華倫·巴菲特：從報童到世界第二富翁

CNN Correspondent： Worth 36 billion？ that’s right， billion dollars？ he’s the second richest man in the world. So， when Warren Buffet speaks international investors sit up and take notice[注意]. He’s called the oracle of Omaha， Nebraska.

Mr. Buffet was in London this week to promote one of his favorite holdings[財產]， NetJets. It’s an aircraft ownership firm that enables rich customers and CEOs to buy part of a jet， and then they purchase[購買] flying hours. That’s cheaper than having to buy and maintain[維修] their own corporate[公司的] plane. NetJets has already had some success in the U.S. with more than 2，000 owners， holding shares in 487 planes. The European part which was launched a few years ago hasn’t taken off quite as quickly.

I sat down with Warren Buffet and asked him not only about his expansion[擴張] plans in Europe， but what was the driving force behind the company and whether he was confident about the economic future.

Warren Buffet： Well， what drives it is the fact that it makes so much sense from both the standpoint[立場] of economics and the standpoint of ease of use. If you own a quarter， an eighth of a plane with NetJets， in effect you’ve got more service available than if you own an entire plane， because you can choose from any one of 11 models， it’s there in every airport？ there’s 5，500 airports in the United States， and in effect your plane is there at anytime you wish.

CNN 通訊記者：身價360億美元，沒錯，是以10億美元為單位。華倫·巴菲特是全世界第二富豪。因此，只要華倫·巴菲特一開口，國際上的投資商都會洗耳恭聽。他被稱為內布拉斯加州奧瑪哈市的先知。

巴菲特先生這個星期在倫敦為他最喜愛的旗下公司之一NetJets 做宣傳。這是一家飛機租賃公司，允許有錢的客戶和執行總裁們買下部分飛機使用權，然后再購買飛行時間。這比購買并維修自己的企業專機還要便宜。NetJets 在美國已小有成就，擁有超過兩千名客戶，以及487架飛機。其數年前才起步的歐洲分部進展還不是很快。

我與華倫·巴菲特進行了一番促膝訪談，我除了問到有關歐洲的擴張計劃，還問到公司背后的驅動力是什么，以及他對未來的經濟狀況是否有信心。

華倫·巴菲特：公司的驅動力其實很容易理解，不管是從經濟的角度還是從容易使用的角度上出發，如果你擁有NetJets某架飛機的四分之一或者八分之一，事實上，你擁有的服務比起擁有整架飛機還要多，因為你可以在所有機場、在11種機型中進行挑選——全美有5500個機場，而實際上，你的飛機是隨傳隨到的。

華倫·巴菲特小傳

Warren Buffett’s determination[決心] and creativity[創造力] have made him who he is today： the chairman[董事長] of a company that has more than $2 billion in holdings.

As a child， Buffett was already ambitious[有雄心的]. He was an industrious[刻苦的] paper boy for the Washington Post， and tried to cover more than one route[路線] at once. He also made money by collecting and selling lost golf balls. Buffett’s interest in finance was clear extremely early on in his life. He started playing the stock market with one of his sisters when he was eleven. At twelve， he was betting on[賭] horses， and by high school he had started a pinball[彈球] machines business with a friend， which earned him fifty dollars a week. Not only did he own a business by the time he graduated， but he also had bought himself forty acres of Nebraskan farmland with his profits.

After working for his father’s investment banking[投資銀行業務] company for three years after finishing business school， Buffett worked as a security analyst[證券分析家] for two years. At the age of twenty-five， Buffett started his own investment company， the Buffett Partnership. One of the smartest moves made by Buffet’s company at that time was to invest in American Express.

In 1963， a scandal[丑聞] surrounded AmEx， and Wall Street believed the company was near bankruptcy[破產]. But Buffett， always with his wits[才智] about him， noticed when in restaurants and shops that customers were still using the card to buy. He went ahead and bought 5% of the stock， which had risen from 35 to 189 market points within five years. Buffett is now chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.， which makes the long-term investments which Buffett is so adept at[熟練于] choosing.

華倫·巴菲特的決心和創造力使他獲得今天的成就：成為一家公司的董事長，其旗下資產超過20億美元。

孩提時代的巴菲特就已經富有雄心。他曾經是《華盛頓郵報》一名勤勞的報童，他試圖同時攬下幾條銷售路線。……