Warren Buffett - The Investment Guru

Buffett was born on August 30, 1930 to Howard and Leila Buffett of Omaha (Nebraska State). He was the only son among the three children in the family. Even as a child, Buffett displayed keen interest in numbers. He could remember the baseball scores, and the horseracing odds; anything to do with numbers fascinated him. He also displayed a flair for money. While other kids of his age spent time playing, Buffett was busy making money. At the age of five, he set up a gum stand on the sidewalk at his home and sold chewing gum to passersby. During the summers, he made money selling lemonade. When Buffett was nine years old, he along with a few friends, collected golf balls from the local golf course, segregated them according to their brand names, repacked and sold them.

Buffett was introduced to the world of stocks by his father who opened his own stock brokerage firm. Soon the young Buffett started keenly observing the ups and downs of the stock market. In 1941, at the age of eleven, Buffett took his first plunge into the world of stocks. He purchased three shares of Cities Services for himself and three shares for his older sister Doris for $38 a share. Soon after he bought the shares, the stock price of Cities Services dropped to $27 and later rose again to $40. Immediately after the stock price reached $40, Buffett sold his shares. However, soon after Buffett sold the shares, the price of Cities Services' shares increased to $200. This experience taught Buffett his first stock market lesson - patience.