书名：The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life 滚雪球：巴菲特和他的财富人生
作者：Alice Schroeder艾丽斯·施罗德
出版社名称：Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
出版时间：2009
语种： 英文
ISBN：9780747596493
商品尺寸：12.9 x 5 x 19.8 cm
包装：平装
页数：832

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life《滚雪球：巴菲特和他的财富人生》是“股神”巴菲特授权的官方传记。由艾丽斯·施罗德耗时5年，跟巴菲特交谈了2000个小时，采访了他的250位亲朋好友才得以完成。本书首次揭开了巴菲特的真实人生，为我们描述了一个和普通人一样遭遇过挫折和失败的巴菲特，如何在投资和商业中获得了巨大成功和财富。同时，本书对于巴菲特投资理念和商业思想的全面解读，让这位我们这个时代硕果仅存的商业领袖的精神财富，得以传承后世。

作者在《滚雪球：巴菲特和他的财富人生》这本书中想要告诉你：
◎人生就像滚雪球，重要的是发现很湿的雪和很长的坡。
◎一个人一生中较好的投资，就是投资自己。
◎我们一生中要面临诸多选择，要争取做一个受欢迎的人，其实就是让自己的雪球在雪地上越滚越大，较好是一边前进一边选择积雪皑皑的地方，因为我们不会回到山顶重新开始滚雪球，生活正是如此。
◎恐惧和贪婪这两种传染性极强的灾难的偶然爆发会永远在投资界出现。这些流行病的发作时间难以预料，由它们引起的市场精神错乱无论是持续时间还是传染程度同样难以预料。因此我们永远无法预测任何一种灾难的降临或离开。我们的目标应该是：在别人贪婪时恐惧,在别人恐惧时贪婪。

推荐理由：
1. “股神”巴菲特授权的官方传记；
2. 全面解读巴菲特的投资理念和商业思想，经济金融类必读书；
3. 迄今为止描写巴菲特成长心路详尽而深刻的惊世之作。

媒体评论：
“巴菲特的价值投资理念，很朴素，也很好懂，是中国投资者应该师法的‘长技’。”——《北京青年周刊》

“本书提供了以往从未有过的深度分析，让读者透视巴菲特的性格和人生，并浓缩了那些使其获得非凡成功和声誉的原则及理念。它向读者呈现了巨大的成功、卓越的领导力和慷慨的慈善家背后的巴菲特。本书记录了巴菲特的思想，其视角可以运用到生意中以及主导我们生活的日常决策中。”——《金融时报》

“在金融危机的危险时刻，很有必要读读这本书。”——《福布斯》

“在施罗德女士这本厚达900多页的书中，我们能够学到许多经验教训……从失败中汲取经验十分重要……许多人会说：下一次沃伦·巴菲特警告危机来临时，我们好洗耳恭听。”——《华尔街日报》

“对那些已经了解巴菲特故事的人来说，施罗德的这本书引人注目之处就是它史诗般的视野。《滚雪球》比其他作品更加敏锐，它深入到心灵深处，挖掘了巴菲特的成功秘诀。”——美国《商业周刊》

“这是一个典型的美国故事，讲述了一个完全靠自我奋斗而成功的人，并且在一些方面依然保持了自己的本色。这本书权威地展现了巴菲特非凡的一生，是所有资本家的《圣经》。”——《华盛顿邮报》

“巴菲特选择艾丽斯·施罗德为其作传真是明智之举……她具有高超的驾驭能力，纵横捭阖，收缩自如，将巴菲特的传奇故事娓娓道来，抽丝剥茧地梳理了他那盘根错节的商业帝国。施罗德女士不仅对巴菲特的传奇人生了如指掌，同时也敏锐把握到了他对当前经济危机的精确预见。”——《纽约时报》

Recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world,The Snowball is the most fascinating financial success story of our time. Warren Buffett, the legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but finally has given Alice Schroeder unprecedented access to him and all those closest to his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies and wisdom. The result is this personally revealing and complete biography of “'The Oracle of Omaha”, indispensable reading for those who wish to know the man behind the outstanding achievements.
Review
“The mandatory book to read in these treacherous times of financial crisis.… A thoughtful and intimate biography of the globe’s wisest investor.” —Forbes

“Will mesmerize anyone interested in who Mr. Buffett is or how he got that way.”The Snowball tells a fascinating story.”  —New York Times

“If the replication of any great achievement first requires knowledge of how it was done, thenThe Snowball, the most detailed glimpse inside Warren Buffett and his world that we likely will ever get, should become a Bible for capitalists.”  — Washington Post

“Anyone who has been watching events unfold in recent months–which would be everyone–can now appreciate the wisdom of Buffett....The most authoritative portrait of one of the most important American investors of our time.”  —Los Angeles Times

1939午的冬天，9岁的巴菲特在院子里玩雪。他把少量的积雪铲到一块，揉成一个雪球，然后把它放在地上慢慢滚动，雪球越滚越大……
从此，巴菲特再也没有停下脚步，目光投向白雪皑皑的整个世界……
沃伦·巴菲特，我们这个时代硕果仅存的商业领袖和投资大师，甚至在死后还会影响后世50年的伟大人物，终于向我们敞开了他的心扉。这本他生平授权的官方传记，以从未有过的视角，揭开了巴菲特的真实人生。许多年来聚光灯下高大的“股神”终于走下神坛，以他平实的语言、真诚的心，娓娓道来，讲述了他78年人生中触动人心的故事，分享了他60多年商业和投资生涯中宝贵的经验。
Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.”
Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world’s richest man, all from the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of this fits the term “simple.”
When Alice Schroeder met Warren Buffett she was an insurance industry analyst and a gifted writer known for her keen perception and business acumen. Her writings on finance impressed him, and as she came to know him she realized that while much had been written on the subject of his investing style, no one had moved beyond that to explore his larger philosophy, which is bound up in a complex personality and the details of his life. Out of this came his decision to cooperate with her on the book about himself that he would never write.
Never before has Buffett spent countless hours responding to a writer’s questions, talking, giving complete access to his wife, children, friends, and business associates—opening his files, recalling his childhood. It was an act of courage, asThe Snowball makes immensely clear. Being human, his own life, like most lives, has been a mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be, Buffett’s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth; it will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people’s lives. This book tells you why Warren Buffett is the most fascinating American success story of our time.

艾丽斯·施罗德，曾任摩根史丹利董事总经理，因撰写伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司的研究报告而与巴菲特结识，而巴菲特也因为赏识她的洞察力和掌握主题的能力，授权施罗德撰写他的人生故事。为了撰写本书，施罗德用了5年时间，跟巴菲特交谈了2000个小时，采访了他的250位朋友、家人和同事，查阅了巴菲特从未披露的无数私人信件和档案。
施罗德生于得克萨斯州，在得克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校获得学士及MBA学位。拥有会计师执照，目前与丈夫居住在康涅狄格州。
Alice Schroeder began her career as a certified public accountant, working for Ernst & Young before being appointed as a managing director at Morgan Stanley in the equities division. She was the Number One-ranked Institutional Investor All-America Research analyst in 2001 and 2002, and a member of the All-America Research team for seven years. Schroeder first met Warren Buffett in 1998. By 2001, Buffett began to suggest that Alice shift from the business of following stocks in order to write full-time.The Snowball is a Number One International Bestseller.

Chapter One
The Less Flattering Version
Omaha, June 2003
Warren Buffett rocks back in his chair, long legs crossed at the knee behind his father Howard’s plain wooden desk. His expensive Zegna suit jacket bunches around his shoulders like an untailored version bought off the rack. The jacket stays on all day, every day, no matter how casually the other fifteen employees at Berkshire Hathaway headquarters are dressed. His predictable white shirt sits low on the neck, its undersize collar bulging away from his tie, looking left over from his days as a young businessman, as if he had forgotten to check his neck size for the last forty years.
His hands lace behind his head through strands of whitening hair. One particularly large and messy finger-combed chunk takes off over his skull like a ski jump, lofting upward at the knoll of his right ear. His shaggy right eyebrow wanders toward it above the tortoiseshell glasses. At various times this eyebrow gives him a skeptical, knowing, or beguiling look. Right now he wears a subtle smile, which lends the wayward eyebrow a captivating air. Nonetheless, his pale-blue eyes are focused and intent.
He sits surrounded by icons and mementos of fifty years. In the hallways outside his office, Nebraska Cornhuskers football photographs, his paycheck from an appearance on a soap opera, the offer letter (never accepted) to buy a hedge fund called Long-Term Capital Management, and Coca-Cola memorabilia everywhere. On the coffee table inside the office, a classic Coca-Cola bottle. A baseball glove encased in Lucite. Over the sofa, a certificate that he completed Dale Carnegie’s public-speaking course in January 1952. The Wells Fargo stagecoach, westbound atop a bookcase. A Pulitzer Prize, won in 1973 by the Sun Newspapers of Omaha, which his investment partnership owned. Scattered about the room are books and newspapers. Photographs of his family and friends cover the credenza and a side table, and sit under the hutch beside his desk in place of a computer. A large portrait of his father hangs above Buffett’s head on the wall behind his desk. It faces every visitor who enters the room.
Although a late-spring Omaha morning beckons outside the windows, the brown wooden shutters are closed to block the view. The television beaming toward his desk is tuned to CNBC. The sound is muted, but the crawl at the bottom of the screen feeds him news all day long. Over the years, to his pleasure, the news has often been about him.
Only a few people, however, actually know him well. I have been acquainted with him for six years, originally as a financial analyst covering Berkshire Hathaway stock. Over time our relationship has turned friendly, and now I will get to know him better still. We are sitting in Warren’s office because he is not going to write a book. The unruly eyebrows punctuate his words as he says repeatedly, “You’ll do a better job than I would, Alice. I’m glad you’re writing this book, not me.” Why he would say that is something that will eventually become clear. In the meantime, we start with the matter closest to his heart.
“Where did it come from, Warren? Caring so much about making money?”
His eyes go distant for a few seconds, thoughts traveling inward: flip flip flip through the mental files. Warren begins to tell his story: “Balzac said that behind every great fortune lies a crime. [1] That’s not true at Berkshire.”
He leaps out of his chair to bring home the thought, crossing the room in a couple of strides. Landing on a mustardy-gold brocade armchair, he leans forward, more like a teenager bragging about his first romance than a seventy-two-year-old financier. How to interpret the story, who else to interview, what to write: The book is up to me. He talks at length about human nature and memory’s frailty, then says, “Whenever my version is different from somebody else’s, Alice, use the less flattering version.”
Among the many lessons, some of the best come simply from observing him. Here is the first: Humility disarms.
In the end, there won’t be too many reasons to choose the less flattering version–but when I do, human nature, not memory’s frailty, is usually why. One of those occasions happened at Sun Valley in 1999.