curtain of the most famous investor of our era.