--- title: Warren Buffett on Scorecards, Investing, Friends, and the Family Motto description: Hang around with people better than you canonical: https://time.com/3714839/buffet-biography/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-20T12:30:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:13:06.205Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Warren Buffett on Scorecards, Investing, Friends, and the Family Motto og:description: Hang around with people better than you og:url: https://time.com/3714839/buffet-biography/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad5e6c45a50b1628/69877ff53c16390c04451d7c/455653098-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Warren Buffett at a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses event in Detroit on Sept. 18, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Warren Buffett on Scorecards, Investing, Friends, and the Family Motto twitter:description: Hang around with people better than you twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad5e6c45a50b1628/69877ff53c16390c04451d7c/455653098-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Warren Buffett on Scorecards, Investing, Friends, and the Family Motto by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Feb 20, 2015 12:30 PM UTC  Warren Buffett at a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses event in Detroit on Sept. 18, 2014. Warren Buffett at a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses event in Detroit on Sept. 18, 2014.Bloomberg—Getty Images by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Feb 20, 2015 12:30 PM UTC This website is named after a street located in Omaha, Nebraska. An amazing place, Omaha is famous for being the home of Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men. The headquarters of Berkshire Hathaway — and his house — just happen to be on “Farnam Street.” The name of this website is a homage to both Buffett and his business partner Charlie Munger. While Buffett is famous for his investing acumen, he’s also full of sage wisdom on life and living. In October 2009, while the housing crisis was still in full effect, his authorized biography [The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life](http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&it=farstrblo0a-21&fr=farstrblo08-21&de=farstrblo07-21&uk=farstrblo-21&ca=farst-20&com=farnamstreet-20&asin-es=0553384619&asin-it=0553384619&asin-fr=0553384619&asin-de=0553384619&asin-uk=0553384619&asin-ca=0553384619&asin-com=0553384619) hit the shelves. Here are some of his lessons on life and investing. \*\*\* **Three Early Lessons in Investing** Having bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred at the age of 11, Buffett learned a valuable lesson. After the stock plunged from $38.25 to $27 a share. His sister Doris reminded him daily on the way to school that her stock was going down. Buffett felt “terribly” responsible. When the stock recovered he sold with a slight $5 profit. Almost immediately after, Cities Service quickly soared to $202 a share. --- > “” --- \*\*\* **The Scorecard** This is an important one to keep in mind. If we place too much emphasis on what the world thinks, we end up with an outer scorecard. --- > “” --- This has implications if you’re a parent: What you put emphasis on matters. --- > “” --- \*\*\* **Hang Around People Better Than You** After graduating from Columbia University, Buffett returned to Omaha to live with his parents. He spent part of that first summer fulfilling his obligation to the National Guard. While he wasn’t a natural, it sure beat going off to fight in Korea. Part of his duties in the guard required him to attend training camp in La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a few weeks. That experience taught him an incredible lesson that he’d carry forward for the rest of his life. --- > “” --- \*\*\* **The Buffett Family Motto** As simple as it is powerful. --- > “” --- \*\*\* **On Why he Wanted Money** Even when he was little he was always fixated on money. He wanted money. Why? --- > “” --- \*\*\* **Principles** In July of 1952, Susie Buffett, having been married only a few months to Warren, went to Chicago with her parents and new in-laws for the Republican convention. The convention was covered on television for the first time in history. Warren, who stayed in Omaha, watched eagerly — “struck by the power of this medium to magnify and influence events.” The front-runner was Senator Robert Taft, known as “Mr. Integrity.” He wanted three things: (1) small government; (2) pro-business; and (3) eradicate Communism. Taft’s friend and Warren’s father, Howard Buffett, was the head of his presidential campaign. Taft’s main opponent was the moderate and popular war hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower. While it might have been the first convention covered by television it still lives in the history books as one of the most controversial Republican conventions. Eisenhower backers pushed through a controversial amendment to the rules that handed him the nomination on the first ballot. Taft and his supporters were, of course, outraged. --- > “” --- \*\*\* **Still Curious?** While reading about Buffett won’t make you as smart as he is, you might learn something in the process. Pick up a copy of [The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life](http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&it=farstrblo0a-21&fr=farstrblo08-21&de=farstrblo07-21&uk=farstrblo-21&ca=farst-20&com=farnamstreet-20&asin-es=0553384619&asin-it=0553384619&asin-fr=0553384619&asin-de=0553384619&asin-uk=0553384619&asin-ca=0553384619&asin-com=0553384619) and give it a shot. **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/)**_._** **Join over 50,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3714839/buffet-biography/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3714839/buffet-biography/"},"headline":"Warren Buffett on Scorecards, Investing, Friends, and the Family Motto","datePublished":"2015-02-20T12:30:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:13:06.205Z","description":"Hang around with people better than you","url":"https://time.com/3714839/buffet-biography/","keywords":["advice","Warren Buffett"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad5e6c45a50b1628/69877ff53c16390c04451d7c/455653098-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad5e6c45a50b1628/69877ff53c16390c04451d7c/455653098-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Warren Buffett at a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses event in Detroit on Sept. 18, 2014.","caption":"Warren Buffett at a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses event in Detroit on Sept. 18, 2014.","creditText":"Bloomberg—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/advice/","name":"advice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3714839/buffet-biography/","name":"Warren Buffett on Scorecards, Investing, Friends, and the Family Motto"}}]}] ```