William Cohan – Get the Numbers Right Before You Invest

<p><strong>BIO: </strong>William D. Cohan, a former senior Wall Street M&amp;A investment banker for 17 years at Lazard Frères &amp; Co., Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan Chase, is the New York Times bestselling author of seven non-fiction narratives, including his most recent book called <em>Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Idol.</em></p><p><strong>STORY:</strong> In 1990, William asked a trader to buy him 10 shares in Berkshire Hathaway, thinking a share was selling at $1,200, only to be told it was $12,000. He decided to keep two shares and sold the other eight. Had William invested $120,000 for the 10 shares in Berkshire Hathaway in 1990, they would be worth $7.4 million today.</p><p><strong>LEARNING:</strong> Get the numbers right before you invest.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><blockquote class="ql-align-center"><strong>“I decided to write this book for people who wanted to know about how Wall Street works but were afraid to ask how things work.”</strong></blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center">William Cohan</blockquote><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Guest profile</h2><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamdcohan/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>William D. Cohan</strong></a>, a former senior Wall Street M&amp;A investment banker for 17 years at Lazard Frères &amp; Co., Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan Chase, is the New York Times bestselling author of seven non-fiction narratives, including his most recent book called <a href="https://amzn.to/3M1dObo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Idol</em></a>.</p><h2>Worst investment ever</h2><p>In 1990, William was interested in buying some Berkshire Hathaway stock. The company he was working for at the time, Lazard, had a Quotron machine on each floor. William used the machine to get Berkshire’s stock price of the day and got $1,200 a share. William went down to the company’s trader and told him that he wanted to buy 10 shares of Berkshire Hathaway. William figured 1,200 x 10, that’s $12,000, a