HBO documentary, Becoming Warren Buffett, is worth a watch even for experts on the Oracle of Omaha
Warren Buffett has to be one of the most profiled characters in the world today. As the world’s greatest investor, and second richest man, he has captured the imagination of millions who want to replicate his success and are looking out for any pieces of advice he may offer to help them in this quest.
When HBO set out to make a documentary of Warren Buffett’s life, it had to be special. His career has been profiled thousands of times before in books, documentaries and online so rather than taking the same old path, HBO needed to look at Warren Buffett’s life and career from a different perspective.
The result ‘Becoming Warren Buffett’ accomplishes this task, and I would say, thanks to the documentary makers’ attention to detail, the result is one of the most intriguing financial documentaries of all time.
Becoming Warren Buffett: Essential Watching
Becoming Warren Buffett profiles the billionaire in a completely way to any previous commentary. Rather than concentrating on the wealth, HBO focuses for the most part on Warren Buffett’s personal life as told by himself and his family.
As was the billionaire’s personal life, HBO profiles Warren Buffett’s mentality is well-known for his slow and steady nature, but the documentary really makes it clear that Buffett is not your typical billion. Bill Gates, who at this point is currently the world’s richest man, is also profiled in the documentary and it’s clear he has an enormous amount of respect for Buffett and his way of doing business.
There’s a point in the documentary where Buffett and Gates reveal the trait that they believe been the single most powerful contributor to their success over the years, which is focus. This is often overlooked when investors are reading about, and following Buffett, they fail to register the fact that Buffett has been focused singularly on the subject of finding stocks for more than 60 years now. As Becoming Warren Buffett shows, he has been going about the business of picking stocks at his own leisurely rate. There’s never any pressure to do anything and Buffett’s entire life has been devoted to compounding wealth at a steady rate, minimizing mistakes and maximizing profits.
This isn’t a documentary you should watch if you want to know how to pick stocks, there’s very little actual investment advice and tips. However, the one main theme running throughout the documentary is Buffett style investing. Slow and steady investing, minimizing your downside, maximizing your upside and letting wealth compound over time is the Buffett way. Buffett also has a very simple approach to investing and has put his reputation above all else (something that has helped pull him out of several sticky situations).
The HBO profile of Buffett’s investing style has made this one of the must-see financial documentaries. The program won’t tell you how to pick stocks like Buffett, but it will tell you how to act like Buffett and how to invest like Buffett, which is probably more important for wealth creation over the long term.
