Spokane Standard

It could be daunting for an author to tackle the life of an icon like Warren Buffett, but Gonzaga University Professor Todd Finkle had a couple things working to his advantage: his own entrepreneurial spirit and a personal relationship with the “Oracle of Omaha” forged during Finkle’s childhood growing up in the same Midwestern city Buffett famously calls home, and later visiting Buffett with his students six times.

“I have a personal touch, and I know the family. I grew up there, I know the culture,” said Finkle, who’s taught entrepreneurship for four universities and currently serves as the Pigott Professor of Entrepreneurship at Gonzaga’s School of Business, where he has taught since 2010. Finkle is the author of a new book, Warren Buffett: Investor and Entrepreneur, arriving in March from Columbia Business School Publishing.  

Even a casual observer of Buffett knows that much of the Berkshire Hathaway chairperson and CEO’s mystique is tied to the simple life he leads in Nebraska, one that belies the incredible wealth he’s built over a lifetime of creative deal making and innate hustle first shown when he sold gum and Coca-Cola door to door as a child. Despite a reported worth of over $110 billion, he lives in the same house he bought in the 1950s, holds a modest office in downtown Omaha, and loves to dine on hamburgers and McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches. 

It could be daunting for an author to tackle the life of an icon like Warren Buffett, but Gonzaga University Professor Todd Finkle had a couple things working to his advantage: his own entrepreneurial spirit and a personal relationship with the “Oracle of Omaha” forged during Finkle’s childhood growing up in the same Midwestern city Buffett famously calls home, and later visiting Buffett with his students six times.  
 

 “I have a personal touch, and I know the family. I grew up there, I know the culture,” said Finkle, who’s taught entrepreneurship for four universities and currently serves as the Pigott Professor of Entrepreneurship at Gonzaga’s School of Business, where he has taught since 2010. Finkle is the author of a new book, Warren Buffett: Investor and Entrepreneur, arriving in March from Columbia Business School Publishing.  

 

 Even a casual observer of Buffett knows that much of the Berkshire Hathaway chairperson and CEO’s mystique is tied to the simple life he leads in Nebraska, one that belies the incredible wealth he’s built over a lifetime of creative deal making and innate hustle first shown when he sold gum and Coca-Cola door to door as a child. Despite a reported worth of over $110 billion, he lives in the same house he bought in the 1950s, holds a modest office in downtown Omaha, and loves to dine on hamburgers and McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches.

Original source can be found here.