Warren Buffett, who inherited no money from his parents, is the richest person in the world.As an enterprising youngster, he sold Cokes and delivered newspapers. As a grownup over a Big Mac, fries and a Coke at McDonald's in Hong Kong one midnight, he told his friend - Microsoft's Bill Gates - about the consistency of McDonald's bun, meat, fries and price on a worldwide basis. Today Buffett is one of the largest shareholders of some of the nation's best known companies: Coca-Cola - a stake worth about $9 billion - Gillette, Disney, American Express, McDonald's and Wells Fargo, a brand name extravaganza.From his bedroom in Omaha, he started an investment partnership that bought Berkshire Hathaway, a now defunct New England textile mill. The business went under, but the name lived on. With money from that business, Buffett - the Michelangelo of business - drew investment masterpieces of astonishing value, forging a student's interest in auto insurer GEICO into full ownership of the $5 billion company.GEICO and Berkshire's other valuable insurance businesses make up one of Berkshire's secret weapons. In all, they provide $7 billion of "float", or other people's money, that Berkshire receives from premiums and invests until time to pay off insurance claims.Taught by the legendary Ben Graham at Columbia University, Buffett was Graham's best student and is the greatest practitioner of value investing. Buffett has held many of Berkshire's investments for decades. "Our favorite holding period is forever," he loves to say.Buffett's story is a statement about how to operate in a first-class manner in the business world, indeed in life. Read Less