Omaha Summary and Analysis

From the time he was a little child, Warren Buffett was fascinated with numbers. He memorized that the populations of cities, baseball scores from multiple seasons, and horse-racing odds. His desire for money caused him to play monopoly incessantly and to wear a coin changer as he sold chicklets and lemonade. He collected bottle caps from the soda machine at the local gas station, comparing how many of each kind was sold and which was the best business. His father was a stockbroker, and he loved to get rolls of ticker tape and decipher the symbols from Standard and Poor's.

The Buffett family originally settled in Long Island as farmers. Sidney, one of the brothers, struck out for Omaha and opened up Buffett Grocery Store, just as the railroad was reaching the town. Sydney's business grew and he decided to include...