Todd Finkle

Read The Bull

The eighth episode of Read The Bull is an enlightening conversation about one of the world's greatest investors - Warren Buffet. Todd A. Finkle, Ph.D., is the Pigott Professor of Entrepreneurship at Gonzaga who's written the insightful book "Warren Buffett: Investor and Entrepreneur." Todd brings his 33 years of teaching to the book and distills Buffett's entrepreneurial voyage. Todd talks about his own entrepreneurial approach to getting the book published. He discusses how he took his time writing it with the goal of making it the most important writing of his career. Todd's originally from Omaha and went to school with Buffett's son Peter, but even with the personal connection, Buffett declined to write Todd's introduction, which publishers wanted before committing to publishing the book. Todd's tireless approach and the fact he's one of the premier professors of entrepreneurship helped get the attention of Columbia Business School Publishing, who ended up publishing the book. Todd discusses with Stefan the impact of Buffett being born during the Great Depression, and noted that Buffett's father lost all of his money during this time. He explains that there was added chaos in the family as Buffett's mother was dealing with mental health issues. Todd discusses how the "poverty effect" played a part in Buffett's life and likely influences him even today. "He doesn't stop," Todd says of Buffett who's 92. He talks to Stefan about how Buffett became an entrepreneur at a young age, starting with a lemonade stand and then buying 40 acres of farmland at age 15, which he then leased out. Stefan and Todd go on and talk about some of Buffett's best and not so great investments. Listeners may be surprised to learn that the Berkshire Hathaway investment is considered one of his worst, despite the fact that it ended up as the name of Buffett's holding company. And it was all over 12.5-cents! Stefan notes that Todd may hold the record for getting the most classes invited out to meet with Warren Buffett and they discuss about some of the creative ways Todd and his students secured those coveted invites. Todd highlights how Buffett studies and values companies and they discuss Berkshire Hathaway's own succession issues. Stefan ends the interview testing Todd's knowledge of Warren Buffett quotes and they breakdown a few of the 263 books written about the modern day JP Morgan.
Even if you know everything about Warren Buffett, you'll come away learning somethin new from this conversation.

Go to ReadTheBull.com for more information.