Natural-born business talent
By the time Warren Buffet was 12 years old, he was making $175 ($3,000-$4,200 in today's money), more than his own school teachers were making from the school. At even earlier ages, he was already demonstrating genius-level analytical skills, memorizing baseball facts with astonishing precision (and with great ease), and also reselling gum and soda to his friends. When he began working for the newspaper, he realized that by marketing in his neighborhood, he could collect more in subscription fees. By 35, Buffet would become a millionaire.
Hard work and perseverance
When Buffet decided he wanted to go to Harvard, he probably wasn't used to failure or rejection, so the Harvard rejection stung. That didn't stop him though, and he got educated a different way, eventually beginning his own real estate firm and guiding the company into serious wealth. Buffet worked hard before he was rich, and when he got rich, he kept working hard. This is what helped to take him from local millionaire to nationwide wealth phenomenon.
Friends in business
Just as an example for why business people should be kind and friendly, Buffet helped to launch the success of a company called Microsoft by befriending its nerdy leader, a young Bill Gates. Buffet's investment in Microsoft made both men extremely rich, but the point is that you never know who in your life might be a multi-billionaire, so it pays to be friendly. This isn't the only example in the book, but it is the most obvious example; other examples include Buffet's investment in GEICO for his friend Gutfreund and other various success stories, like Buffet's involvement in the newspaper industry, a tip of the hat to his young genius schemes.
