How much does it cost to have a meal with Buffett? Chinese person Danyang Zhao was willing to pay $2.11 million and had the meal on June 24, 2009. In 2010, one of Buffett's lunches was also auctioned off, with someone willing to pay $1.68 million.
However, when Buffett graduated from university, he was as down-and-out as you and me: Buffett was willing to work for his dream company without pay, but the boss still rejected him, so he had to report to his father's company, where he performed averagely.
It is said that at the age of 19, high school graduate Buffett was determined to further his studies at Harvard Business School. Unexpectedly, the interviewer rejected the confident Buffett. It was too embarrassing, and his first thought was "How can I face my father?"
The excellent high school graduate was deeply shocked. As an outstanding university graduate, Buffett received a heavy blow when he applied for his first job.
Benjamin Graham, the father of securities, taught at Columbia University for 22 years, and the first A+ score he gave was taken by this favorite student. In order to continue following his idol after graduation, Buffett made a seemingly irrefutable request: to work for Graham-Newman Corporation without salary. However, Graham actually rejected this request. The reason was: Jewish people were rejected by Wall Street at that time, and Graham wanted to give some opportunities to Jewish people.
This is Buffett's own recollection: "He was very kind, just saying, 'Look, Warren. On Wall Street, large investment banks do not hire Jews. We can only hire a few employees here. Therefore, we only use Jews.'" The two female employees in the office were indeed Jewish, and everyone in the company was Jewish. This was somewhat like Graham's version of "reverse affirmative action." In fact, there was really great discrimination against Jews in the 50s, and I understand it.
Buffett, who regarded his teacher as a deity, had to accept such a reality: Graham did not consider their personal relationship. A friend said that this was a big blow to Buffett, which was a "test of endurance" for him.
Fortunately, Buffett had a father who wasn't doing too badly, so he came to work at his father's Buffett-Falk Securities Brokerage Company.
Don't think that Buffett soared to success from then on. Buffett was not good at speaking, so being a stock salesman was a tough job. He could only timidly approach the people he knew best. He started calling the safest people he knew - his aunt and university friends - to promote the stocks he liked. Unfortunately, he even made his relatives and friends lose money.
Those big clients didn't take him seriously. They would first get stock recommendations from Buffett, then verify such information with more experienced people, and buy the stocks through other brokers.
Buffett began to hate the job of "prescribing medicine," and he wanted to find ways to reduce his reliance on this job. He had always liked doing business, so he partnered with a friend to buy a gas station.
During this period of workplace maladjustment, he also overcame his deficiency in public speaking.
The author of "The Biography of Buffett" believed that Buffett's greatest progress in his father's company was not in investment, but in attending Dale Carnegie's public speaking course. After finishing Carnegie's speaking course, Buffett went to Omaha University to teach the course "Principles of Investment." By learning and applying, Buffett's "speaking skills" improved rapidly.
Understanding Buffett's early career journey, we can realize:
1. Young people need to endure the period of workplace maladjustment, even if they are top students, because no one knows how reality will turn out, yet we must deal with it.
2. Make progress in multiple directions. Buffett learned public speaking and did business to cope with the maladjustment period. Young people should remember not to sit idly by.
3. One must be persistent about something.
Following Graham best demonstrates Buffett's persistence. Initially, it was his pursuit of Graham's company, and later, it was his pursuit of Graham's investment philosophy. You need to know that Buffett had been secretly investing on his own, and his investment returns far exceeded those of the company. From 1950 when he left university to 1956 when he founded his own company, Buffett's personal assets had skyrocketed from $9,800 to $140,000.
In the 3-4 years after graduation, Buffett maintained correspondence with Benjamin Graham and regularly visited the Graham-Newman Company from Omaha to New York. It is recorded in "The Biography of Buffett" that: "There were not many students as committed to the Graham-Newman Company as he was."
Buffett was eventually hired, and he was extremely excited. He immediately flew to New York and arrived at his new job position, one month earlier than the official reporting date.
This could be considered his true professional starting point, where he learned the investment philosophy of finding "cigar butts" companies.
Two years later, Buffett already felt that his mentor's pool was too small. A company with a fund size of only $5 million could no longer provide him with greater development space.
By the spring of 1956, Buffett no longer worked for his father or Benjamin Graham to earn money, but instead devoted all his efforts to his own partnership company - Buffett Partnership Ltd.
One detail can prove that Buffett had truly mastered his craft: At the time, an investor of Graham-Newman asked Graham a question that people often cared about: "Who will inherit your legacy?" Graham mentioned Warren Buffett.
This investor, Homer Dodge, passed through Omaha on his way to a vacation in the west. After a brief conversation with Buffett, he invested $120,000 in Buffett's company.
Thus, Buffett's first job experience ended, and his career truly took off.