Success in Business: Philantropist Warren Buffet

Known for being an internationally successful philanthropist, Warren Buffet has great knowledge of how a business functions. Because of this, he has written several essays that discuss much of the responsibilities involved with business ownership. Growing up in a family that has been involved in ownership of local business, I can relate to Buffet’s worries of business failure he talks about in his essay, The Anxieties of Business Change. I have seen two companies that are similar in function have two completely different outcomes in terms of profits, but could not understand the reasoning behind it. After reading Buffet’s essay, which discussed reasons for econimic loss in a company, I support his argument. He claims that success of a company, measured in economic returns, ultimately comes down to the type of business you enter. If a business is not in demand, no matter how hard you work towards making a company in that field of business financially successful, you will not reach your goal.

Buffet’s essay primarily discusses the declines his textile company had over the years due to lack of demand and how it eventually had to be closed down because of a drop in profits. He first supports his claim that lack of demand will cause failure when he argues that even when his company had well qualified and successful employees in management, it still was not enough to be successful in terms of economic revenue. He states, “When an industry’s underlying economics are crumbling, talented management may slow the rate of decline. Eventually, though, eroding fundamentals will overwhelm managerial brilliance” (56). Buffet argues that good management won’t save a company from going under, it can only slow the process of decline in that compan...

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...s his claims with data from his own personal experience, some might argue that every business is different. He lacks evidence he would receive from examining more than just two types of businesses that would support his argument. Even though Buffet’s claims are more often than not true, the data that can completely support him was not given in his essay because he has not surveyed every business that has ever been in existence.

Having great financial success throughout his life, Buffet strives to share his wisdom throughout his essay. Some find Buffet’s claims unreasonable and others agree with him. Experiencing similar worries of business failure as Buffet once did, I have come to conclude, like Buffet, that the financial success of a business is much more a function of the type of business in which you enter, than the way in which you try to operate the business.