After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Warren Buffett applied to Harvard Business School.
“They told me I was to get interviewed in a place near Chicago,” the iconic investor recounts in HBO’s “Becoming Warren Buffett”. “I got there and they interviewed me for about 10 minutes and said: ‘Forget it. You’re not going to Harvard.’”
Buffett’s first thought was, “What do I tell my dad? This is terrible.” But, he says, “it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.”
The rejection opened the door to Columbia. Later that summer, while looking through a catalog for Columbia Business School, Buffett recognized the names of two professors: Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, and David Dodd.
“I had read this book”Security Analysis“by the two of them, so I wrote them a letter in mid-August,” Buffett says. “I said, ‘Dear Professor Dodd. I thought you guys were dead, but now that I found out that you’re alive and teaching at Columbia, I would really like to come.’ And he admitted me.”
“Ben was this incredible teacher. He was a natural and he drew us all in,” Buffett says of Graham. “It was like learning baseball from a fellow who was batting 400. It shaped my professional life.”
It was Graham who taught him “the two rules of investing” that Buffett has lived by throughout his massively successful career.
“Rule number one: Never lose money,” Buffett says. “Rule number two: Never forget rule number one.”
在從內(nèi)布拉斯加大學(xué)畢業(yè)后,沃倫·巴菲特申請(qǐng)了哈佛商學(xué)院。
這位投資大師在HBO的節(jié)目《成為巴菲特》中回憶道:“他們告訴我要在芝加哥附近的一個(gè)地方面試我。我去了那個(gè)地方,他們面試了我大概10分鐘,然后說(shuō):‘算了吧,你去不了哈佛。’”
當(dāng)時(shí)巴菲特的第一個(gè)想法是:“我該怎么告訴我爸爸?這太可怕了?!钡撬F(xiàn)在卻說(shuō):“最后證明,這是發(fā)生在我身上最好的事情?!?/p>
哈佛的拒絕為他打開(kāi)了一扇通往哥倫比亞大學(xué)的大門(mén)。在那個(gè)夏天稍晚一些時(shí)候,巴菲特翻閱哥倫比亞大學(xué)商學(xué)院目錄時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)了兩位教授的名字:價(jià)值投資之父本杰明·格雷厄姆和戴維·多德。
股神巴菲特稱(chēng)人生最美好的事就是沒(méi)去哈佛大學(xué)!
巴菲特說(shuō)道:“我讀過(guò)他倆寫(xiě)的《證券分析》,因此我8月中旬的時(shí)候給他們寫(xiě)了一封信。我說(shuō),‘親愛(ài)的多德教授。我本以為你們倆位已經(jīng)去世了,沒(méi)想到你們還活著、在哥倫比亞大學(xué)教書(shū),我真的很想當(dāng)你們的學(xué)生。’后來(lái)他就錄取了我?!?/p>
巴菲特評(píng)價(jià)格雷厄姆教授時(shí)說(shuō)道:“本是一個(gè)不可思議的老師。他的教學(xué)潤(rùn)物無(wú)聲,使我們所有人都沉浸其中。就像跟棒球隊(duì)里一個(gè)能打400碼遠(yuǎn)的小伙伴學(xué)習(xí)一樣。那塑造了我的職業(yè)生涯。”
巴菲特正是依靠格雷厄姆教他的“投資的兩項(xiàng)原則”,建立起了自己成功的事業(yè)。
巴菲特說(shuō)道:“第一條原則,永遠(yuǎn)不要虧錢(qián)。第二條原則,永遠(yuǎn)不要忘記第一條原則?!?/p>