Young Warren Buffett and his friend Don Danley fixed a broken pinball machine for $3, pitched it to barbershops under a fake promoter's name, and made $5-$6 their first week. Buffett called it feeling like he "died and went to heaven" over a $3 profit on an $18 investment.
He had a very good friend in high school called Don Danley. Danley was a tinkerer. He was like very mechanically inclined. Warren went to his home and he saw that Don's working on a pinball machine in his garage. Warren asked him, how much is it going to cost? He said, it's going to cost like $3 in parts and maybe a couple of hours to get it working. So they went to barbershops in D.C. and said, look, we work for Mr. Wilson. And Mr. Wilson did not exist. This is a fictitious character. And Mr. Wilson has asked us to present you with a proposition that we can put a pinball machine in the barbershop. Whatever coins are in there, we'll split it 50/50 with you. Warren said that the first week he went back to the first barbershop, he thought he died and went to heaven. So there was like $5 or $6 in there. Their take was about like $3 on $18 of capital in one week.
