????在其中學(xué)老師的印象里，庫(kù)爾有些早熟,，為人謙遜,，很早就具備了多任務(wù)處理能力。她中學(xué)會(huì)計(jì)老師格倫達(dá)?艾希曼回憶說(shuō)：“她很安靜,、勤奮,。”,。英語(yǔ)老師瑪麗?艾倫?摩根則記得庫(kù)爾參加了許多課外活動(dòng),，且常常擔(dān)任領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職務(wù)。摩根說(shuō)：“她很受人喜愛(ài)和尊重,，她不是返校節(jié)皇后那種類型的女孩,，但那也不是她的夢(mèng)想?！边€在上中學(xué)時(shí),，庫(kù)爾就擔(dān)任了農(nóng)夫市場(chǎng)（Farmer’s Market）主席，同時(shí)還要兼顧學(xué)業(yè),、在各種俱樂(lè)部的活動(dòng)以及與同學(xué)的友誼,。特洛伊?摩根（瑪麗?埃倫?摩根的兒子）是她朋友圈中的一員,。他說(shuō)，庫(kù)爾時(shí)間管理能力超強(qiáng),，能在各種事務(wù)間取得良好平衡,。

????這種能力在她上大學(xué)后也得到彰顯。在曼哈頓中學(xué)（ManhattanHigh School）以年級(jí)第一的成績(jī)畢業(yè)后,，庫(kù)爾于2003年進(jìn)入哈佛大學(xué),，主修經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)專業(yè)。她很快成為哈佛大學(xué)各種女性組織的中堅(jiān)成員,。2006年,，哈佛大學(xué)著名的商界女性組織（HUWIB）任命庫(kù)爾為主席。此前,，她制定了該組織2005年募捐活動(dòng)計(jì)劃,，籌資金額比上年高出逾一倍。她還擔(dān)任了專注于中學(xué)生的組織——女性領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力項(xiàng)目（Women’s Leadership Project）負(fù)責(zé)人,。2006年,，她和幾位同學(xué)創(chuàng)辦了智慧女性證券組織（Smart Women Securities），向本科女生傳播投資知識(shí),。2007年,，庫(kù)爾向自己家鄉(xiāng)的《水星報(bào)》（The Mercury）表示，她在課外活動(dòng)上花的時(shí)間肯定要比在學(xué)業(yè)上的時(shí)間多很多,。

????庫(kù)爾對(duì)商業(yè)和女性領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力的雙重興趣,，促使她參加了職業(yè)女性組織85 Broads。2005年暑期,，她一直往返于美國(guó)銀行（Bank of America）和85 Broads之間,。該職業(yè)女性組織的創(chuàng)辦人珍妮特?漢森當(dāng)時(shí)剛剛卸任在對(duì)沖基金麥頓投資公司（Milestone Capital，資產(chǎn)管理規(guī)模25億美元）的CEO職務(wù),，轉(zhuǎn)而加盟雷曼兄弟公司（Lehman Brothers）,，擔(dān)任董事總經(jīng)理一職。漢森此前以85 Broads的名義,，在富達(dá)投資集團(tuán)（Fidelity）開設(shè)了一個(gè)證券賬戶,，初始投入資金7.5萬(wàn)美元。此舉激發(fā)了該職業(yè)女性組織成員對(duì)投資的興趣,。一天下午,，她和8名來(lái)自哈佛大學(xué)（Harvard）、哥倫比亞大學(xué)（Columbia）,、賓夕法尼亞大學(xué)（Penn）、普林斯頓大學(xué)（Princeton）和耶魯大學(xué)（Yale）等著名學(xué)府的學(xué)生在一間會(huì)議室促膝而坐,。漢森讓她們選兩三只股票,。漢森說(shuō)：“這太不科學(xué)了,。但4小時(shí)后，這些女生都神采奕奕,。她們意識(shí)到自己已經(jīng)是投資者了,。”,。

????對(duì)于庫(kù)爾來(lái)說(shuō),，參加85 Broads的另一大好處，在于和對(duì)沖基金經(jīng)理吉爾?狄羅薩（Jill DiLosa）邂逅,。漢森說(shuō),，前年，年僅27歲的狄羅薩就正式退休了,，當(dāng)時(shí)凈資產(chǎn)估計(jì)有2500萬(wàn)美元,。在孩提時(shí)代目睹雙親離婚的狄羅薩，一直致力于靠自己打拼致富,，而庫(kù)爾也有同樣的家庭經(jīng)歷,。漢森說(shuō)，庫(kù)爾見(jiàn)到狄羅薩后驚呆了,。兩人都是來(lái)自美國(guó)小城鎮(zhèn),，她們的師徒關(guān)系發(fā)展成了友誼。漢森說(shuō),，狄羅薩贊賞庫(kù)爾的堅(jiān)毅,。“她不是典型的常春藤聯(lián)盟名校生,。狄羅薩教了她一些真本事,。”

????所有這些經(jīng)歷都為庫(kù)爾去奧馬哈做了鋪墊?，F(xiàn)在,，她的圈子里有很多人脈廣博的職業(yè)女性，能夠激發(fā)她的智慧和干勁,。在創(chuàng)辦智慧女性證券組織后,，庫(kù)爾和她的同學(xué)蒂芙尼?尼韋爾（老家也在奧馬哈）給巴菲特寄了一封信，詢問(wèn)她們組織的成員是否可以前來(lái)參觀,。巴菲特同意了（庫(kù)爾去年10月份對(duì)《財(cái)富》雜志稱,，她認(rèn)為巴菲特之所以同意，是因?yàn)槟犴f爾的老家是奧馬哈）,。在智慧女性證券組織對(duì)伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司首次年度訪問(wèn)期間,，庫(kù)爾作為該組織的負(fù)責(zé)人，與巴菲特在他最喜歡的餐館一道就餐,。

????2009年從哈佛商學(xué)院畢業(yè)后,，庫(kù)爾再次致信巴菲特,，說(shuō)她很想與巴菲特共事，哪怕是“一天,、一個(gè)星期,、一個(gè)月，我做什么都行,?！钡头铺乇硎静⒉恍枰獛椭ㄗh她如果來(lái)奧馬哈可以去他那坐坐,。庫(kù)爾表示：“這是巴菲特以他獨(dú)特的方式在響亮地說(shuō)‘來(lái)奧馬哈吧’,。”,。

????于是,，她來(lái)到伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司，帶著上文提到的農(nóng)產(chǎn)品做禮物,。之后,，兩人共進(jìn)午餐。事后,，庫(kù)爾花了整個(gè)夏天伏案研究雷曼兄弟的破產(chǎn)案（她曾于2006年在該行實(shí)習(xí)過(guò)）,。在當(dāng)年初秋，也就是在庫(kù)爾回到富達(dá)的分析師崗位上后,，巴菲特打來(lái)電話,，說(shuō)他這里可能有個(gè)工作機(jī)會(huì)，看她是否有興趣,?！拔艺f(shuō)：‘好，我馬上飛過(guò)去,?！?/p>

????Her high school teachers remember a mix of precociousness and humility—and an ability to multi-task at a very young age. “She was quiet and hardworking,” recalls her high school accounting teacher Glenda Eichmann. Mary Ellen Morgan, who taught Cool English, remembered Cool’s involvement in many extracurriculars, often in leadership positions. “She was very well liked and very well respected,” says Morgan. “She wasn’t the homecoming queen, but that wasn’t anything she strived for.” Cool was president of the Farmer’s Market as a high school student, while also balancing schoolwork, clubs, and her friends. Troy Morgan (Mary Ellen Morgan’s son) was part of her friend group and says Cool’s time management was “evidently out the roof, being able to juggle and balance everything.”

????That ability would follow her to college. After graduating first in her Manhattan High School class, Cool headed to Harvard in 2003, where she studied economics and quickly became a staple in campus women’s groups. Harvard’s famed Women in Business (HUWIB) organization named Cool president in 2006, a title earned after she developed HUWIB’s 2005 fundraising campaign and raised more than double the funds compared to the previous year. She also headed the Women’s Leadership Project, an organization focused on high school students. She then founded Smart Women Securities (SWS) in 2006, an investment literacy group for female undergrads, with several classmates. In 2007, she told her hometown newspaper The Mercury that she spent “much more time” on her extracurriculars “than I ever spent on classes, that’s for sure.”

????Cool’s dual interest in business and female leadership led her to professional women’s network 85 Broads. In 2005, she split her summer between Bank of America and the women’s organization. Founder Janet Hanson had recently left her CEO role at Milestone Capital, a hedge fund with $2.5 billion in assets, to join Lehman Brothers as a managing director. Hanson got the group interested in investing by putting $75,000 in a Fidelity account. She huddled the eight students—spanning Harvard, Columbia, Penn, Princeton, and Yale—in a conference room one afternoon and asked them to pick 2-3 stocks. “This was totally unscientific. But after 4 hours, those gals were so fired up. They realized they were investors,” says Hanson.

????For Cool, another 85 Broads perk was meeting Jill DiLosa. The hedge fund exec retired at age 27, the year before, with an estimated net worth of $25 million, says Hanson. DiLosa focused on becoming independently wealthy after watching her parents divorce when she was a kid, an experience Cool also went through. “Tracy was gobsmacked” by meeting DiLosa, says Hanson. Both were from small towns and the mentoring relationship blossomed into a friendship. Hanson says DiLosa admired Cool’s grit. “She wasn’t your typical ivy leaguer. [DiLosa] really taught her the ropes.”

????All these experiences paved Cool’s road to Omaha. She now had a deep network of connected women to round out her intellect and drive. After launching SWS, Cool and her classmate Tiffany Niver (who’s originally from Omaha) mailed Buffett a letter asking if their organization could visit. He agreed—Cool told Fortune last October that she thinks he said yes because of Niver’s connection to Omaha—and, as head of the organization, Cool got to have dinner with Buffett at his favorite restaurant during SWS’s first annual trip to Berkshire Hathaway.

????After graduating from HBS in 2009, Cool again sent Buffett a letter saying she’d love to work with him for “a day, a week, a month – I’ll do anything.” He didn’t need help, but he suggested she stop by if she ever finds herself in Omaha, “which is Warren’s resounding way to say, ‘come to Omaha,’” she said.

????And so she ended up at Berkshire with that offering of produce. The two had lunch, and afterwards, having asked how she could help him, Cool spent the summer researching Lehman’s bankruptcy (she had interned there in 2006). In early fall, after she returned to her analyst job at Fidelity, Buffett called and said he might have a role for Cool, if she was interested. “And I said, ‘okay, I’ll be on the next flight.’”