How the Oracle of Omaha decides on breakfast

HBO documentary reveals little known facts about self-made billionaire Warren Buffett

Every morning, billionaire Warren Buffett drives down to his office in Omaha, Nebraska in his 2014 Cadillac XTC. “One of the good things” along the way of the five-minute-trip, he explains, is the McDonald’s where he has breakfasts.

This is one of the opening scenes in HBO’s feature-length (90 minutes) documentary on 84-year-old Buffet, often called the ‘Oracle of Omaha’, because of the crowds of Berkshire Hathaway investors who come to listen to him holding forth on — quite aptly — money.

The documentary, Becoming Warren Buffett, directed by Peter Kunhardt, will debut on 30 January. A trailer can be seen on YouTube, featuring the scene of Buffett getting his breakfast from a McDonald’s.

Kunhardt has made a hand-off film, writes CNN, letting the billionaire tell his own tale, while including voices from his life and extraordinary career. “Those who watch the feature-length documentary will feel the richer for it,” according to the article.

Buffet, now worth about $67 billion, “took control of a small, struggling textile maker in 1965 and created a conglomerate now valued at over $400 billion — behind only Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft. The stock is up more than 12,000-fold on his watch,” according to Barron’s.

The man is no less fascinating than the businessman — and the documentary is more personal than business, reports Reuters. Both Buffett and his siblings recall the influence of their parents on the future billionaire. Their mother was mathematically inclined and troubled by chronic headaches and would, at times, lash out at the children. Their father was idealistic and served in the US Congress.

One of the matters on which he seems quite forthcoming is “love”, claiming, according to the Reuters report: “It’s a very strange thing, love. If you try to give it out, you get more back. If you try to hang onto it, you lose it.”

The report also provides an insight into his relationship with his first wife, Susan. “Susie really put me together,” he says in the film. Kunhardt relies on Susan’s only televised interview, in 2004 with TV host Charlie Rose, to provide nuggets of information that only a spouse can provide.

“Physical proximity with Warren doesn’t mean he’s there with you,” says Susan in that interview.

His current wife, Astrid Menks, 60, also plays an important role in his life every day. The Latvian, who once worked as a cocktail waitress, decides what her husband will have for breakfast.

She “puts $2.61, $2.95, or $3.17 into a dashboard cup for him every day, and that determines what he orders at the [McDonal] drive-through,” reports Barron’s. “On that day, it’s $2.95, which means a Sausage McMuffin with egg and cheese. ‘The market is not doing so well today,” he says, ‘so I’ll pass on the $3.17 bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit.’ When he gets to the office, he washes it down with his favorite beverage, a Coke.”