Warren Buffett Trip

As part of Berkeley MBA, on Monday Nov 19, 2007, we had a trip to Omaha, Nebraska to meet with greatest investor of all time, Mr. Warren Buffett and I must say that we all were totally impressed by his intellect, sharp mind and simple life he is living. Students from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, London Business School and University of Arizona, Tuscon came to meet with him.

Here are some observations, tips we heard from him about investing and life and photos:

• Even though he is one of the richest person on planet, he was so simple, approachable and down-to-earth person. He came driving his old Cadillac, had lunch with all students, spent 4 and half hours and went back driving his car
• He is extremely sharp with numbers and still remember numbers about his investments, various macro-economic statistics and how he makes money on every 12th coke bottle consumed in the world
• Mr Warren Buffett is funny and extremely good speaker. We wer all surprised when he started his talk with a joke which no one expected he would make at his age (joke about investment banker and his wife)
  

Here are some of the simple investing tips he gave us:

• Don't leverage and invest
• Don't do options
• Do your own analysis - His favorite past-time is to read annual reports. He gave an example of how he invested in PetroChina after reading its annual report on plane to China and made cool $4 Billion in 3 years. Recently he invested in South Korean company Posco after going through its annual reports
  
• Invest in companies, sectors in your own circle of confidence. WB does not understand technology so he did not invest in technology even if Bill Gates is his one of the closest friend
• Don't go after momentum plays. Market is like psychotic drunk which keeps on changing prices every-minute. If you come up with a price after doing your own analysis, wait for stock to come to that price. Once it comes to that price, move fast and move in a big way.

Some of his tips about life:

• Choosing life-partner is most important decision on everyone's life. He/She has is the main driver for maximizing your potential
• Don't give up something you need for something you don't need
• He is strong supported in keeping inheritance tax. He believes that everyone should earn their living
• If you have to bet on someone's future earning potential, bet on yourself

His biggest investing success:

• Geico
• Coke
• Gillette
• Washington Post

His biggest investing mistakes:

• Not investing in Wal-mart when he had chance in Wal-mart
• Dexter shoes in which he lost $400 M (but he consider that as $ 4 Billion loss since he had to give 2% of Bershire Hathway which is worth about $ 4 Billion today)

He allowed us to take lot of photos and really enjoyed spending time with students. Hats off to Mr Warren Buffett

I am totally impressed with him. I try to follow him in some of the investing ideas but I realized that only thing which I have common with him is that like him I also drive 10 year old car:-)