Innovative investing leads to billionaire status
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Warren Buffet is one of the richest men in the world and quite possibly the single greatest investor in human history. As the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett made his fortune by investing in undervalued companies with potential for growth and pitiful price-to-earnings ratios. Buffet’s revolutionary investing techniques brought him great wealth and power, and changed the way corporate America forever handled investing.
Buffet is included on this list of great business leaders not only for his investment innovations but because he also serves as a model of frugality and charity in the world of greedy and self obsessed business conglomerates.
In 2006, Buffet decided to give 83% of his charity to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a donation hovering around $30 billion of his estimated $52.4 billion net worth. This donation is one of the largest in U.S. history, making Buffet one of the world’s most prolific philanthropists.
The way Buffet handles his immense wealth is also worthy of praise. Buffet has the money to buy Rhode Island, but he lives an unpretentious lifestyle in the same house he purchased for a mere $31,500, over 40 years ago. Buffet also only receives $100,000 a year, while other CEO’s in the top 500 largest companies like Berkshire Hathaway grab around $9 million. Buffet’s exemplary money habits and dedication to charities are a breath of fresh air in our possession hungry society.
For his revolutionary investing techniques, philanthropic attitude, and unselfish use of his immense wealth, Warren Buffet was listed as one of Time Magazines 100 most influential people in the world.
Buffet began his life in finance at the age of 11, when he began working at his father’s brokerage firm. Since then, Buffet continuously achieved business success with his keen investment sense, and in his teenage years Buffet bought farmland and invested in a pinball machine company he started with a friend.
In 1956 Buffett created his first investment partnership, Buffet Associates, Ltd, and proceeded to flex his investment skills by making incredibly high returns in his business ventures. Buffet used the success from this investment endeavors to begin buying shares of Berkshire Hathaway. Buffet eventual gained control of the large textile manufacturing company, but was warned that his purchase of the company was a mistake because the textile industry was a lost cause. Buffet ignored this criticism and used the company’s dwindling cash flow to acquire various smaller businesses and the stocks of public companies. Buffet championed his investment strategy to let Berkshire become one of the largest holding companies in the world. For those unfamiliar with financial terms, a holding company is a company that doesn’t produce any specific goods or services, but owns shares of companies that do. Holding companies control of a variety of other businesses and use those goods to drive revenue.
One of Warren Buffet's latest endeavors includes his work with Christopher Webber on a new animated series designed to show children how to develop healthy financial habits. Buffet is a shining example of what innovative thought and good morals can accomplish in the business world.