自从读了本杰明•格雷厄姆（Benjamin Graham）《做个聪明的投资者》（The Intelligent Investor）这本书后，他就成了我的偶像。我当时一心想考哥伦比亚大学商学院，因为格雷厄姆教授在那里教学。直到我从哥伦比亚大学毕业，回到奥马哈市开始做证券买卖，我还一直记得他。1951-1954年期间，我很不自量力地频繁写信给他，表达我关于证券的看法。然后竟然收到了他的一封回信：“下次你来纽约的时候，可以过来找我。”
于是，我就去找他了。他给我提供了一个在格雷汉姆-纽曼公司（Graham-Newman Corp.）工作的机会，这个公司是他与杰里•纽曼（Jerry Newman）合伙经营的。大家都说A.W. Jones是对冲基金的行业第一人，但实际上格雷汉姆-纽曼公司的姊妹公司Newman and Graham公司比他还早。后来我和怀有5个月身孕的妻子苏西（Susie）和女儿一起搬到了纽约州白原市。每天早上我都要乘火车先到中央车站，然后去公司上班。
那是一个短期职位：第二年，当我25岁的时候，格雷汉姆先生——那是我当时称呼他的方式——因为退休把他的职位让给了我。实际上，他给我的不止那些：他给了我取代他的机会，并让杰里的儿子Mickey做高级合伙人，我是初级合伙人。那是一支很小的基金——只有600万或700万美元——但却是一支非常有名的基金。
那是一个艰难的决定，到了我自己做以前心目中的英雄的时候——我甚至给我第一个儿子起名叫霍华德•格雷汉姆•巴菲特（霍华德是我父亲的名字）。但我还是想回到奥马哈，我几乎连续一个月每天早上上班时都想告诉格雷汉姆先生我要离开了，但一直开不了口。
当时的情况是，我离开学校时只有9800美元，但到1955年之前，我已经有12万7000美元了。我当时想回到奥马哈，去大学里教教课，读我喜欢的书——我已经打算要辞职了！我算了一下，除了12万7000美元的积蓄，我们每年还可以有1万2000美元的收入，这个数目还是很容易实现的。我告诉妻子，“复利保证我们能马上变得富有。”
我让妻子和孩子提前返回了奥马哈，然后，我上了车就向西走，去核实那些我有兴趣投资的公司。那时的我真的很勤奋。我停在了宾夕法尼亚州的黑泽尔顿市，访问Jeddo-Highland煤炭公司；还访问了位于密歇根州正在进行清算的Kalamazoo Stove & Furnace公司。我亲自去看了那些工厂到底是什么样，销售什么样的产品。我去特拉华州和俄亥俄州核实了Greif Bros公司和它的制桶工厂。（现在还有谁对制桶工厂有了解？）虽然我只是顺便来拜访，并没有预约，但这家公司的董事长还是会见了我。我发现人们都愿意跟我交谈，并对我提供帮助。
在奥马哈时，我以175美元每月的租金在安德伍德5202号租了一个房子。我告诉妻子，“我当然希望能买一个属于自己的房子，但那就像木匠卖掉自己的工具箱一样不明智。”我没打算花光我的积蓄。
我当时并没有创业的想法，甚至也没想过要工作。只要能亲自操作自己的资产，我就不会担心。我当然也不想把证券再卖给其他人了，但一个偶然的机会，7个人，其中包括我的几个亲戚，跟我说，“你不是卖过股票吗？我们想让你帮忙想想怎么安排我们的钱。”我回答，“我不打算再做那个了，但我马上就要开自己的公司了，就是Ben和杰里开的那种公司，如果你们想的话，可以加入我。”于是，我的岳父、大学室友和他的妈妈，以及我的姑姑Alice、我姐姐和姐夫以及我的律师都签了他们的名字，我也投入了几百美元，就这样开始创业了——完全是一个偶然事件。
公司成立之后，当我们聚在一起吃饭的时候，他们7个人加上我——看上去活脱脱就是一个在奥马哈的俱乐部。我用49美分买了一个账簿，他们则把支票带了过来。在我接过他们手中的钱时，我给了他们半张带复写的纸——我认为这是基本法则。我说，“到时候会有一份2-4页的合伙人法律文件，不用担心，我会告诉你们那上面写些什么，你们到时候不会感到陌生的。”
“但是，这些基本法则就是公司的灵魂。如果与我的想法一致，那么我们就一起行动；如果不一致，我也会理解的。我不会告诉你们我们拥有哪些这类事情，我想让自己在该得到掌声的时候有掌声，该被扔臭鸡蛋的时候有臭鸡蛋。但我不想在自己仅下降5%，而市场已经下降15%的时候被扔臭鸡蛋——因为我觉得那时候的我应该得到掌声。”我们把什么事情都说清楚之后，然后再拿大伙儿的钱。
我并没有大肆宣传，但很多不认识的人也开始把他们的钱交给我，而此时纽约的格雷汉姆-纽曼公司正要被清算。Homer Dodge是佛蒙特州的一位大学校长，他之前一直把钱在格雷汉姆公司投资，当他问“Ben，以后我的钱该如何处理啊？”Ben告诉他，“这个小孩以前在我这里工作过，他也许可以帮助你……”于是，Dodge就驱车到了奥马哈，来到了我租住的这个房子里。当时的我已经25岁了，看上去却只有17岁，行为更像是12岁。他看到我时说，“你是做什么的？”我回答道，“我在这里给自己的家庭理财，我也可以顺便帮你理理财。”。
尽管当时并没有太多想法，但25岁的确是我的一个转折点。我的人生从那时起开始发生改变，这个公司后来成长为今天规模宏大的伯克希尔•哈撒韦公司。我从来没有害怕过，因为我所做的是我真正喜欢的事情，并且直到现在我还在做。
Benjamin Graham had been my idol ever since I read his book The Intelligent Investor. I had wanted to go to Columbia Business School because he was a professor there, and after I got out of Columbia, returned to Omaha, and started selling securities, I didn’t forget about him. Between 1951 and 1954, I made a pest of myself, sending him frequent securities ideas. Then I got a letter back: “Next time you’re in New York, come and see me.”
So there I went, and he offered me a job at Graham-Newman Corp., which he ran with Jerry Newman. Everyone says that A.W. Jones started the hedge fund industry, but Graham-Newman’s sister partnership, Newman and Graham, was actually an earlier fund. I moved to White Plains, New York, with my wife, Susie, who was four months pregnant, and my daughter. Every morning, I got on a train to Grand Central and went to work.
It was a short-lived position: The next year, when I was 25, Mr. Graham—that’s what I called him then—gave me a heads-up that he was going to retire. Actually, he did more than that: He offered me the chance to replace him, with Jerry’s son Mickey as the new senior partner and me as the new junior partner. It was a very tiny fund—$6 million or $7 million—but it was a famousfund.
This was a traumatic decision. Here was my chance to step into the shoes of my hero—I even named my first son Howard Graham Buffett. (Howard was for my father.) But I also wanted to come back to Omaha. I probably went to work for a month thinking every morning that I would tell Mr. Graham I was going to leave. But it was hard to do.
The thing is, when I got out of college, I had $9,800, but by the end of 1955, I was up to $127,000. I thought, I’ll go back to Omaha, take some college classes, and read a lot—I was going to retire! I figured we could live on $12,000 a year, and off my $127,000 asset base, I could easily make that. I told my wife, “Compound interest guarantees I’m going to get rich.”
My wife and kids went back to Omaha just ahead of me. I got in the car, and on my way west checked out companies I was interested in investing in. It was due diligence. I stopped in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, to visit the Jeddo-Highland Coal Company. I visited the Kalamazoo Stove & Furnace Company in Michigan, which was being liquidated. I went to see what the building looked like, what they had for sale. I went to Delaware, Ohio, to check out Greif Bros. Cooperage. (Who knows anything about cooperage anymore?) Its chairman met with me. I didn’t have appointments; I would just drop in. I found that people always talked to me. All these people helped me.
In Omaha, I rented a house at 5202 Underwood for $175 a month. I told my wife, “I’d be glad to buy a house, but that’s like a carpenter selling his toolkit.” I didn’t want to use up my capital.
I had no plans to start a partnership, or even have a job. I had no worries as long as I could operate on my own. I certainly did not want to sell securities to other people again. But by pure accident, seven people, including a few of my relatives, said to me, “You used to sell stocks, and we want you to tell us what to do with our money.” I replied, “I’m not going to do that again, but I’ll form a partnership like Ben and Jerry had, and if you want to join me, you can.” My father-in-law, my college roommate, his mother, my aunt Alice, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my lawyer all signed on. I also had my hundred dollars. That was the beginning—totally accidental.
When I formed that partnership, we had dinner, the seven of them plus me—I’m 99 percent sure it was at the Omaha Club. I bought a ledger for 49 cents, and they brought their checks. Before I took their money, I gave them a half sheet of paper that I had made carbons of—something I called the ground rules. I said, “There are two or four pages of partnership legal documents. Don’t worry about that. I’ll tell you what’s in it, and you won’t get any surprises.
“But these ground rules are the philosophy. If you are in tune with me, then let’s go. If you aren’t, I understand. I’m not going to tell you what we own or anything like that. I want to get bouquets when I deserve bouquets, and I want to get soft fruit thrown at me when I deserve it. But I don’t want fruit thrown at me if I’m down 5 percent, and the market’s down 15 percent—I’m going to think I deserve a bouquet for that.” We made everything clear, and they gave me their checks.
I did no solicitation, but more checks began coming from people I didn’t know. Back in New York, Graham-Newman was being liquidated. There was a college president up in Vermont, Homer Dodge, who had been invested with Graham, and he asked, “Ben, what should I do with my money?” Ben said, “Well, there’s this kid who used to work for me.…” So Dodge drove out to Omaha, to this rented house I lived in. I was 25, looked about 17, and acted like 12. He said, “What are you doing?” I said, “Here’s what I’m doing with my family, and I’ll do it with you.”
Although I had no idea, age 25 was a turning point. I was changing my life, setting up something that would turn into a fairly good-size partnership called Berkshire Hathaway. I wasn’t scared. I was doing something I liked, and I’m still doing it.
