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With an estimated net worth of about $46 billion, Buffett, often called the 'Sage of Omaha', is ranked by Forbes as the second richest person in the world, behind Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
As a child, Buffett was a paper boy for the Washington Post and attempted to cover more than one route at the same time. Showing a spontaneous talent for making money, Buffett also started earning that early by collecting and selling lost golf balls.
He even started playing the stock market with one of his sisters at 11. At 12, he was betting on horses and by high school he started a business (pinball machines) with a friend, which earned him $50 a week.
Not only did he own a business by the time he graduated, he also had bought himself 40 acres of farmland in Nebraska. During his graduation, Buffett met Benjamin Graham, an economist. Buffett was strongly influenced by Graham's theory that it is wise to look for stocks of companies which are undervalued as they will probably prosper with a little time.
Thus began Buffett's unconventional approach to portfolio management. After working for his father's investment banking company for three years after business school, Buffett returned to Graham and worked as a security analyst at Graham's company until 1956.
Buffett started his investment company, the Buffett Partnership, at 25, using $5,000 of his own funds and collecting $100,000 from friends and family. One of the smartest moves made by Buffet's company at that time was to invest in American Express.
In June 2006, Buffett made a commitment to give away his fortune to charity, with 85% of it ($30 billion) going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett's donation was the largest act of charitable giving in the world's history.
Buffett also pledged one million shares to a foundation established by himself and his late wife, Susan, and 350,000 shares each to the foundations of children Howard, Susan and Peter.
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