Warren Buffett, whom the world knows as the best stock market investor, wasn’t as famous in 1969. But he was already a millionaire then, and was on the verge of retiring from his investing career.
Till then, Buffett was managing his private investment firm – Buffett Partnership – and was doing pretty well for his investors.
But in May 1969, he wrote a heavy-hearted and an apologetic letter to the members of his partnership, warning them of his “intention to retire.”
Buffett complained about the “seemingly barren investment world” and the “increasingly short-term oriented” speculative market.
That environment, he said, had “generally become more negative and frustrating as time has passed.”
Interestingly, he even sounded worried his age (then 40) was catching up with him! As he wrote to his partners, “Maybe I am merely suffering from a lack of mental flexibility.”
Well, as they say, the rest is history.
While Buffett closed his investment partnership and returned his partners’ money, the brilliant investor within him was still alive and kicking.
Today, Buffett is 82, and still has the sanest mind in the investing world, still hungry for good stocks, and still willing to invest for the long term.
See, I can go on and on while talking about Buffett, but here is one document that does the job brilliantly.
This report was published by Forbes in June 2010, and is an excellent reading into Buffett’s past, and his brilliance as an investor and thinker.
Click on the image below to view the report. If you are not able to see the image, click here.
By the way, my post on the art of choosing a financial advisor, which I’d talked about yesterday, will be published on Monday, 24th October 2011.
PS: Don’t forget – If you have a friend or colleague who you think would like to hear from me, please sign them up for The Safal Niveshak Post. They’ll get a polite invitation – which they can decline – and I never share my email lists.
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