X-Message-Number: 30608
From: David Stodolsky <>
Subject: Thinking outside the box
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:11:41 +0100

Buffett: The ultimate self-made man
5:48PM Monday March 10, 2008
By James Doran


Handing over the financial product of his life's work was a big step
for Buffett, who has lined up a number of potential successors inside
Berkshire Hathaway to run the company after he dies. Susan's
unexpected death is said to have finally brought home a sense of his
own mortality.

In his most recent letter to shareholders, he revealed as much with
another of his trademark bad jokes.

"I've reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the
portfolio after my death," he wrote, "abandoning my hope to give new
meaning to the term 'thinking outside the box'."

- OBSERVER

* AN AMERICAN CAPITALIST

Born Warren Edward Buffett, August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska.
Married Susan Thompson in 1952. Began an open relationship with
Astrid Menks, a Latvian waitress, in 1977 after separating from
Susan. Married Menks in 2006, two years after Susan's 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 Susan brought home a sense of his own
mortality. It did, however, lead to his decision to give US$30
billion worth of 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, author of Buffett: The Making of an American
Capitalist


David Stodolsky    Skype: davidstodolsky

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