The most successful investor of all time

Warren Buffett built more wealth in investments than anyone else in history without ever trying to be the fastest.

While hedge fund managers chased short-term returns, Buffett stayed on a steady course for over six decades. He didn’t need the highest performance. He just needed time.

This week, we look at how Buffett became obsessed with investing before he was a teenager and how his slow, ‘boring’ strategy quietly outperformed just about everyone.

• 💵 Compounding from a young age

• 🔢 Turning Berkshire into a long-term asset

• 📊 Beating faster traders by sticking around

— Investor Briefcase Team

Warren Buffett was born in Omaha in 1930 during the Great Depression. His father was a stockbroker and member of Congress, and Buffett was surrounded early on by discussions of markets and risks. This meant Buffett’s interest in business started early.

By the time he was six, he was selling chewing gum door-to-door. At 11, he bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred for himself and his sister. At 13, he started filing tax returns and running side businesses. By the time he finished high school, he had made more money than some of his teachers.

Buffett read every investing book he could find while running a small pinball machine business in local barbershops. Eventually, he made his way to Columbia Business School to study under Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing.

Graham’s principle of buying stocks below their intrinsic value deeply shaped Buffett’s early investment strategies. However, Buffett eventually adjusted the model. Instead of only buying cheap companies, he began focusing on great businesses at fair prices that have consistent earnings and long-term staying power. This shift in strategy would define his investment approach for decades to come.

In the early 1960s, Buffett began buying shares in Berkshire Hathaway, a struggling textile mill based in Massachusetts. Initially, it was a value play. But as the textile business continued to decline, he realized the better move was to repurpose the company entirely.

He started using Berkshire as a holding company to buy entire businesses or large stakes in publicly traded companies. Over time, it became the foundation for a diverse portfolio that includes insurance, railroads, utilities, manufacturing, and consumer goods.

One of Buffett’s most important tools was insurance float. By owning insurers like GEICO, Berkshire collected billions in premiums that it could invest long before paying out claims. This long-term, low-cost capital allowed him to make large scale investments into companies like Coca-Cola, American Express, and Apple without ever borrowing money in the traditional sense.

Buffett let his companies operate on their own with no central committees or lengthy memos. He trusted the people he hired to run the business, building a culture that rewarded patience, efficiency, and clear decision-making.

Berkshire is now worth $1.05 trillion. And it’s all built on a model that hasn’t changed in decades.

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Buffett’s investment returns, while impressive, are not the highest on record. Investors like Jim Simons at Renaissance Technologies delivered significantly higher annualized returns over shorter timeframes using advanced quantitative models. But Buffett built more wealth because he compounded steadily for over 60 years.

Rather than chase the best return in any given year, Buffett focused on minimizing mistakes, avoiding unnecessary trades, and letting time do the hard work. His approach was slow, but deliberate, allowing his wealth to accumulate over time.

Buffett avoided fees and minimized taxes. He didn’t try to time markets or chase trends. He avoided tech stocks in the dot-com bubble and maintained his composure during financial crises, rarely deviating from his core beliefs. While other managers rotated portfolios and rebalanced quarterly, he bet on businesses that sold products people loved, and let compounding do the work.

In a world obsessed with speed, Buffett’s greatest edge was patience. He didn’t try to be the fastest. He just stayed in the race longer than anyone else.

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Other long-term investors

> Charlie Munger: Buffett’s longtime partner at Berkshire Hathaway, Munger brought a multidisciplinary approach to investing, emphasizing the importance of mental models, patience, and high-quality businesses.

> Benjamin Graham: Known as the father of value investing, Graham authored The Intelligent Investor and mentored Buffett at Columbia. His principles of margin of safety and intrinsic value became core tenets of Buffett’s investment philosophy.

> Philip Fisher: A pioneer of growth investing, Fisher emphasized deep research into a company’s management and long-term prospects. Buffett credited Fisher’s work with broadening his investment lens beyond purely quantitative metrics.

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