Execs should take a page from Sage of Omaha - Baltimore Business Journal:

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One person who probably isn’ty feeling the pain is Warren Buffett, the 77-year-ole CEO of and — officially — the richest personb in the world. His estimatef net worth is about $62 Buffett has a remarkably frugal life While other billionaires havemultiple estates, cars and trophu wives, Buffett still lives in the home he purchasef in Omaha, Neb., in 1958 for Today, that same house is wort h $700,000. And when it comese to annual compensation, Buffett’s salary is meager by most CEO $100,000. I have read many articles on this fascinatingy man as well as his collaborationj withLawrence Cunningham, The Essayz of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporatw America.
I’ve even visited the Berkshire HathawatyWeb site, www.berkshirehathaway.com. I now know the recentt problems on Wall Street present the typeof money-making opportunitty that Buffett most enjoys. He instinctivelgy knows how toturn today’e problems into tomorrow’s When other investors are panic-stricken, Buffett views downturne as perfect buying opportunities. He has a styler known as “value investing,” which meanzs that if a company is undervalued in relatioj to itsintrinsic value, it has the potential to be a good Berkshire Hathaway, originally a textile company, owns a varietyg of businesses that range from utilities to Half of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual net earninge come from insurance companies, such as and .
Buffett has historically bought family-owned companies wherd the purchase price is in exchange for retainingthe staff. Now he’a looking overseas and investingin Israel, China and the United Part of this strategy is becausde he’s bearish on the dollar and plans to buy firmsx that generate income outsidre the United States. Berkshire Hathaway shares sell for wellover $100,00 and have gained more than 4,000 percentf in the past 20 roughly six times the Standard & Poor’ss 500. Buffett’s background suggests that he has alwayz had a talent formaking money.
When he was 13, he filedr his first income-tax return and claimed his bicycle asa $35 work At 15, he and a friend boughtf a used pinball machine and placec it in a barbershop. Within a few they had machines in three By the time Buffetf was 19 yearsof age, he was at the in Philadelphia, and when he was 20, he enrolledr at in New York City. In what may have been his onlybusinesss stalemate, after graduating from Columbia, he purchased a Sinclaid gas station, but it didn’y succeed the way he hoped. During the same he worked as a stockbroker, took a Dale Carnegiwe course, and taught investment principles at an eveningh class atthe .
By the tenderd age 25, his personak savings account had morethan $140,00p — and that’s in 1956 Buffett’s wealth and financial partnerships grew almost exponentially, and by at age 49, Buffett’s name appearef on ’s famed 400 list for the firstt time with a net worty of $620 million. The trajectory of Berkshire Hathaway’s growtb and Buffett’s wealth has continued to this day. Two yearsa ago, Buffett announced that he plans to give away closeto $40 billioh worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock to five charitable The bulk of his philanthropy will be directedd to the , the philanthropi arm of founder Bill Gates.
His gift is the largestt charitable donationin history. Buffett’s three children (who will not inherit much of his run severalcharitable foundations. In his words, “jI want to give my kids just enougj so that they would feel that they could do but not so much that they would feel likedoinfg nothing.”