Business Mentoring Matters

While many children were playing with their toys, Warren Buffett was looking for ways to make money at a young age.  At six years old, Warren purchased a 6 pack of Coca Cola from his grandfather's store for twenty-five cents and then sold each bottle to his friends for five cents each, making a profit of five cents.  Several years later, he took interest in the stock market and purchased shares at $38.  Soon after, the shares had dropped down to $27 per share which frightened Warren.  When the shares went up to $40 he immediately sold them to make a profit.  However, had he waited, the shares went up to $200 a share which could have been a much more lucrative profit for him.  From that experience, Warren learned a lesson of patience.  After college, Warren decided to go to graduate school.  He was persuaded to apply to the Harvard Business School, but was rejected because he was too young.  Therefore, he applied to Columbia University where he met his future mentor, Ben Graham.  Ben was a well known economist and through his simple yet profound investment principles, he taught many individuals the concept of ignoring market fluctuations in investment analysis and investing with a margin of safety.  Warren attributes much of his success to Ben Graham because in addition to his father, Ben influenced his life a great deal.  Here we see a great example of leaders helping future leaders: Ben Graham mentoring Warren Buffett and Warren Buffett mentoring Bill Gates.  It is a continuous cycle that has existed for many years and has proven to be a very successful element to the development of many great leaders. 

Have you started the cycle in your organization?