Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett, 2006 Literary Edition [Hardcover]

Andrew Kilpatrick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0964190575 | ISBN-13: 978-0964190573 | Publication Date: August 1, 2005 | Edition: First Edition

The theme of this fully revised biography about Warren Buffett is books, books, books. Many works directly related to Buffett or Berkshire Hathaway, as well as many indirectly related, are the focus. For example, a chapter about Procter & Gamble includes photos and information about books written about P&G. A good number of the more than 1,100 photos in the book relate to books to help move the story, indeed the odyssey, along. The muse for this odyssey is James Joyce's Ulysses. The cover is blue because the original cover of Joyce's masterpiece was blue. The back cover of the book sports a superb photo of Buffett and Bill Gates standing together at a golf outing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is the Buffett 'bible'...It provides the definitve story of his career." --London Daily Telegraph

About the Author

Andrew Kilpatrick graduated from Washington & Lee University in 1965. He served in the Peace Corps in India for two years and earned a master's degree in English from the University of Vermont and was a Navy Officer from 1968-1971. He had a 20-year career as a reporter in Birmingham, Alabama, and since 1992 has been a stockbroker with Wachovia Securities in Birmingham.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1682 pages
• Publisher: Andy Kilpatrick Publishing Empire; First Edition edition (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964190575
• ISBN-13: 978-0964190573
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 3.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( B ) > Buffett, Warren

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book about Warren Buffett (including his Berkshire days), October 5, 2006

By 

Sidarta Tanu (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett, 2006 Literary Edition (Hardcover)

First, I want to mention two constructive feedback about this book. One is that this book is probably only suitable for Warren Buffett fanatics/fans. For general investors interested about Berkshire Hathaway or how Warren Buffett invest, this is probably not the best book to read (as it has so much more info. i.e. more than 1000 pages). Second is that I have read this book more than once and I still don't know how the book is organized (the chapters aren't following chronological order, alphabetical nor topical order), therefore it is quite confusing to read as you progress from one chapter to another. Only after you read enough chapter (or completed the book) then you can put it all in the big picture in your head (from Warren's childhood till his current Berkshire days). Nonetheless, kudos to Andrew Kilpatrick for putting this book together. Moreover, once you know the limitation, this book is easily considered the best book about Warren Buffett in my opinion.

Now about the content of the book. You will learn a lot about Warren Buffett and his life, and not only investing topic (investing decisions that he made throughout his career) but his life principles, family, and business in general as well. You will learn about his first job delivering papers when he was 13 (he filed income tax and deducted the bike as business cost), and how he build his first business (pinball machine business), created Buffett partnership, break it up (liquidate), acquire berkshire mills, creating Berkshire Hathaway as investment vehicle, and many other great investment decision/story that he made (Geico, See's Candies, Dairy Queen, General Re, Coca Cola, Salomon, Washington Post, Gillette etc)

Buffett concrete rules for investing are:
1. Never lose money
2. Never forget rule #1

I know it's easier said (what he say above about to never lose money) than done based on my 10 years of invesitng experience , but then again I'm no Warren Buffett.

In my opinion, here are the 5 strategy/skills that Warren Buffett uses (Mr. Buffett, please correct me if I'm wrong):
1. Intrinsic Value
2. Margin of Safety
3. Temperament (discipline and understanding Mr.Market)
4. Circle of Competence (knowing what your circle of competence)
5. Common Sense (which I think is the most important factor and encapsulate everything about Warren Buffett.)

You will learn that Warren is very good with numbers (calculating in his head) and memorizing so many facts and numbers. You will also learn that Warren is a man with a very good sense of humor.

There are so many things/chapters that I like on this book. Let me try to mention two of my favorite sections.

One is when Warren need to make a decision who would run Salomon ($150B institution with 8000 employees) within 2 days during their first crisis. There are 12 top-level managers that he interviewed. "This was the most important hire of my life", said Warren to the Columbia business students. The chapter explain his thought process of this candidate selection in detail. Warren mentioned that the good news (for the students and the candidate) is that he didn't ask what their grades were (laughter). Warren also said, "Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. and if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you. if you think about it, it's true, if you hire somebody without integrity, you want them to be dumb and lazy" (laughter). And he conclude the topic with this statement which I think is very powerful: "Pick the kind of person to work for you that you want to marry your son or daughter. You won't go wrong". By the way, he picked Deryck Maughan by the way for his integrity.

Another chapter that I really like is how Warren put the audience (of more than 2000 people) through Business School in an electrifying two minutes (The chapter about "Generics"). See how Warren answer the question of "Will developments in the generic brand area hurt coca-cola?" which is a very important questions. I'll try not to spill too much and take the joy of reading this chapter yourself but he basically explains in a nutshell (with all the details and numbers) how business and competition works (and using several other example like Gilette, Marlboro, Sam Cola etc) and how he convinced the audience (and me as a reader) that coca cola is considered immune to generics. He explains how one can save $500 for smoking generic brand (vs Marlboro) which is a lot of money. While a man will probably will only save $11 per year by not using Gilette Sensor and probably leave band-aids on his face and an uncomfotable experience for opting for generics/lower quality blades. And for coca cola, the net profit margin is only 1 cents per serving (can) while a lot of the ingredients cost (such as the aluminium close to 6 cents a can, sugar 1.3 ounce per can or 1.75 cents etc) the same regardless for coke or other cola company.

I'll stop here before it's getting too long. In summary, If you are a Warren Buffett fans, then this book is for you. If you are uncertain, you can get other books first (potentially less thick book), like "Warren Buffet Way" or maybe "Buffettology", and if you like them (Warren) or want to know more about Warren then get this book. I personally don't like it in the beginning but as time goes by (and after I re-read the book/chapters), I changed my mind, this book is a masterpiece.

As a Berkshire shareholder, I want to encourage all berkshire shareholders (and potential/future shareholders) to read this book to know more about the person in charge of your berkshire investment. I also want to encourage all shareholders to go to the annual shareholder meeting while Mr. Buffett is still in charge.

Last but not least, if I have to sum this book up in a word or two, I would use the word "WISDOM" to describe this book, though I have a strong feeling that Warren will disagree with me and think that the more suitable phrase is "COMMON SENSE"

Happy Investing!


Sidarta Tanu

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BOOK on Warren Buffett, August 12, 2009

By 

Mariusz Skonieczny "Author" (Schaumburg, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett, 2006 Literary Edition (Hardcover)

This is the most comprehensive book about Warren Buffett I have ever read. I read The Snowball by Alice Schroeder and I liked it, but I found this book easier to read. This book has it all from Salomon Brothers, the Buffett Partnership, his children, Berkshire Hathaway, and much more. This is a long book and it may seem a little daunting to finish it, but it is divided into short chapters. Readers can turn to any chapter and not feel lost at all. I read this book after reading all the other books about Warren Buffett, and I was surprised how much more I still learned about him.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Kirkpatrick, please hire an editor, January 14, 2006

By 

James E. Bondelid "jbond129" (Oreland, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett, 2006 Literary Edition (Hardcover)

Once again, this book comes out with more repetitious chapters. This book can be a resource for some new material, but it is not to be read straight through. Self-publishing has its downside, and this book demonstrates that. Kirkpatrick is a nice old newspaperman, and he has written several scores of short articles and collected them into his idea of a book. It must pay very well, emotionally if not monetarily, becuse he keeps doing it, but it does not serve anyone who values their time.