IN THIS ISSUE

THURSDAY, APRIL.6TH TD Ameritrade 2 Gallup 2 Business Executives Dinner 3 FRIDAY, APRIL 7TH Lunch with Warren Buffett 4 Borsheims 4 Oriental Trading Company 5 SWS Dinner 5

SATURDAY, APRIL 8TH Aroma Bliss 6 AFTER THE TRIP Overall Impressions 7-8 Reflective Papers 8-9 Acknowledgements 10

(left to right)Tracy Britt Cool(SWS Co-founder), Warren Buffett(World’s Greatest Investor)

Darla Jade(SWS Executive Director), and Teresa Hsiao(SWS Co-Founder)

PresentsThe Eleventh Annual Warren Buffett Trip

OMAHA, NEBRASKA April 2017

Letter from National The opportunity to meet with Warren Buffett on April 7th was an honor and a privilege that twenty members of SWS will cherish for a lifetime. Mr. Buffett educated, entertained and inspired us during a two-hour Q&A session where we intently listened to Mr. Buffett’s meaningful and humor-ous insights on business, investing, careers, and life lessons. Our rigorous preparation requirements included readings from The Intelligent Investor, The Making of an American Capitalist, watching video interviews, dissecting the Annual Shareholder newsletter, and participating in weekly discussion groups. Students compare it to taking an extra class, but all agree that the preparation allowed them to derive the maximum benefit from the trip. By thoroughly researching companies and studying biogra-phies of executives we were meeting, it allowed the students to take full advantage of the opportunity of asking thoughtful questions beyond what anyone could easily access on the internet. That afternoon was followed by an exclusive dinner with our members and SWS Co-founder, Tracy Britt Cool who shared thoughts and answered questions ranging from women in the corporate world, motherhood and career advice. Additionally, we visited with businesses in the public, private and non-profit sectors including TD Ameritrade, The Gallup Organization, Aromas Coffee House and three Berkshire Hathaway owned companies including Nebraska Furniture Mart, Borsheims and Oriental Trading Company where we engaged in panel discussions, speaker presentations, and facility tours. The Business Executives Dinner, hosted by our 2017 Platinum sponsor, 100 Women in Finance was a great opportunity for students to engage with accomplished professionals on a one-on-one basis. We would like to thank all of our guests for sharing their knowledge and advice with our group as their interaction is something that our members always enjoy. We are grateful to 100 Women in Finance for uniting with us, to empower the next generation of female leaders with financial influence. The trip concluded with our Interactive Event where members shared best practices and discussed how to implement ideas to take their chapters to higher levels. Please read on to learn more from our partici-pants about events from this year’s trip. Additionally, we would like to thank Carrie Sova from Mr. Buffett’s office for the time and energy she dedicated to coordinate this trip. A tremendous amount of gratitude is expressed to the spectacular SWS Co-founders, Tracy Britt Cool and Teresa Hsiao whose vision, guidance and leadership created Smart Woman Securities. They have impacted thousands of young women by creating the structure for educating them on finance and investments through educational seminars, mentoring initiatives and meetings with great investors. We proudly continue this mission. Again, we would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to Mr. Buffett for making this trip a reality. It is a tremendous honor to continue to be invited back. He is commonly referred to as the “Sage of Omaha”, a title earned for being the world’s greatest investor. But the depth of his tremendousness goes far beyond his financial acumen. The definition of a sage is someone characterized by wisdom, prudence and good judgement and Mr. Buffett truly embodies each of these qualities. But after spend-ing quality time and experiencing his generosity with his time and talent, it is so very important to note that his qualities of humility, integrity, humor, honesty and gratitude is what has allowed him to be successful. Warren Buffett’s prosperity goes far beyond finances as he possesses abundant wealth with richness of life. We will continue to applaud you Mr. Buffett as it is so well deserved. With gratitude,

Darla JadeExecutive Director, Smart Woman Securities

THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017TD Ameritrade - Naomi Shah, Stanford University TD Ameritrade was our first organized group visit, and through bustled introductions and handshakes, I remember or-ganizing for our first of many group photos in front of the very modern and large building. The architecture of the building stood out compared to all the other buildings we had seen so far, showing us the company’s commitment to being environ-mentally-friendly, i.e. LEED certified, and to making sure that they created a good place to work for all of their employees. We had a fireside chat with two female executives, Carrie Braxdale and Judy Ricketts who had both been with the company for over ten years; the high retention rate of employ-ees at TD Ameritrade was a notable trend after having grown up in the bay area where the culture is for people to move from company to company after a few years of working. In my opinion, the most interesting part of our conversation with the panelists was learning about their work-life balance and how they overcame push-back from people in their more traditional families to move up through the ranks at TD Ameritrade. Both of them led hundreds of people at TD Ameritrade so learning about leadership strategies for managing people was also very

useful. We also learned more about the thinkorswim trading platform, which allows you to look at individual company stock performances as well as larger market trends. This is a platform that will be very useful to bring back to our research teams. Overall, this trip to TD Ameritrade helped me under-stand how the company fit into the larger financial services industry, and the value that they provided to their customers in managing their investment portfolios. Further, it was an incred-ible opportunity to understand how a company worked and operated in Omaha, NE and the work culture and management encouraged employees to stay with the firm for many years.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017

“You cannot be anyone you want, you can only be a better you”. Gal-lup presented an alternative perspective to growing our mental capabilities versus the hypothesis that is common at this time. Through my classes and talks with my mentors I have often been encour-aged to seek feedback on my weaknesses and aim to improve them. This was not the case at Gallup. Through the indi-vidualized “Strengthfinders Test”each SWS member was able to identify our top 5 strengths. These strengths ranged anywhere from learner, to activator, from relater to competitor. Knowing our strengths allows us to leverage them to propel ourselves forward. A key insight

that one could improve their natural strengths exponentially faster than their weakness was Gallup’s thesis. Which brings me back to the initial quote. While you cannot be anyone you want to be, you can and should certainly improve your naturally given talents to become the best most authentic version of yourself. We also heard from Gallup’s COO, Jane Miller who presented on a different topic— one she spearheaded the research for herself - women in the work place. This topic is timely as just last week was equal pay day in the USA. Women today are still only making 78-83 cents on every dollar compared with their male counterparts. A couple hypotheses for this were presented. The first stems from a report that notes wom-en work an average of 4 less hours then men. Are they getting the work done faster? Or are they reporting fewer work-ing hours? A solution to fix this would be to change the structure of pay based on accomplished work rather than time spent. Another hypothesis is one with less

clear of a solution. When women take time off for childcare they are not able to “catch up” with their male counterparts who did not take this time off. This puts them behind for the remainders of their careers, effectively decreasing their pay. The culture for women at Gal-lup is progressive, giving 12 weeks full-paid maternity leave and providing a day care at the office. We heard from an inspirational panel of women who can-didly shared their stories and it was en-couraging to hear how successfully they managed having a family and career.

Gallup - Lucy Dikeou, Stanford University

You cannot be anyone you want, you can only be a

better you.

- Jane Miller, COO, Gallup

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On the evening of Thursday April 6th we had the privilege of attending a dinner with four business executives from the Omaha area. We were split up into four tables where we had the opportunity to meet one of the four executives who had joined us for the evening. I sat at the table with Liz Ziegenbein, Executive Director Emerita of the Peter Kiewit Foundation, although she has been involved in a multitude of leadership roles in businesses and programs in addition to this one. It was unbelievable how much wisdom Ms. Ziegen-bein had to impart on us. She was keenly interested in where we were from and what our backgrounds were and noted that learning people’s geography is key in life, and that having a sense of cultural literacy is fundamental in making connections with other people. She discussed literature; featuring life les-sons she has learned from reading Sherlock Holmes such as deductive reasoning. Ms. Ziegenbein reflected on many of the values that Mr. Buffett holds dear such as civility and kindness – Midwestern values that Ms. Ziegenbein believes are essential to instill in the younger genweration. Final words of wisdom came in the form of a book Ms. Ziegenbein recommended we read by P.M. Forni, titled Choosing Civility. We then all made our way to another table for dessert, where I joined Alan Par-

sow, General Partner and CIO of Elkhorn Partners. He too echoed the words of Warren Buffett in that no matter what we do in life, we really have to love it. It was clear that his job, working from home as a hedge fund manager, was very appealing to him and there was no doubt that he loved what he did. He also echoed one of Mr. Buffett’s words of advice – “the best decision you can ever make is picking your spouse”. Love and long-term commitment is clearly important in Oma-ha and was reflected in this dinner and throughout the trip.

Business Executives Dinner - Aimee Bosman, Gettysburg CollegeTHURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017 3

The first day of the Warren Buffett trip was concluded with the opportunity to dine with local Omaha business ex-ecutives at Stokes, a popular Southwestern restaurant. During this Business Executives dinner, we were fortunate enough to be able to interact with four prominent local business leaders including Adrienne Fay, the Director of Marketing, Advertis-ing and Business Gifts at Borsheims, a Berkshire Hathaway owned jewelry business, David Brown, the President and CEO of the Greater Omaha Chamber, Alan Parsow, the General Partner and CIO of Elkhorn Partners and Lyn Ziegenbein, the Executive Director Emerita of the Peter Kiewit Foundation. In addition to introducing a diverse set of perspectives from across a range of different industries ranging from philan-

thropy to finance, the business executives provided invaluable insights into the evolution of Omaha’s unique business landscape over time. Whether through Ms. Fay’s fond descriptions of the “Christmas in May” that Borsheims experiences due to Berk-shire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meetings, or Mr. Brown’s engaging anecdotes about high-profile guests such as Bill Gates and Hank Paulson that have visited Omaha, it was extremely fas-cinating to learn about Mr. Buffett’s deep-rooted and cherished presence within the local community as well as his profound contributions to its society. By sharing their own experiences, the business executives also highlighted the distinctive charm of the Omaha’s gregarious inhabitants and its promising potential as a thriving entrepreneurial incubator and technological hub. As Michelle Jaffee, a sophomore from Penn, elo-quently summarized “our interactions at the dinner intro-duced a completely new dimension to our understanding of Omaha’s cultural and commercial environment”. In addition to being highly engaging, the Business Executives dinner was thoroughly informative. The SWS team is truly grateful for the opportunity this event offered to interact with and learn from some of the region’s most prominent business leaders.

Business Executives Dinner - Akanksha Santdasani, Wharton

The Q&A with Mr. Buffett was immediately followed by lunch at Anthony’s Steakhouse. Tiffany Niver, the found-ing member of the Harvard Chapter joined us. Tiffany is a two-time Harvard alum with both a Bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the school, and she is currently a Senior Product Manager for Amazon Local Services. When asked about when is a good time to attend business school, Tiffany advised us to get the degree “earlier” in order to make the most of the experience. It was great to hear how her SWS experience im-pacted her career path and we really appreciated how she took the time to take the trip out here and join us. I love the fact that Smart Woman Securities brings together girls with shared passions for finance and investment management, while every-one shares such different interests and backgrounds. I sat with Alice, a Harvard sophomore who studies Architecture, but is

interested in investment management in the future. And Avery, a Brown junior, said “I am very into art and will work for an auction house in New York City this summer”. I really enjoyed lunching with both an alum and fellow chapter members.

FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2017Lunch with Warren Buffett - Sabrina Tao, Cornell University

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You can’t elect to be a lot of things but you can elect to be the kind of person other people want to be with, work with,

and be friends with for the rest of their lives.

– Warren Buffett

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FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2017 5Oriental Trading Company - Tara Sorman, New York University BSWS had the opportunity to visit the La Vista Ful-fillment Center of Oriental Trading Company where they are responsible for delivering fun to OTC’s nationwide customers. “We’re selling $600 million of products $7 at a time,” notes Mr. Mendlik, COO and CFO of OTC, “so the Fulfillment Center is an absolute necessity.” With total space equivalent to 12 foot-ball fields, the fulfillment center operates using the latest tech-nology, like a state-of-the-art Beumer unit sorter and a Pick-to-Voice system, to cater to customer needs as efficiently as possible. This efficiency is key in upholding OTC’s values, which include “doing what is right, no matter what” and “be-

ing customer obsessed.” Director of Internal Operations Jodi Hoatson noted that it is unique to find a company with “create fun” listed second on its list of most cherished standards, but perfectly fitting for the culture at OTC.OTC’s family-oriented spirit is the crown jewel of the organi-zation’s success. Megha Agarwal, a junior at Penn, was amazed “to see how [OTC] could reach such far distances but still have such a local focus.” The company’s culture is reflected in ev-ery aspect of its processes, and its employees are eager to share the fun they have each day with families across the country.

On Friday, Tracy Britt Cool, one of the co-found-ers of Smart Woman Securities, joined us for dinner at Go-rat’s Steakhouse. Ms. Cool is now the Chief Executive Of-ficer at Pampered Chef and also extremely involved with Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings, acting as the Chairwom-an for Oriental Trading, Benjamin Moore, and Larson-Juhl, and a board member of Blue Apron and Heinz-Kraft. During the dinner, Ms. Cool discussed multiple topics relevant to us as SWS members – she skipped around from her experiences with SWS, her inspiration behind its formation, her challenges as a woman in business, and her experiences working in a top executive position. When discussing SWS, Ms. Cool mentioned that a lot of the initial ideation for the or-ganization stemmed from wanting to create a space for women to feel like diversity was treasured and not a disadvantage. She led by saying she “never saw SWS growing to this extent.” . We continued to discuss Ms. Cool’s personal experienc-es as a woman in the workforce – from mentorship, to her expe-riences with the “Boy’s Club,” to her take on work-life balance. She mentioned that upon reading Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, she found that she previously did many of the things discussed in the book.

She finds that by making a more conscious effort to take her seat at the table, avoid words like “just” and “sorry,” and apply to positions that she believes she is qualified for goes a long way in increasing her credibility and reliability. Regarding Ms. Cool’s talk, many students were inspired and found themselves passionate about work-life as a woman in business. Michelle Jaffee, from the University of Pennsylvania, mentioned that she was “excited to enter the workforce as com-fortable and proud of her identity as Ms. Cool was about her own.”

SWS Dinner - Megha Agarwal, The Wharton School

“You have to stick within what I call your circle of competence. You have to know

what you understand and what you don’t understand. It’s not terribly important how big the circle is. But it is terribly important to know where the perimeter is. – Warren Buffett

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SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 2017 6Aromas Bliss - Avery Semjen, Brown University

From left to right, bottom to top:First row: Nikita Gupta (Carnegie Mellon ’18), Akanksha Santdasani (UPenn ’19), Alessandra Henry (Notre Dame ’18), Lucy Dikeou (Stanford ’17), Mr. Warren Buffett, Naomi Shah (Stanford ’17), Lu Qiao (Columbia ’19), Jiaqi Duan (Bowdoin ‘17), Sabrina Tao (Cornell, ‘18) Second row: SWS Founding Member Tiffany Niver(Harvard) , Sarah Lee (Dartmouth ’18), May Nguyen (Dartmouth ’18), Emilie Fran-gione (Fordham ‘19), Jessica Yin (William and Mary ‘18), Avery Semjen (Brown’18), Michelle Jaffee (UPenn ‘19), Megha Agarwal (Whar-ton ‘17), Tara Sorman (NYU’19), Alice Xiao (Harvard ‘19)Third row: SWS Director Darla Jade, Aimee Bosman (Gettysburg ’18), Jiaping Shen (UVA ’17), Paige Dalcourt (Fordham ’18)

Upon walking into Aromas Bliss, you are greet-ed with the smell of freshly brewed coffee and baked goods. The eclectic shop is owned by the Omaha local, Au-tumn Pruitt and radiates the local flavor. As she works behind the counter interacting with evidently frequent customers, she demonstrates an authentic small busi-ness atmosphere with a friendly and humble disposition. Autumn has always loved coffee and grew up within a family of bakers. She fondly recalls the days of baking with her mom and experimenting with passed down recipes. She is currently also sourcing her own coffee and perfecting new blends with her

brother-in-law. Now, while owning her own bakery, she still keeps it a family affair as Autumn revealed her immense grati-tude for her parents’ help and support along the way. These family values translate seamlessly into the environment that she wants to create as a gathering place for community members to interact with one another. Along with her desire to keep things quaint, she has hired just thirty-nine employees that are interviewed extensively and hired quite selectively. Autumn wants to guarantee the same quality at each of her three shops and cares more about their personalities and work ethic than the skill that can be learned on the job. She wants to make sure that “we know our customers better than anyone else.”She is continually working to improve her system, from how to staff the shops to organizing her time efficiently. It is evi-dent that Autumn loves what she does and stands as a role model for young women looking for managerial roles in the business world. She has pushed passed the barriers that any-one, especially a woman faces when taking on such respon-sibilities and manages them effortlessly and successfully.

You can make yourself 50% more valuable in the next 3 months by improving your com-

munication. – Warren Buffett on personal growth

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Omaha, Nebraska – a growing city with a small town feel, where a strong work ethic and a humble atti-tude are deeply ingrained in the community. Having been our entire group’s first visit to the commercial hub, most of us weren’t sure what to expect. Omaha proved to be a true Midwestern city, as locals exuded positivity while engag-ing in friendly conversations and businesses expressed their genuine care about community interaction. The impor-tance placed on relationships, in both of the aforementioned contexts, was the main theme that categorized this trip. Our group’s first day in Omaha included vis-its to TD Ameritrade and Gallup, where we heard from many women in executive positions. At Gallup in particu-lar, after hearing from a panel of mothers balancing full-time jobs, it was the first time I began to consider my dis-tant familial plans as it relates to my current job prospects.

Many other SWS members agreed that we would like to “have it all”— as in balancing a family and a career, so hearing from these women was extremely encouraging. The second day, we visited Berkshire-owned companies, which covered a variety of indus-tries. However, while each company had the freedom to create their own cultures, they were very much linked to Berkshire values. As a whole, this trip proved to be an incredible op-portunity to learn from some of Omaha’s most important business executives and form connections with one another. For many, this trip culminated in a more tangible relationship with the national organization, and a greater understanding of the SWS mission. We came on the Buffett trip as a group of women from opposite sides of the country, but left as a co-hesive unit, inspired by this incomparable opportunity to advance the role of women in the financial services industry.

AFTER THE TRIP

Overall Impressions - Alessandra Henry, University of Notre Dame

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Founded in 1870 by Louis Bor-sheim, Borsheims is a jewelry store in Omaha, Nebraska. The company became one of Berkshire’s holding companies in 1989 and built a 62,600 square feet store in Regency Court. During our visit, we had the opportunity to meet Borsheims’ Director of Marketing, Adrienne Fay, who oversees the B2B scales channel, all print and visual com-munication, electronic, and social me-dia. Ms. Fay has worked for Borsheims for over 10 years and passionately shared with us her knowledge about Bor-sheims. Ms. Fay told us that the philoso-phy of Borsheims is offering an extensive inventory and exceptional customer ser-vice at the lowest possible price. Accord-ing to Mr. Buffett’s investing philosophy, Borsheims has a safe ‘moat’ from its competitors because of its diverse in-ventory offering, operational efficiency and creative selling strategy. The store currently houses more than 1,000,000 pieces of jewelry, watches and fine gifts and serves an international clientele spanning 50 states and six continents. In order to ensure product diversity, Borsheims attends the annual jewelry show in Las Vegas to source their inventory.

What impressed us the most is Borsheims’ commitment to cus-tomer relationships. Through talk-ing to their seller staffs, we learned that customers can easily return the jewelry at original cost even after 10 years. They also allow custom-ers to try on even the most expen-sive jewelry at customers’ preference. The commitment to foster a life-long customer relationship has help Bor-

sheims to build one of the highest re-turning customer ratios in the indus-try. To improve efficiency, Borsheims locates their office above the sales store so management can closely monitor the store. The annual Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder meeting also serves as a huge selling season for Borsheims as investors also want to give back to the company.

Overall Impressions - Emilie Frangione, Fordham University

The 2017 Smart Woman Securities Warren Buffett trip in Omaha, Nebraska was a once in a lifetime experience that each participant on the trip will remember and cherish for the rest of her life. For all of the women selected to attend this trip, visiting Nebraska was a new experience. As NYU sophomore Tara Sorman conveyed in the beginning of the trip, “I have never been to Nebraska before, but I’m extremely excited to learn more about the business environment and culture here.” We had the opportunity to visit and learn from managers at TD Ameritrade, were inspired by many successful investors, the highlight being an exclusive Q&A session and lunch with Warren Buffett, and had the pleasure of hearing from Autumn Pruitt, the founder of Aromas Bliss in Omaha. Through the exposure of learning from large corporations, small businesses, investors like Mr. Buffett, and the companies in his portfolio, attendees gained invaluable insight into what makes both large corporations and small businesses function and succeed, as well as how investors create smart portfolios and how those portfolio companies work with the capital and mentorship of investors. It was rewarding to not only learn from Mr. Buffett, but to also relay our experiences from our session with other at-

tendees of the trip to discuss some of his most salient advice for us personally and for each of our chapters. In reflection on the caliber of discussions throughout the trip, Penn junior Megha Agarwal expressed, “The discussions that all of the par-ticipants had with each other in helping us grow our chapters to become as successful as possible were electric and full of ex-tremely valuable insight.” Overall, this trip enhanced our pas-sion and dedication to Smart Woman Securities at a national level and reinvigorated our dedication to each of our chapters.

AFTER THE TRIP

Overall Impressions - Michelle Jaffee, The Wharton School

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Dinner at Gorat’s on Friday evening was a fantas-tic experience. People spend the majority of their lives try-ing to find a way to be great – a way to be extraordinary and a way to be memorable. When we are children, we learn about princesses and princes and knights who fight dragons to save the nation. When we are in elementary and middle school, we learn about presidents and those in-volved in politics and the government, who dedicate their lives to defending our nation and moving it forward. When we get older, we learn of Fortune 500 CEOs and young en-trepreneurs, people who innovate and lead beyond compare. It is no surprise that people spend the ma-jority of their lives trying to find a way to be great.It is a surprise, however, to hear someone who is great tear down the traditional notion of greatness and success, and it is some-thing that can have powerful effects. After all, it is true. It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results. Common actions and little movements and small gestures can lead to extraordinary results. It is not neces-sary to do extraordinary things, and it is something that we, as a society, often forget. Students are taught that they must be extraordinary to get extraordinary results, and adults are told that if they do not do extraordinary things, there is no possibility of extraordinary results. But it is not true. When I first heard this quote stated, I rolled my eyes and thought, “Well of course that is easy for him to say, he has done both extraordinary things and gotten extraordi-

nary results.” It was not until I began the preparation for this trip that I realized this could not be farther from the truth. Mr. Buffett is one of the strongest examples of some-one who is consistent, someone who does the right thing, and someone who reaps the benefits of doing so. He is neither ex-cessive nor unreliable with his methods, and he is neither ex-travagant nor out-of-touch. The method to his madness, I have learned, lies in his ability to remain grounded – something that many people are unable to do with success and goodwill. Mr. Buffet’s message is one that extends beyond the investing world – it is relevant across various situa-tions and times. Often times it is the consistency of little actions that make extraordinary results. It does not al-ways have to be the grand, overwhelming actions, but it can sometimes be more accessible and nuanced than that.

Reflective Paper - Megha Agarwal, The Wharton School

It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.

– Warren Buffett on human potential

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Reflective Paper - Sarah Lee, Dartmouth College

AFTER THE TRIP

In our modern age of social me-dia, my generation is inundated with filtered images of people living seem-ingly perfect lives. There is a constant pressure to not only keep up appear-ances, but also overachieve. Warren Buffett provides a refreshing reminder that “It is not necessary to do extraor-dinary things to get extraordinary re-sults.” While Mr. Buffett is an excep-tional genius, his patience, discipline, and rationality have led him to his “ex-traordinary results” in investing and life.Mr. Buffett is a man of routine, which points to his discipline. He also does not

need an extravagant lifestyle to match his incredible wealth, which points to his focus on investing itself. My genera-tion assumes that it is desirable to live spontaneously and luxuriously. There are millions of distractions in our everyday lives, especially as we become more and more technologically connected. How-ever, it is obvious how living a flashy life and pretending to achieve “extraor-dinary” things is not equivalent to liv-ing a simple but focused life and actu-ally achieving “extraordinary” success. It is important to note that simple does not necessarily mean easy. Like

Mr. Buffett, I strive to push away the distractions of everyday life and prac-tice good habits that may not be ex-ceptional, but are productive and ef-fective in creating something greater.

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Reflective Paper - Lucy Dikeou, Stanford University Learning about Warren Buffet has been one of the greatest sources of inspiration in my life to date. Perhaps it is this time period of my life that has made this quote resonate with me, and made me value Buffet’s decision-mak-ing process so highly. I am currently at a transition stage in my life. Having just graduated in May, I am now asking myself some hard questions; which op-portunities should I pursue next? What do I want to be remembered as? How do I want to govern myself for the next 5,10,70 years? Through reading about Mr. Buffet’s integrity, it is clear that above his other successes Mr. Buffet takes responsibility for himself and his actions first, and only this can lay the ground work for building a company like Berk-shire Hathaway. He first developed his own reputation for being an individual

with strong moral principles, a competi-tive nature, high work ethic, and with innate intelligence and intuition. From there he called on all his subsidiaries to do the same. Not only hold themselves to this standard, but also hold everyone around them as well. He did not say this passively. He said it with conviction and action if necessary. This is demonstrated through him saying that if you lose mon-ey for the firm he will be understanding, however if you lost a shred of reputa-tion for the firm, he would be ruthless. He backed up his belief, and this quote both in action and in ideology as demon-strated by how seriously he takes main-taining his reputation. His spotless rep-utation not only has preserved its high character, but has been able to serve him throughout many difficult situations. Moving forward, I know that I need to

make concerted efforts to always put my reputation and character above short gains. I am ambitious and competitive. I believe in efficiency. Through reading about, studying and meeting Warren Buffet I have made a promise to myself to not let these traits overshadow integ-rity. I will never put short-term success or efficiencies above my morals, nor will I comprise my integrity for any price tag.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because

someone planted a tree a long time ago.

-Warren Buffett

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five min-

utes to ruin it. If you think about that,

you’ll do things differently. –Warren Buffett

on character

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 10

Thank you to all of our corporate supporters for the 2016-2017 Academic Year! We thank you for supporting our mission and encouraging our growth!

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