Must Watch: Warren Buffett tells Barry Wood about his first business

Barry WoodA wise old man once told me horse-racing was a sport that attracted princes and knaves. You might say the same about journalism. Barry Wood (right), author of this piece – and compiler of the embedded video – is among the princes. A veteran whose work has been published and broadcast by many of the biggest titles in world, Barry has an affinity for South Africa, having started his career on the Financial Mail under its incomparable founding editor George Palmer. He visits here on a regular basis to teach and research. We make a point of getting together in the Press Room at the Berkshire Hathaway AGM in Omaha – this year will be his fifth – to swap notes and generally catch up. Here’s a wonderful video, and an accompanying piece that Barry put together after an interview with Berkshire’s chairman Warren Buffett. In it the Oracle of Omaha talks about how he turned a newspaper route into a business. The kind of story to inspire would-be entrepreneurs of every age. – Alec Hogg

By Barry Wood

Forbes Magazine says that in 2014 Warren Buffett was the world’s second richest man, worth an estimated $74 billion. The 84-year-old sage of Omaha, Nebraska is also the world’s most generous philanthropist. He gave away over $2 billion last year and is committed to giving away 85% of his fortune.

Few people are aware that Buffett spent his formative teenage years in Washington, DC during the time his father for six years was a member of congress.

Some time back, Buffett told me about his first successful business, delivering newspapers in Washington, DC.

“You learn a lot about human nature when you deliver papers,” says Buffett. “For one thing you learn you have to pay for them each month. Whether the customers pay you or not. You have to collect money.”

Buffett’s family lived in Spring Valley, an upper middle class neighborhood in Washington not far from the Maryland line. His house on 49th street northwest is less a mile from where I live. Young Warren attended the DC public schools, Alice Deal Junior High and he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School.

Buffett says delivering papers at age 14 instilled the importance of hard work and reliability.

War-time Washington was short of adult men and for that reason, says Buffett, he was able to get multiple paper routes at the Westchester Apartments, a five-building complex that was the home to the city’s elite.

“I also learned,“ he says, “that if you did a good job you were going to move up.

The very fact that I did a good job in Spring Valley got me the Westchester routes later on.”

Buffett savors the years when he got up before dawn, riding his bicycle or taking the bus to deliver papers before school.

“I was fortunate,” he says, “in that I was here in what was probably the most interesting period to be in Washington, during World War II. I delivered papers when Roosevelt died and when the atomic bomb was dropped.”

Newspapers remain important to Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway owns several and a newspaper throwing contest is a regular feature at Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha.

2015 marks the 50th year that Warren Buffett has headed Berkshire Hathaway and the 70th year since he delivered newspapers in Washington.

* Barry Wood is a columnist and Washington-based commentator on markets and the economy for RTHK radio in Hong Kong. His focus is how globalization impacts people. He contributes to marketwatch.com, USA Today, and, when we’re in luck, Biznews.com. Access more of his work here. 

 

 

 

 

 

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