"Even Buffett Isn't Perfect" provides no useful advice for investors and wastes the reader's time. Suggest instead something by Mary Buffett, or the new book "Snowball," by Alice Schroeder.

"Even Buffett Isn't Perfect's" first chapter goes through a bloviated and pointless discussion of diversification trying to somehow make something out of the fact that Buffett recommends diversification (actually - a low-cost index fund) for others who don't have the stock research time and mindset that he does, while focusing his investments when he started out to get maximum impact. Now, given the tens of billions in Buffett's portfolio, he can no longer focus like he once did. Pretty simple - right? Unfortunately, the book took some 20+ pages to do the same.

Then its off to another worthless discussion of Google vs. Washington Post. Buffett doesn't like investing in new "transforming" companies because they lack of track record and most fail in the initial stages of competition. In addition, he doesn't like technology stocks because he recognizes he doesn't know enough about the field to adequately assess. Saved you another 20+ pages of blarney.

Janjigian believes Buffett is wrong in opposing momentum investing ("follow the crowd," at least for awhile) and cites two supporting studies. Reality, however, is that academics rarely agree on anything, and I'd bet there are at least another two studies that contradict Janjigian's point.

Eventually, Janjigian gets to what really upsets him about Buffett - the fact that Buffett favors higher taxes for the wealthy and opposes ending the estate tax. That has nothing to do with investing strategy!

Informational. Esp for me being new in stock market/investing. Author goes into the good amount of details on how Buffet has been investing. Excellent in the sense that not all information on his investment is known to the non-initiated. Even some of his old investments were similar to the GE purchase. Then it makes a good point that common investors can not have that kind of opportunity where you get 10% guaranteed return plus options.

All that said the book seems to have not emphasized that by investing on only companies that he understands and invests, following Warren may not be of much use for people in tech field where his portfolio has definitely been lean. Besides the tech stocks have not yet entered the value phase anyway. I think the task of carrying over his ideas into new stocks is still open for new generation.

I was hoping to learn something about investing that I could use, instead I got repetitive, unsubstantiated opinions, that only occasionally had any origin in Buffett's practice or style.

Much of the book is devoted to attacks on Buffett's political opinions, which might have been interesting, had they been more than bald assertions that Buffett was wrong.

The primary investment advice presented was a recommendation for momentum investing. Ignoring the dubious advisability of this tactic, it clearly has nothing to do with Mr. Buffett.

Congratulations to Mr. Janjigian for writing a book that not only does a great job in discussing Buffett's investment styles, but also and more importantly communicating the key investment concepts that individual investors should be aware of, in a very easy to understand manner. While there have been many, more detailed books written on Buffett's investment approach, I think Vahan effectively uses the different investment approaches employed by Buffett to highlight and to some extent caution individual investors who attempt to emulate Buffett by stating that what might be good for large long term investors like Buffett (who have access to top level managements), may not necessarily be true for individual stock investors. An investor like Buffett can make big concentrated bets based on his understanding of management and management's strategies, something that an individual stock investor may lack as a function of limited/no access to top level managements.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a good understanding of the basic and key investment concepts, and I would recommend that colleges handout this book to incoming students in order to educate them with the basics of sound investing principles. I sincerely hope that this book is the first in many more to come!

Mr. Buffett may not be perfect, but given his "extreme" level of net worth, he must have done something right with his investment portfolio. And let's be clear - Berkshire Hathaway has always been managed like an investment portfolio. Vahan Janjigian provides a clear and concise explanation of Buffett's strategy and investment process, and gives the reader some insights on successful wealth generation. And this is the only book that criticizes his views on taxation. Not too long; not too complicated; but very informative and well written. A perfect "end of summer" read.

This book is short, easy to read and to the point. While the author does an excellent job of explaining Buffett's favored investment strategies, he also looks at other strategies, such as momentum, that work well. The book's real strength comes in the second half. Buffett has few faults when it comes to investing, but he has been pushing policies that make no sense. This is the only book I've seen that examines these issues and isn't afraid to ciriticize the man. The chapters on corporate governance, taxes, options and earnings guidance are particularly enlightening.

In a few short pages, the author summarizes the wisdom, and occasional errors of the greatest investor of all time. The executive summary for each chapter, makes the author's analysis available to even the most impatient reader. Defintely a top choice for summer time investment reading, particularly in these troubled times.

Incredibly bad book. I invest at one of the largest hedge funds so have some credibility in this commentary. You will not become a better investor by reading this book, you will only waste your time and there are many other better books out there to read. Problems that I have with this book:

-The main recommendation comes from Steve Forbes (which is ok I guess) with the problem being that the author writes for Forbes and that Steve Forbes' intro is more a promotional piece / argument for the Steve Forbes tax policies than any kind of a value add.

-The book isn't written by a professional investor. The guy is a market commentator but really doesn't have much talent in deducing overall generalizations about how to invest money and I really wouldn't give his advice much credit. Sorry

Overall I was just really frustrated with the buying experience of this book and that I was stuck on a 4 hour plane ride with nothing but Sky Mall, a dead laptop battery, and this book to keep me company. Sky Mall and staring at the back of my dead laptop was the better read.

I wouldn't get online and make such a negative commentary unless I really thought it was that bad. Believe me. Don't waste your time with this.

In full disclosure, I am a friend of the author and have sat on two industry corporate governance committees with him. The qualities that I observed him exhibit on these committees including a willingness to examine issues from all prospective and to go beyond conventional analysis is what makes, "Even Buffett isn't perfect" such an important book. This book is probably the most evenhanded analysis of Buffett - his strengths and weaknesses (everyone has them). Dr. Janjigian's critique of Buffet's positions on taxation and estate taxes, should be required reading for all politicians.

What makes this book so useful is that Dr. Janjigian writes in a clear and straightforward style that is easily accessible to the nonprofessional. At the end of each chapter there is summary of all the major points discussed in the chapter.

The author focuses on the key topics of investing including diversification, compounding and investment style, explaining to the reader what aspects of Buffet's approach the reader should emulate and what parts of Buffett's approach the reader needs to modify.

I strongly recommend this book because most readers will find the well thought out investment principles simply presented, allowing readers to easily adapt them to their own investment programs.

Vahan Janjigian is eminently qualified to write a book on Warren Buffett. To those who have misunderstood the title; it is meant to be ironic.
The book is a well researched and very informative analysis of Warren Buffet's success as well as a detailed explanation of various investment strategies. The language in the book is both erudite and colloquial in tone; and gives one the sense that the author is very comfortable writing on this subject. It reveals not only that Warren Buffet has, over the years, managed to be a world class investor by utilizing his research, instincts, judgment and patience; but that his refusal to bend to market trends has made him an outstanding long term builder of wealth.
The author's unique way of explaining both the academic aspects of the Buffett formula and using more common language, at times, to give a more baseline understanding of Buffet's success, make the book a highly readable text. I recommend it highly.

Vahan has a wonderful writing style that is simple and easy to understand which communicates his complete and thorough understanding of Buffett, his investment style and the markets and investments in general... An easy read and one worth doing, I feel smarter for having read this great little nugget of a book.

This was an extremely informative book formatted in an organized, concise fashion. Any level of investor can learn from this book and enjoy Janjigian's objective analysis of Buffett. The chapter on taxes was particularly interesting and the chapter on "Governance and the Next Buffett" made one think that perhaps Buffett should consider Janjigian in his "succession plan". Definitely a great read.

Warren Buffet commands an enthusiastically loyal following rivaled by few in business (perhaps Apple and Google). Buffet fanboys often only remember the glory of the winners and forget his mistakes. Unlike other Buffet books that can be characterized as "love letters to Buffet," Even Buffet Isn't Perfect is an objective look into the methods of the world's greatest investor. Janjigian dispels common myths about Buffet and demonstrates how Buffet has changed strategies over time and learned from his mistakes. While a common investor cannot implement many of Buffet's strategies, Janjigian provides useful takeaways to think about when choosing your own investment strategy. Overall, this is an excellent and fair look at Buffet. If you know nothing about Buffet, make this your first read.

This is a sophisticated and mature book looking at investing policies and strategies, shunning the emotional contagion of the street. It is presented in the "Warren Buffett" model and is a must read! I really loved this book.

Most of Warren Buffett mistakes just cause him to work harder than he anticipated in order to make the investment still pay off. And once in while he actually loses money. His method of investing is evolving. The author (and Steve Forbes in the Forward) makes a good point when he points out that even the worlds greatest investor can be wrong about tax policy. It would probably not be practical for most readers to apply most of the Warren Buffett investment methods described in this book. But just today on the news it was reported that Mr. Buffett is going to bet a large sum that he can get a better return on investment over the next ten years than hedge funds, by simply investing in a Vanguard Index Fund. Now that is an investment technique that can be easily copied (if you have not done it already).

Although Buffet is generally apolitical, he does shares his opinions from time to time on US tax and macroeconomic policy. In particular, Buffet has consistently voiced an opinion that his tax burden should exceed that of 'working' class Americans because of the great opportunities afforded to him by the US economic system (an opinion shared by his friend Bill Gates). In short, Buffet doesn't buy into the supply side arguments that low taxes drive capital investments in the economy or business risk-taking in general. These opinions have left right-leaning, more elitist commentators steaming with resentment, and this book represents their chance to take a few cheap shots at him while making a few bucks by selling well-known observations about Buffet's investment style.

Not to be intimidated by his unprecedented success as an investor- or his track record in helping CEO's improve corporate earnings and balance sheets- the author takes Buffet to task on two main fronts: his call for higher taxes on the wealthy and his support for the inheritance tax. The funny thing is that after setting reader's expectations for a significant, strong case against Buffet (why he "isn't perfect"), Vahan presents hollow and unconvincing arguments. To drive home the point that Buffet is wrong on US tax policy, Vahan makes an obscure reference to changes in the tax system of Russia, a country that's been through severe shocks in recent years and indirectly taxes businesses through a feudal system of corrupt officials and pervasive mafia bosses. Instead of breaking down a recent example, such as Clinton's eight years of higher taxes on the wealthy, into a strong thesis that certain taxes stifle economic growth, the author leaves us with nothing of substance. As a result, I learned very little from this book and feel that reading it was time wasted.

Note: Buffet has downplayed his ability to make macroeconomic predictions with self-deprecating humor. However, Buffet did accurately predict the fall of the dollar, followed by increased foreign ownership of US assets (see the Squanderville and related essays).

Just pay attention to the following words, taken from chaptet 1 (in my case, they were enough to make me throw it away immediately): "[..] finance theory considers a stock to be risky if it shows a tendency to go up or down by a large amount. Buffett thinks this is silly. After all, why a stock that goes up be considered risky? Buffett only worries about the risk that a stock will fall. The theory is focused on total risk, Buffett worries only about downside risk". That's simply crazy. A stock that goes up can be extremely risky, much riskier than a stock that goes down. Buffett, as anyone who has read his letters to the shareholders should know, does not give a toss about the daily or monthly or even yearly bouncing around of stock prices. He likes to think of himself as a business analyst, not even a security analyst. He judges his companies' performance looking at their operating results, because he knows that over time the market will follow. Indeed, Buffett does not worry at all about the "risk that a stock will fall". If the stock of a good company takes a hit, even if it's already part of his portfolio, as long as the operating history remains intact, he welcomes the event, 'cause he can load up on the stock even more. Just consider his investment in Wells Fargo: in 1991, when the stock went down 50%, he was already a shareholder (first purchase in 1989), and nevertheless he did not cry at all, he loved it.
When he bought the Post there was plenty of downside risk in the market (by the way, he does not try to catch a falling knife either, nor he's worried about the bottom!), but plenty of upside potential in the business as well. In december 1974, sixteen months after the investment had been made, the return was still - 25%. That didn't bother him at all: he knew it was a great business. Nothing more than that. In the end, he has said many times that he thinks there's fundamentally no difference between investing in a private company or in a listed company: in both cases, your results depend on the the business, not on the stock market's vagaries. I think we better read Graham, Dodd and Buffett directly, instead of wasting our times with poor surrogates (in my view, with the exception of Robert Hagstrom, whose books are very good)!

this book is short and provide a very brief summary of Buffett's methods with some commentaries, however, if you are lazy enough to be content with it and skip the much better ones like The Making of an American Capitalist, then you deserve to lose money in investment, this book simply adds nothing to the already volumimous literature on Buffett, the finance theories/knowledge discussed is something every first year finance students will know. i totally agree with another reviewer that this is simply another attempt to make money on Buffett's name

Please do not make this the first book you read about Warren Buffett or stock investing because it is really not that good in explaining Warren Buffet' style and the opposing views are rather incomplete.
Mr Janjigian's book is really about why wall street thinks Mr Buffett is wrong more in his opinons than his investing.(really how can you argue with the most successful investor on investing) but this book is really weak and incomplete when it takes an opposite view to Mr Buffett's.
- here a great example, Chapter 10 is on Guidance
Mr Buffett belives quarterly earnings reporting is not helpful but distracting to a company and has companies think more short term than long term.
Mr Janjigian counters with that by not reporting quarterly earnings hurts companies and he even gives a mention of the result of a study on companies who have not reported earnings in the past by stating that their earnings were down.( but he doesn't compare the amount down to companies reporting.)And Mr Janjigian mentions buying and selling will slow down.
What needs to added to this argument is its really not about company profits being hurt if a company does not report because remember Wall Street makes its money on us buying and selling and if more companies do not report quarterly than Wall Street fees would decrease not to mention a lot analysts' would be out of work.
Anyway as I mention at the begininng this is really not a good Buffett book and should be avoided if you are looking to learn about him. The best book that I recommend and I give as a gift to my friends is "Buffettology" by Mary Buffett and David Clark. "Buffettology" even does better in explaining discount cash flow method that Buffett uses.

I found this book very easy read has a lot of easy language investment approach nuggets for a non-financial person besides explaining the Buffett enigma. Thank you Vahan your hard work has paid off!

The title is kind of a misnomer. True that the author points out some of Buffett's investment mistakes. He also highlights what seem to be inconsistencies in the investment guru's approach. Yet the author never attacks the man directly. And he actually rains proper praise for all of the things Buffett's done right. To me it showed that everyone is human and prone to mistakes. As the author puts it, it's Buffett's ability to minimize mistakes while maximizing his successes that's truly made him a star.

Another aspect of the book I found to be more than a pleasant surprise was just how level-headed it was. Having read a number of investment-themed books, I can be sure that all good ones will present a heavy dose of what I like to call "financial science". Given that most investment strategies are based on some foundation of financial theory, this makes sense. But while many of these can get a bit too technical, the author does a good job of communicating relevant concepts without requiring the reader to have a degree in finance. Indeed, I initially cringed when he brought up the concept of correlation coefficient -- two words many of us probably haven't heard since high school. But his explanation of this and other important concepts were very easy to follow and rooted in common sense. He also doesn't inundate you with these concepts, only focusing on those that are required to help understand how Buffett invests and why it has worked so well for so long.

I enjoyed all of the chapters and felt the final ones -- which criticize Buffett's views on a few key issues such as taxes, corporate governance, and earnings guidance -- were especially well argued. However, my favorite, and perhaps most sobering, part of the book was when Dr. Janjigian distinguishes between business buyers and stock buyers. Specifically, he notes that while Buffett falls into the former category, most individual investors are stuck in the latter. This key distinction -- more than any other -- is the reason we realistically should not hope to duplicate Buffett's success. This was a refreshing change from so many other books that simply praise Buffett as an investment genius and suggests "foolproof" strategies that you can use to mirror his success. This author, too, has praise for the man. But he is very frank on how Buffett has made and maintained his fortune, and educates the reader on what is realistically possible when it comes to learning from the "World's Greatest Investor".

A very enjoyable read all around. I'd strongly recommended to anyone looking to for honest insight on Buffett, as well as, to anyone simply looking for a nice, easy to follow book on investing. You won't be disappointed.

Who could be better suited to write a book on Buffett than a master of discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis? Janjigian has been the long-time manager of the Special Situation Survey newsletter, which employs a DCF model. Stock picks from that newsletter has put food on my table for the last two years. And it was no surprise when I found out Buffett also uses DCF analysis.

In his exhaustive analysis, Janjigian cuts through the crap and tells us what lessons Buffett really has to offer to the average investor. Apparently, Buffett has made some mistakes in the past. Read this book and learn from Buffett's rights and wrongs.