Warren Buffet: The World's Richest Man

“All the world is a stage, and the actors mere players.” When William Shakespeare wrote those words, he was talking of living and dying. But just before you die, sorry, before you act your last play (sounds better), what name are you making for yourself?

Many men—and women too—desire to be remembered in various ways. Consider these:

The shaggy-haired scientist, Albert Einstein (“Imagination is better than knowledge”); the paraplegic former US president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”); the Mahatma or Great Soul of India, Mohandas Gandhi (“Everybody is eager to garland my photos but nobody wants to follow my advice”); the show biz czarina, Oprah Winfrey (“When I look into the future, it’s so bright it burns my eyes.”)

However, there are tritons--sorry again--players in the world’s money market. Not that you are about to read a list of who-is-who in Millionaires' Playground. Nor are we about to launch an inquiry into the origin and wealth of nations (apologies to Adam Smith).

But talking about wealth, who is the world’s richest man? Bill Gates. No, you are living in the past. Warren Buffet. Right, way to go!

You see, the world is changing fast. Like a kaleidoscope. We may be wrong again before you finish reading this.

Because Gates has been downgraded to a third place with a “mere” $58 billion by the Mexican telecom mogul, Carlos Slim, with $60 billion. (Pity Bill Gates!)

But Warren Buffet, the man with an unusual name, possesses—wait a moment--$62 billion! An unusual amount of cash in a cash-strapped world. Did the stars stop twinkling?

On the contrary, the heavenly lights have been shining ever brighter since Buffet, the world’s greatest name in the stock market, began turning around the fortunes of wise folks who invested in his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. From a paltry $42 per share in the 60’s, the insurance and holding company now trades at $68,000 a share! His own stake in Berkshire Hathaway of which he is president, is 38 percent, making him richer than his friend, Bill Gates.

Warren Buffet, fondly called the Oracle of Omaha (I like the musical sound), who now doubles as the world’s richest man, owes his success from pitching tent where angels fear to tread. Where stock market investors would bet their life on companies with interest-rate potentials, the Oracle himself would bet his Gulfstream IV-SP jet (he calls it “The Indefensible”), on undervalued companies with potential high growth rate, and play Michael Micawber—waiting for things to turn up.

That unsurpassed wisdom made him buy Coca-Cola in 1988 then seen as “Wall Street wallflower” trading at $10.96, which five years later skyrocketed to $74.50!

Now the stock market whiz-kid—sorry he is in his 70’s—has enough “change” for collection at Coca-Cola, enough to buy him burgers (he likes them so much). But how much “pocket change”? Thirteen billion dollars! And so has his chain of business benefited from his magic touch.

This oracular wisdom drives investors to attend the Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha called the “Elvis concert” or which the Oracle himself likes to call “Woodstock for Capitalists.”

Who wouldn’t like to know the magic wand to turning stocks to mega-bucks? Who wouldn’t like to learn the secrets of the world’s greatest market investor whose holdings have for the past 40 years been galloping ahead of the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

Buffet’s success story gives us a few tips to greatness: Separate yourself from the “maddening crowd,” see tomorrow from today, distinguish between gold and dross, and learn to wait. Only an Oracle possesses those.

So, let us roll out the red carpet—or is it the golden carpet?—and usher in our new hero on stage. And what name has he made for himself? The richest man in the world.

But watch your back, Warren Buffet. The Mexcan is coming! Afteral, all the world is a stage.

Arthur Zulu is a writer and publisher.

To read his works, go to:
http://www.arthurbookhouse.com

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