What Did Warren Buffett Say About Henry Singleton?

David Senra says Warren Buffett gave Henry Singleton the best operating and capital deployment record in American business. The combined achievements of the top 100 business school graduates would not match Singleton's record, and Buffett called it a crime that business schools did not study him.

Charlie Munger called Singleton a genius and an awesome intellect, put that raw intelligence in the top one one thousandth of one percent, and called him the smartest single human being he had ever known, a lot smarter than Buffett or Munger. The respect came from a very simple reason: Singleton was a genius.

Munger had an up close view of both and separated raw intelligence from time spent thinking about investments. Singleton was a lot smarter, but Buffett had thought about investments a lot longer. Singleton did not start his company until about 43 and did not really start investing the cash until his 50s, then did it for another 20 years, from about 50 to 70. Buffett started at nine and is still doing it in his 90s.