February 3, 2008
I have a confession: I didn’t know who Warren Buffett was before he gave all that money to the Gates Foundation. Even then, he was only on my radar because of his philanthropy, and not because of his prescient stock investing abilities. Up until 5 months ago I was a dancer, and was totally entrenched in the non-profit world. I had no idea how to diversify a portfolio or what you were talking about if you mentioned amortization, dividends or annuities. So, in the fall when I entered the lottery to go on the trip to meet Mr. Buffett, I did so more out of curiosity and intrigue. Who was this man that was so deified by my classmates? How could my friends who went last year say that it was the highlight of their MBA experience? What insights could one man possibly give me that would change my life?
After winning the lottery to go on the trip and reading up on him, I began to see what all the fuss was about. As I see it, Mr. Buffett is a good man that makes good decisions. Seems like an oversimplification, but as I hear, he likes to keep things minimal and clear-cut himself. He is somehow able to wrap his mind around the intricacies of a company’s financials at a glance (an exercise which takes me hours of blood, sweat and tears) and pick companies he wants to “go long on”. He’s also a keen strategist with a sense of humor. In his 2006 letter to his shareholders he shares his plan to beat an 11-year old ping pong prodigy who keeps kicking his butt: “I’ve since devised a plan that will give me a chance against her. At 1 p.m. on Sunday, I will initiate play with a 2-point game against Ariel. If I somehow win the first point, I will then feign injury and claim victory.” He was joking (sort of), but I think it is a great metaphor for how he strategizes his investment decisions.
Today we had our last planning meeting for our trip to meet Warren Buffett in Omaha. Since we’d taken care of the logistical planning in the last two meetings, we discussed the fun stuff today: how we will take advantage of our Q&A time with Warren Buffett; what things we will do to “give back” as Mr. Buffett does; and what we’d like to give him as a gift of thanks for spending his time with us (shhh…it’s a secret). Some of my classmates have been inspired to volunteer in their own communities (like at the School of Imagination in Dublin, CA), others are reaching out to the Omaha community and are organizing volunteer opportunities in which many of us will participate while we are there, and others are putting together an investment plan to present to Mr. Buffett. I am very proud to be involved with the Financial Literacy Outreach Program. I’d like to think of myself as a co-instigator of the project (with Courtney Hans). Though my classmates have certainly taken the ball and RUN with it. Basically, it’s a plan to teach teenagers some basic, applicable money concepts. Our team, under the leadership of Kuntal Das, put together a curriculum, and conducted some test sessions in local high schools. Our plan is to share this curriculum with some organizations in Omaha, and to hopefully continue to workshop the curriculum in schools throughout our communities.
We leave in a couple of weeks…more then!
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