A Great Man...

One Saturday morning, a few months ago, I had the chance to meet Mr. Buffett. The meeting took place on the 16th floor (the cloud room) of the offices of Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha, Nebraska. The "Oracle of Omaha", the second richest man in the world, the most successful investor ever, the man that donated 20 billion dollars (yes, billion) to charity, walked in with a can of cherry cola, and a smile on his face.

For two hours he answered questions from university students. No topic was off the table (except questions that pertained to current acquisitions); thus, we got to ask him questions dealing with his personal life, his investment philosophy, politics, the war on terror, etc. After the question and answer session Mr. Buffett took his guests out for lunch to his favorite steak house (Gorat's); he actually drove some students there in his car. I was fortunate enough to sit at his table and get to ask him a few more questions and see him for who he is.

He said he has two jobs:

• One is to find good CEO's that run good companies.
• The other is to allocate capital.

On why he had become so successful:

“I was born at the right time, in the right place, I am wired for my job and I love it”. He said he was lucky to win the “genetic lottery” (of all the places in the world to be born he was born a white male in the USA).

What he advises his managers (and us) to do is to "build a moat around our castle" and to keep trying to "widen the moat". The wider the moat, the more freedom one will have in his life and the more freedom his business will have.

On politics:

He seemed very optimistic about world prospects and the US. He said everybody in the room (the college students and himself) lived better than the Rockefellers and Carnegies of another time (even they could not condition their climate to the degree we can, or communicate with the speed we can, or travel with the ease we have). He said that he believed that America’s strengths are enough to survive even a dumb presidency (he listed a few of the past) and smiled at the laughter our mental connection made with the current one.

He saw the war on terror as a real concern and said that he had been active for decades in trying to find ways to promote nuclear non-proliferation efforts. He said that never before in history has it been possible for crazy people (fanatics) to get a hold of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD's) as easily as they can now. He said that never before in history has a lone "crazy" been able to do so much damage to so many ("in the past one crazy would throw a rock from his cave to the other").

On his Philanthropy:

If you are given the chance to be God and create the world for a day. You should have a rule: After you are done making the world you should be willing to put all human positions of the world in a barrel and be willing to take up any of the positions you are given when you pick out of the barrel at random.

When asked why he gave the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation $20 billion for philanthropy and why he had not started his own or search for another charity, he said: “They love what they do and they are good at it”. He believes in hiring the best people for a job and letting them do just that. He said: "I was not about to do a talent search for my philanthropy, at my age I don't even buy green bananas".

On "what is a life well spent" and other life lessons:

Obviously, he was asked what drove a man in his 70's (that has more money than he can spend) to keep going to work. He said that he loves what he does and would do it for free if he had to (that reminded me of the saying: "Get a job you like and never work a day in your life"). He said that there is a job like that for all of us and we had to find it (the money would follow). One thing he emphasized is that whatever we decided to do we should go for it full force ("Get in the pond" is how he put it). Which reminded me of the now famous: carpe diem. He said that he goes to work everyday to work on his "Sistine Chapel", to paint his own painting just like Michelangelo. He said he puts a stroke here and a stoke there and sees his masterpiece all around him, he does it out of love, and he does it for the "applause". He likes being his own boss and not having others tell him where to put his "strokes".

On investing, and in life in general, Mr. Buffett advises us to stay in our "Circle of Confidence". "Know what you know and what you don't know and stick with what you know".

He talked about a lady he knew for a long time. She was a lady that had gone to Auschwitz with her family, most of them had died, and she had survived. She had a few friends, which she attributed to the test she applied to making friendships. "Would they hide me?". Mr. Buffett told us to ask of our friends, "who they hide you?" If you can't even answer that question for your own family then you have done something wrong in the way you lead your life.

If left on a deserted island with only three things of his choice he said he would want a supply of Cherry Cola, and a computer with Internet access to play Bridge on with other people (I forgot what the third thing was).

Jokingly talking about his long-time partner Charlie Munger: "Once he wanted to become the governor of California, then he wanted to become the richest man in California, now he just wants to be the oldest man in California!".

"Do what you like, with whom you like".

"Look forward, not back".

"Be a hero to your family".

"The more you do for other people, the more they will do for you".

"You can't buy love".

What struck me about him most: He gave the impression of being an everyday guy that genuinely liked the contact with us. I can't help thinking that everybody around him (including me) felt that he was his or her grandfather! His sense of humor, his ability to relate to us, the genuineness of his smile, and his willingness to share details of his personal life were not lost on me.

Though I have many things to be happy about because of our meeting, there is one thing that saddens me. Though I am still relatively young, I may have already met the most famous, successful, and nicest person that I will ever meet in my lifetime.

If you are interested on reading more about Buffett:

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett

http://www.financialsense.com/resources/buffett.htm

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/54/C0R3.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/warren-buffett

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/warren_e_buffett/index.html?inline=nyt-per

http://www.harbus.org/media/storage/paper343/news/2003/04/28/News/Warren.Buffett.Speaks.His.Mind.In.Burden.Auditorium-428645.shtml?norewrite200611051238&sourcedomain=www.harbus.org