The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Our take

Published in 2008, the only authorised Buffett biography, five years of interviews in the making. Our take: the most worthwhile read isn't investment technique (better learned elsewhere) but how one man applied seventy years of unbroken discipline, compounding money, reputation and relationships alike. Thick — but it's the making of "a friend of time".

Who it is for

For the Buffett-curious and long-term thinkers; also biography lovers. Not for formula hunters — this teaches almost no formulas.

Three key ideas

1. The snowball: find wet snow and a long hill — circle of competence and time, his two repeated conditions.
2. Compounding reputation: twenty years to build, five minutes to ruin — he means it.
3. The price of focus: the book also records family time he missed for the work — long-termism isn't free.

How to read it

Thick — read in sections: move fast through childhood and early investing, slow down after the Berkshire acquisition. Note which principles you can use, not his holdings list.

FAQ