Ok…it's time for your first quiz. Ready? Below is a list of ten companies. What do they have in common?

Benjamin Moore Paints Burlington Northern Railroad BoatUS Dairy Queen Fruit of the Loom

GEICO Johns Manville NetJets The Pampered Chef See's Candies

Hmmm…they are all well known companies. They are certainly diversified…from underwear to corporate jet rentals. Give up?

They are all owned by Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway.

You may have known of one or two. Many people know that GEICO is owned by Buffett. But I'll bet you didn't know about at least one of the companies on that list.

Understand what I'm saying here. I'm not saying that Buffett has a stake in these companies, nor that he owns a lot of stock in these companies. While he does have a stake in many other well known companies including Harley Davidson and Coke, these are the companies in which Buffet has a controlling interest. The companies that he owns outright.

He bought the companies as investments, and he gets all of the profits from that investment. As the company's value increases that goes right into his pocket as well.

He runs the show. He is the boss. The managers report to him. He doesn't handle the day-to-day operations…he leaves that to the managers. But ultimately he is in charge. See that picture above? They (Buffett and the GEICO Gecko) were celebrating his $ 300 million investment in Harley Davidson.

Buffett and his team have a system where they look for companies where the value of the company is not reflected in the price of the company. Then they buy it up, lay down some general ground rules and let the people that were running the company continue to run it.