Warren Buffett

CHAPTER 6The Money Mind: Sportsman, Teacher, Artist

Remember the ingenious business and investing accomplishments that Warren achieved as a young boy, described in Chapter 1? Pretty amazing for someone so young, and a fascinating preview to the adult he would become. But one thing we didn't cover in that first chapter is his passion for playing games. At age six, Warren became a race promoter—marble races, that is. He would summon his sisters to the bathroom, where they would each line up a marble on the back edge of the bathtub filled with water. With the click of his stopwatch they all cheered for their marbles racing to the stopper, where Warren would declare the winner. Along with his childhood friend Bob Russell, Warren invented numerous games; one required recording license‐plate numbers of passing cars and another involved counting how many times an individual letter of the alphabet would appear in that day's Omaha World‐Herald. He also enjoyed playing Monopoly and Scrabble, and like all boys in Omaha, he loved baseball and Nebraska football. What connected all his childhood games together was competition. Warren loved to compete.

Today, as most people know, Warren is an enthusiastic bridge player. It has been said that his motivation for buying a computer was so he could play bridge online late into the night without having to leave home. “I always say I wouldn't mind going to jail if I had three cellmates who played bridge.”¹ Many have noted the similarities between ...