The Snowball

'The Snowball' by Alice Schroeder is the authorised biography of Warren Buffet. It is the warts and all story of what lead him to become the richest man in the world and then give it all away to charity.

I really like the metaphor of the snowball. Starting off slow and gathering momentum as it grows. To say he was obsessed with growing his snowball from an early age is like saying the ocean is damp. An insatiable curiosity and very little interest in money as something you spend, but rather as a scorecard lead him to a personal fortune of over $60 billion. An obscene amount of money by any measure.

Another book I have on my shelf but haven't got to yet is 'philanthrocapitalism' which I am looking forward to reading. What I find most interesting about Buffet's decision to give his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is just how much it flies in the face of the image of what we have grown up to think of the uber wealthy. He loved the act of creating wealth, the recognition it gave and feedback of the scorecard that was his growing snowball. But he recognised that a large part of his wealth came from the fact that he was born into a society that recognised and rewarded his passion in this very tangible way. He won the 'ovarian lottery' by being born when and where he was. Then he worked bloody hard to get where he did. He feels he owes something to society for that.

What I also like about his decision is that he gives the money to someone who knows how to spend it in the best possible way. Gates takes a business like approach to solving specific problems in the world. Buffet knew how to make money, but recognised that spending it was outside his 'circle of competence'.

Playing to his strengths.