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Buffett’s willingness to take multiple photos with each student on Oct. 17 just proves how down-to-earth and humble he truly is. Some students opted for more humorous photos, such as the girl who asked Buffett if she could kiss him on the cheek. He obliged and also pretended to fight over a girl’s purse and whisper a stock tip in another student’s ear. “I opted for this boring, but classic pose,” said Nicole Lindquist of UNMC public affairs. |
Like the MasterCard saying goes, some things are just priceless. Such as the opportunity I was given on Oct. 17 to meet the richest man in the world, the Oracle of Omaha, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Warren Buffett.
It all started with my decision to return to school for my master’s this past spring.
I wouldn’t have done it though, if it weren’t for the tuition assistance program here at UNMC. Believe me, I love him dearly, but my husband has taken on enough college loans to have enough degrees for the both of us and our unborn offspring.
So borrowing more money wasn’t an option. The tuition assistance program made it a no-brainer to enroll in grad school at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
On the first Thursday night of my Electronic Media Management class, my professor, Jeremy Lipschultz, Ph.D., informed us that we would have the chance of a lifetime, not only to meet Warren Buffett, but to eat lunch with him, snap a picture with him and even get an autograph.
Along with our class and the Investment Club at UNO, business students from universities including Florida State, Tulane, St. Louis (University), Missouri and Iowa, would join us.
In preparation for the big day, our class watched videos on the experiences of others who had met Buffett. I’ve since learned that listening to others who have met Buffett talk about it and meeting him in the flesh is like comparing watching a rock concert on TV to sitting in the front row with backstage passes.
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It struck me that despite it being a roomful of mostly business students, several questions pertained to Buffett’s personal philosophies — “Who would he pay to eat lunch with?” and “What was the most defining moment in his life?” were among the inquiries from the students. (Answers: “Sophia Loren” and “The day he emerged from the womb and won the ’embryonic lottery.'”)
Buffett believes he is lucky to have been born in the United States. It is part of the reason he has given most of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is dedicated to drastically reducing malaria deaths by 2015.
I’ve recently learned that a UNMC researcher, Jonathan Vennerstrom, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the College of Pharmacy, is working on an anti-malarial drug development project funded by the Medicines for Malaria Venture that receives 60 percent of its funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which I think is pretty cool. Click here to read more about it.
No matter what the topic, Buffett can speak intelligently and eloquently about it. For that, he credits the Dale Carnegie public speaking course he took way back when.
Despite the fact I didn’t want to peel my eyes away to take notes during the question and answer session, I did manage to write down a quote he made that stuck with me.
“Speaking and writing, they’re how the world sees you,” he said. “Thoughts only get through in words or on paper.”
It made me feel proud of the career I have chosen to know that the richest, and in my opinion, wisest man in the world values what I do for a living and plan to pursue further by getting my master’s degree. But it would not be possible without the tuition assistance program at UNMC. And for that, I’m eternally grateful.