The Snowball

I am about 600 pages into this book. 'The Snowball: Warren buffett and the business of Life' by Alice shroeder and i ve been at it all day till about 10 mins ago.

It is a BIG book - 950+ pages and pages nearly double the size of a regular paperback - the bestest biography on the great man EVER written (I own quite a few of them) - and will be the greatest one ever- its official - means - its actually authorized by him, he appears to have done lots of elaborate interviews, several contacts have been tapped etc.

While Buffett-watching has become common enough these days, ive been reading about him since as long as i can remember - the first exposure was when i was in class 11 or thereabouts from an article in Business India - back in college, i had some of his letters to shareholders printed out, sprial bound and even had juvenile, 'intrinsic value = sum of distress sale value of assets+present value of all the future cash that can be extracted out of a business' style valuations made of specific stocks and posted them on webgroups.

Most of the other books about him (which are just run of the mill, business booksy type trash) and of course the related bibles of value investing 'Graham & Dodd: Security analysis' and the famous 'Intelligent Investor' - for people not interested in stocks, unfamiliar with terminology - are plain unreadable.

This one, is entirely different. Written from a poet's* perspective - its an almost day by day account of the Great man's life from when he was born somewhere near the great depression to when the book was published- 2008.

A regular follower of Buffett's letters to shareholders, related articles that one encounters often these days surely will know that hes not normal. Hes complicated, preachy, funny and one-ofa-kind.

His style, school of thought - the so called - Graham Doddsville - first principles - to me represent BY FAR the most basic, simplistic, reproducable, logical way to work with & handle money.

I dont have a SHRED of doubt when i make such a sweepy statement - That said, the first principles must be applied with caution, improvisation and common sense to achieve results, of course.

Back to the book now - what turns me on so much about it is the level of detail in descriptions - information on not just his successes - his mistakes, quirks, basic methods of functioning, the people hes been associated with and his personal life.

The whole reading experience provides one with so much perspective about:

how to run a business - how some of his super-businesses got built by their founders - is obsession with work right or wrong - how important are people around you for your own success - how one should slowly mould their work around what basic personality types they actually belong to - is wrapping your ego around your business right or wrong - the definition of 'cold, calculative' - the importance of a reputation, the importance of honest dealmaking - the importance of having a content, fulfilling personal life & a stable family - and of course, it offers this irresistable peek into how the guy actually built up this fortune from scratch.

One of those books which fills up your chest with optimism, make you re-read specific chapters and has 10 times more stimulus to bombard your senses than a lifetime subscription to playboy (or a HD quality DVD of the splendid Vicky, Christina, Barcelona* (Director's cut))

* P.S - Sidetrack - Just to spice the post up a little :)

Vicky,Christina, Barcelona - It is a must watch, i tell you.

I cant really compare it with X, Y,Z or adequately write a review for it. Roughly described its a woody allenish version of sophisticated, European style movies that are sometimes shown these days - often in European languages - ones involving complicated (often unimaginable, for the Indian viewer) romantic angles, complex young people/middle aged people who set off on emotionally, sexually charged quests to discover more about larger truths and more about themselves.

Even if you are an arse who prefers watching 'Mummy 2' to this one (cant resist taking a dig at the Idiot Sibling (IS)) :x) -you still wont miss the excitement because - Vicky CB features atleast two goddesses (1 and 2 ) showcasing their acting talents & um,assets.(somtimes alone, sometimes in 2s or even in 3s in the odd scene or two)