Customer Reviews

Even Buffett Isn't Perfect: What You Can---And Can't---Learn from the World's Greatest Investor

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Vahan Janjigian is eminently qualified to write a book on Warren Buffett. To those who have misunderstood the title; it is meant to be ironic.
The book is a well researched and very informative analysis of Warren Buffet's success as well as a detailed explanation of various investment strategies. The language in the book is both erudite and colloquial in tone; and gives one the sense that the author is very comfortable writing on this subject. It reveals not only that Warren Buffet has, over the years, managed to be a world class investor by utilizing his research, instincts, judgment and patience; but that his refusal to bend to market trends has made him an outstanding long term builder of wealth.
The author's unique way of explaining both the academic aspects of the Buffett formula and using more common language, at times, to give a more baseline understanding of Buffet's success, make the book a highly readable text. I recommend it highly.

The title is kind of a misnomer. True that the author points out some of Buffett's investment mistakes. He also highlights what seem to be inconsistencies in the investment guru's approach. Yet the author never attacks the man directly. And he actually rains proper praise for all of the things Buffett's done right. To me it showed that everyone is human and prone to mistakes. As the author puts it, it's Buffett's ability to minimize mistakes while maximizing his successes that's truly made him a star.

Another aspect of the book I found to be more than a pleasant surprise was just how level-headed it was. Having read a number of investment-themed books, I can be sure that all good ones will present a heavy dose of what I like to call "financial science". Given that most investment strategies are based on some foundation of financial theory, this makes sense. But while many of these can get a bit too technical, the author does a good job of communicating relevant concepts without requiring the reader to have a degree in finance. Indeed, I initially cringed when he brought up the concept of correlation coefficient -- two words many of us probably haven't heard since high school. But his explanation of this and other important concepts were very easy to follow and rooted in common sense. He also doesn't inundate you with these concepts, only focusing on those that are required to help understand how Buffett invests and why it has worked so well for so long.

I enjoyed all of the chapters and felt the final ones -- which criticize Buffett's views on a few key issues such as taxes, corporate governance, and earnings guidance -- were especially well argued. However, my favorite, and perhaps most sobering, part of the book was when Dr. Janjigian distinguishes between business buyers and stock buyers. Specifically, he notes that while Buffett falls into the former category, most individual investors are stuck in the latter. This key distinction -- more than any other -- is the reason we realistically should not hope to duplicate Buffett's success. This was a refreshing change from so many other books that simply praise Buffett as an investment genius and suggests "foolproof" strategies that you can use to mirror his success. This author, too, has praise for the man. But he is very frank on how Buffett has made and maintained his fortune, and educates the reader on what is realistically possible when it comes to learning from the "World's Greatest Investor".

A very enjoyable read all around. I'd strongly recommended to anyone looking to for honest insight on Buffett, as well as, to anyone simply looking for a nice, easy to follow book on investing. You won't be disappointed.

Congratulations to Mr. Janjigian for writing a book that not only does a great job in discussing Buffett's investment styles, but also and more importantly communicating the key investment concepts that individual investors should be aware of, in a very easy to understand manner. While there have been many, more detailed books written on Buffett's investment approach, I think Vahan effectively uses the different investment approaches employed by Buffett to highlight and to some extent caution individual investors who attempt to emulate Buffett by stating that what might be good for large long term investors like Buffett (who have access to top level managements), may not necessarily be true for individual stock investors. An investor like Buffett can make big concentrated bets based on his understanding of management and management's strategies, something that an individual stock investor may lack as a function of limited/no access to top level managements.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a good understanding of the basic and key investment concepts, and I would recommend that colleges handout this book to incoming students in order to educate them with the basics of sound investing principles. I sincerely hope that this book is the first in many more to come!

In full disclosure, I am a friend of the author and have sat on two industry corporate governance committees with him. The qualities that I observed him exhibit on these committees including a willingness to examine issues from all prospective and to go beyond conventional analysis is what makes, "Even Buffett isn't perfect" such an important book. This book is probably the most evenhanded analysis of Buffett - his strengths and weaknesses (everyone has them). Dr. Janjigian's critique of Buffet's positions on taxation and estate taxes, should be required reading for all politicians.

What makes this book so useful is that Dr. Janjigian writes in a clear and straightforward style that is easily accessible to the nonprofessional. At the end of each chapter there is summary of all the major points discussed in the chapter.

The author focuses on the key topics of investing including diversification, compounding and investment style, explaining to the reader what aspects of Buffet's approach the reader should emulate and what parts of Buffett's approach the reader needs to modify.

I strongly recommend this book because most readers will find the well thought out investment principles simply presented, allowing readers to easily adapt them to their own investment programs.

In a few short pages, the author summarizes the wisdom, and occasional errors of the greatest investor of all time. The executive summary for each chapter, makes the author's analysis available to even the most impatient reader. Defintely a top choice for summer time investment reading, particularly in these troubled times.

Vahan has a wonderful writing style that is simple and easy to understand which communicates his complete and thorough understanding of Buffett, his investment style and the markets and investments in general... An easy read and one worth doing, I feel smarter for having read this great little nugget of a book.

I own quite a few books about Buffett and I was looking for one that shows the mistakes that he has made. The author not only has a chapter that explains the mistakes, he also has other chapters that details the investments that were successful.

The subtitle of the book, What You Can - and Can't - Learn from the World's Greatest Investor, perfectly describes the contents of the book.

This is what I liked:

- The mistakes are explained in great detail.
- The successes are also explained in greater detail, so you know that this book, despite the title, is not all about trashing Buffett.
- The author shows the discrepancies in what Buffett says versus what he does (taxes, for example: he is for the estate tax but is turning much of his estate over to foundations).
- The book was very readable.

The only thing I didn't like was that the author said that the Fama/French study showed spectacular monthly returns based on buying companies using price-to-book ratios. However, he doesn't explain the strategy that the study used. An explanation would have been very helpful. There is a note in the back of the book referencing the study, but I couldn't find anything more about it.

Informational. Esp for me being new in stock market/investing. Author goes into the good amount of details on how Buffet has been investing. Excellent in the sense that not all information on his investment is known to the non-initiated. Even some of his old investments were similar to the GE purchase. Then it makes a good point that common investors can not have that kind of opportunity where you get 10% guaranteed return plus options.

All that said the book seems to have not emphasized that by investing on only companies that he understands and invests, following Warren may not be of much use for people in tech field where his portfolio has definitely been lean. Besides the tech stocks have not yet entered the value phase anyway. I think the task of carrying over his ideas into new stocks is still open for new generation.

Mr. Buffett may not be perfect, but given his "extreme" level of net worth, he must have done something right with his investment portfolio. And let's be clear - Berkshire Hathaway has always been managed like an investment portfolio. Vahan Janjigian provides a clear and concise explanation of Buffett's strategy and investment process, and gives the reader some insights on successful wealth generation. And this is the only book that criticizes his views on taxation. Not too long; not too complicated; but very informative and well written. A perfect "end of summer" read.

This was an extremely informative book formatted in an organized, concise fashion. Any level of investor can learn from this book and enjoy Janjigian's objective analysis of Buffett. The chapter on taxes was particularly interesting and the chapter on "Governance and the Next Buffett" made one think that perhaps Buffett should consider Janjigian in his "succession plan". Definitely a great read.