Becoming Warren Buffett Page #4

and so I was very,

very unhappy.

At school,

I just lost interest.

I took pleasure

in tormenting my teachers.

At that time for example,

AT&T was the stock

that all teachers owned

for their retirement,

and I decided that it would

drive my teachers a little crazy

if I went and short the stock,

because when you go short a stock,

you're betting

that it will go down.

So I shorted

10 shares of AT&T,

and then brought

the confirmation to school

and showed these teachers

I was shorting the stock.

They found me

a big pain in the neck,

but they did think I knew

a lot about stocks.

And then at home,

my mother would have terrific headaches,

and you didn't want to be around her

when she was having the headaches,

and she would... she would lash out more.

She would never do it in public.

Doris:
Well,

I think we were terrified of her.

When I'd wake up

in the morning,

I'd listen to hear her voice.

I could tell by her voice

if it was going to be

a terrible day or not.

Warren:
When she got difficult,

the three children felt it.

When I was at the low point, sort of,

I decided that I would run away.

So I talked two other guys

into running away with me.

We went out,

and we start hitchhiking...

and then we got picked up

by the highway patrol

and that scared

the hell out of us.

It's very interesting. My dad never

really gave me hell about doing this,

but he finally said,

"You know,"

he said,

"you can do better than this."

And just saying that,

I mean, I...

I felt like I was

letting him down, basically.

So in all ways,

he was teaching me.

Never taught

by telling me things,

he just taught by example.

He had unlimited confidence in me,

even when I screwed up,

and that takes you

a long, long way.

The best gift

I was ever given

was to have the father

that I had when I was born.

I didn't want to go to college.

I was 16 when I got out of high school

and I was buying stocks.

I mean,

I actually was having a pretty good time

and I didn't see that really was much

to be gained by going to college,

but my dad

kind of jollied me into it.

Doris:

He had a roommate who was a friend of mine,

and the roommate said

it would just drive him crazy,

because he studied

all the time,

and Warren would come in

15 minutes before the exam

and just ace his way

through it.

Warren:
I finished in three years,

'cause I had enough credits,

and I was in a hurry.

I wanted to get out.

Warren:

When I got out of the University of Nebraska,

I applied

to Harvard Business school.

They told me I was to get

interviewed in a place near Chicago.

I got there,

and he interviewed me for about 10 minutes,

and he said, "Forget it."

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