With a net worth of $78.9 billion and an awe-inspiring track record of successful investment, Warren Buffett has become a mentor to aspiring investors the world over.
But as a college student at the University of Nebraska he discovered a book that changed his life: "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham.
He enrolled in Graham’s course at Columbia Business School, and began to learn the fundamentals of investing. Buffett later recalled how impressed he was that a successful investor, who had no need to work as a teacher, gave his time to pass on his ideas to students.
“Every day, do something foolish, something creative, and something generous.”
Those are the words of Benjamin Graham and, according to his most famous student — Warren Buffett — “he excelled most at the last.”
When Warren Buffett first approached Graham in 1951, he offered to work him for free — to which Graham said: “You’re overpriced.” knowing how much work it is to teach someone who can’t contribute much yet..!
Buffett went back to Omaha, but kept on sending investment ideas to Graham, and a few years later Graham gave him a job. A year later, he retired and left Buffett in charge.
Look at what Buffett says about Graham:
“To me, Ben Graham was far more than an author or a teacher. More than any other man except my father, he influenced my life.”
“I knew Ben as my teacher, my employer, and my friend … If clarity of thinking was required, there was no better place to go. And if encouragement or counsel was needed, Ben was there. Walter Lippmann spoke of men who plant trees that other men will sit under. Ben Graham was such a man.”
But perhaps the biggest sign of Graham’s influence is in Buffett’s investing style. The principles of patient, long-term value investing that Graham taught the young Buffett at Columbia University back in 1950 are what he has used for the past half a century to amass that fortune.
Just like all of the other famous protégés we’ve featured so far, Buffett has also taken the opportunity to “pay it forward” by mentoring someone else. You’d expect Buffett’s protégé to be quite successful, and you’d be right: it’s Bill Gates.
Stay tuned for our next post on this..!
Are you also looking for a One-to-One mentoring..? Book a mentoring session now..! Get mentored by subject matter experts..!
Source : geteverwise , entrepreneurshandbook.