An economic franchise arises from a product or service that: (1) is needed or desired; (2) is thought by its customers to have no close substitute and; (3) is not subject to price regulation. The existence of all three conditions will be demonstrated by a company's ability to regularly price its…
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Warren Buffett
Warren Edward Buffett (/ˈbʌfᵻt/; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is considered by some to be one of the most successful investors in the world, and as of March 2017 is the second wealthiest person in the United States with a total net worth of $78.7 billion. Born in Omaha, Buffett developed an interest in business and investing in his youth, eventually entering the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 before transferring and graduating from University of Nebraska–Lincoln. After graduating at 19, Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business School of Columbia University, learning and eventually creating his investment philosophy around a concept pioneered by Benjamin Graham–value investing. He attended New York Institute of Finance to specialize his economics background and soon after began various business partnerships, including one with Graham. After meeting Charlie Munger, Buffett created the Buffett Partnership. His firm would eventually acquire a textile manufacturing firm called Berkshire Hathaway and assume its name to create a diversified holding company. Buffett has been the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970, and his business exploits have had him referred to as the "Wizard", "Oracle" or "Sage" of Omaha by global media outlets. He is noted for his adherence to value investing and for his personal frugality despite his immense wealth. Buffett is a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundatio
The worst mistakes include not understanding other people as much as you might.
I think it's enjoyable to think about business or investment problems. They're easy. It's the human problems that are the tough ones. There's almost always a good answer with the money.
The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken.
Rule #1: Never lose money Rule #2: Never forget Rule #1
He believed very much in having an inner scorecard and never worrying about what people thought about you.
I wanted to put on the walls, days of extreme panic in Wall Street. Just as a reminder that anything can happen in this world. Its instructive art.
If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end—people like myself—should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it.
Leaving the question of price aside, the best business to own is one that over an extended period can employ large amounts of incremental capital at very high rates of return.
Having firstrate people on the team is more important than designing hierarchies and clarifying who reports to whom about what and at what times.