(thoughtful violin music)
- [Narrator] Warren Buffett has a reputation
for being a voracious reader.
He reportedly spends as much as six hours a day
soaking up knowledge by reading books.
If you're looking to broaden your horizons
and increase your chances of success,
Buffett suggests to try what worked for him.
Here's advice he gave to a group of grad students
at Columbia Business School.
"Read 500 pages like this every day.
That's how knowledge works."
"It builds up, like compound interest."
To kick off your reading,
here are five notable books
that Warren Buffett personally recommends.
Number one,
"Keeping At It:
The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government".
Buffett speaks highly
about the late Paul Volcker's 2018 book.
Volcker served as the chairman of the federal reserve
under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
"I've always had Paul Volcker up on a special place,
special pedestal
in terms of Federal Reserve chairman over the years."
"We've had a lot of very good federal chairman,
but Paul Volcker,
I've had him at the top of the list."
Number two,
"The Intelligent Investor".
Only Buffett's words
will do "The Intelligent Investor" justice.
In the preface to the fourth edition,
Buffett writes,
"I read the first edition of this book early in 1950,
when I was nineteen.
I thought then that it was by far the best book
about investing ever written.
I still think it is."
Number three,
"The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs
and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success".
In "The Outsiders",
author William Thorndike documents the remarkable success
of eight CEOs
including one of Buffett's own execs at Berkshire Hathaway,
all who had a counterintuitive approach
to the corporate strategy.
In his 2012 annual letter,
Buffett praise "The Outsiders"
by calling it "an outstanding book about CEOs
who excelled at capital allocation".
"It has an insightful chapter on our director, Tom Murphy,
overall the best business manager I've ever met."
Number four,
"The Most Important Thing Illuminated:
Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor".
Howard Marks,
the co-founder and chairman of Oaktree Capital Management,
is renowned for his insightful assessments
of market opportunity and risk.
After four decades spent ascending to the top
of the investment management profession,
Mark's distilled the investing insight
of his celebrated client memos into this book.
And number five,
"The Little Book of Common Sense Investing:
The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share
of Stock Market Returns".
Buffett recommended this book by John C. Bogle
in his 2014 annual letter.
It's an especially important book for first-time investors.
"Rather than listening to their siren songs,
investors, large and small,
should instead read
'The Little Book of Common Sense Investing'."
(thoughtful violin music)