Excerpts from Joseph Smith's article: My dinner with Warren Buffett

At age 81, Warren sometimes needs help hearing some questions being asked around the table. I was glad to be his ears that night and I found Warren to be an energetic, genuine, funny guy...

His approach is well documented in a host of books. His ability to stay unemotional in his approach to business and stay disciplined in his actions, consistent with his philosophy, have delivered a compounded rate of return of over 20 percent throughout Berkshire's history. He likes "boring" and is the classic contrarian.

But there's another side to Buffett.

He loves America and believes our best years are ahead.

His conversations are refreshing, interesting and simplistic yet seemingly packed with wisdom.

He answers questions with humorous story-telling, relating the story's plot to the answer he provided.

We heard stories about how deathly afraid of public speaking he was until he took a Dale Carnegie course and got the nerve to ask his then-girlfriend to marry him, which changed his life forever.

He added that a student can add an automatic 50 percent return if he/she learns how to communicate.

Almost all of the thoughts that Warren has seem to be math-related. He is superb at equating streams of potential income to value.

He feels intelligence is overrated. In fact, he jokes if you have a 150 IQ then go ahead and sell 30 points.

He stresses human potential and being aware of how emotions (like fear and greed) of groups move markets and provides opportunities for those who do not let emotions drive their decisions is what counts.

Warren has 74 CEO's reporting directly to him. Warren lets his CEOs run their own show, a clearly decentralized and autonomous approach to running a company. He told me he has learned that if you let the CEOs "do their own painting" and "applaud them a lot" that they will do just fine.

Tom Nerney is one of those 74 CEOs who reports to Warren. He told me Warren never asks for a meeting, a forecast or a budget, ever. And Warren is always available when Tom needs him.

Tom explained that Warren tells the analysts he refuses to ask his 74 CEOs for a budget, that "they will sandbag anyways." What value is then reporting those sandbagged budgets to Wall Street as it has nothing to do with the value of the companies he runs?

I asked him how he was able to drive forward through ups and downs and stay disciplined in his philosophy, which clearly has brought him success, a philosophy that does not follow the crowd and behaves contrary to "popular" feelings. His response on his key to success was his confidence that came from his father's unconditional love. He told me his father died many years ago and today he still feels sick when he thinks of his dad passing away.

He told me that the biggest investment a parent can give their kid is unconditional love.....he was very clear that unconditional love will give a kid a lifetime of confidence and will unleash their potential. Unconditional love is the greatest investment, with the best return on investment that a parent can make.

Warren was also clear it was unconditional love you give the kids, not unconditional approval — so your children don't get any funny ideas.

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