Lunch with Warren Buffett changed my life 3
Guy Spier is the director of the Aquamarine Fund and author of `A Value Investor’s Education: My Quest for Wealth, Wisdom and Enlightenment.`
The first time I met Warren Buffett in real life was in 1991, when I was an MBA (Master of Business Administration) student at Harvard Business School.
The lecture that day was about stocks.
Warren Buffett (left) and Guy Spier (right).
After graduating from Harvard, I became an employee at an investment bank, hoping to make a decent amount of money from my first job.
When I was too disappointed, I read Roger Lowenstein’s biography of Warren Buffett.
After that, I quit my job and opened an investment fund following the model Buffett did in the 1960s. Imitating his method, I invested in a group of quality companies at cheap prices, then held the shares for many years.
As an asset manager, I often ask myself: `If it were Buffett, what would he do?`.
Buffett is an excellent role model for me.
So, in 2008, my friend Mohnish Pabrai and I contributed $650,100 in a charity auction to have lunch with Buffett.
He is also very pleasant and comfortable.
The most memorable thing Warren shared that day was about the need to live according to `your own standards`, instead of worrying about what others think of you.
It’s clear that he runs everything according to his own thinking, living and investing in a way that suits his personality and the values he respects.
