5 Life Changing Lessons From Billionaire Warren Buffett
This is a post from Shelby at Investing Tips 360. Enjoy!
There’s no doubt we could all learn a thing or two from Warren Buffett. He’s one of the most successful investors of all time with a net worth of $62 Billion. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns and operates a few of the largest corporations in the world, and he’s been starting and growing businesses longer than most of us have been alive.
Lucky for us, Buffett has always been happy to share his opinion and advice over the years, which is quite well documented. You’ll find enough quotes from Buffett on everything from business, investing, and life to fill a book the size of an encyclopedia.
Here are 5 of the most meaningful lessons we can take away from the life of Warren Buffett to help us be more successful at anything life throws our way.
1. Confidence breeds success
“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.” – Warren Buffett
Confidence is key to success (some argue overconfidence is even better), and Buffett developed it at a young age. Next to his 1947 senior high yearbook photo read “likes math…a future stockbroker.” Buffett’s always had a crystal clear vision on what he wanted from the world, and has been confident he could achieve it.
2. Surround yourself with successful people
“It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.” – Warren Buffett
There are no shortcuts to success, but there is a highway that can help you arrive much faster. Surrounding yourself with, and learning from successful people is like taking the highway to work when your coworkers take back-country roads.
Buffett recognizes this, and always seeks to surround himself with the best. Take young Warren Buffett for example. Soon after graduating from college Buffett offered to work for free for Benjamin Graham, the smartest and most successful investor of his time. To this day, Buffett credits Graham for helping him develop many of the traits that make him successful today.
3. Find work that you’re passionate about
“There comes the time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don’t like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn’t that a little like saving up sex for your old age?” – Warren Buffett
Success in life comes from loving what you do, and Buffett lives by this rule. Life is too short to spend it doing things you’re not passionate about, and in the end it only handicaps your potential for success. When you love what you do you’ll find yourself drawn out out of bed everyday to do the thing you love, not because you have to be at the office by 9am.
Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford commencement address put it this way, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it, keep looking. Don’t settle.”
See the trend here? Successful people seek lives and careers centered around their passions, which is what drives them towards success everyday.
4. Stay frugal
“If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.” – Warren Buffett
Buffett’s well known for being frugal and encouraging others to do so too. He’s lived in the same house he bought when he was 28 for $31,500, and even acquired a company when he was younger whose owner left a black tie affair to count the sheets on rolls of 500-sheet toilet paper because he thought he was being cheated!
In order to build wealth it’s critical to make your money work for you. This means living conservatively to stay out of debt, and having money to invest for the future.
5. Be patient
“No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.” – Warren Buffett
Success doesn’t come overnight; not for Warren Buffett, nor Steve Jobs, or even Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
Author Malcolm Gladwell recently popularized the idea of the 10,000 hour rule, which states that a person needs roughly 10,000 of practice at something to reach mastery. Buffett’s no exception to this rule. He began developing a passion for business at age 6 when he bought 6-packs of coca cola, and resold individual cans at a profit. Success didn’t truly materialize for Buffett until he was in his 20’s which means he had over a decade of experience. This means he had way more than 10,000 of practice. The 10,000 hour rule applies to Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and most importantly you!
Author Bio: Shelby is the founder of Investingtips360.com. He is an avid investor with a voracious thirst for high quality and trusted strategies for increasing the value of your investing portfolio.
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the one about getting 9 women pregnant is a good lesson for me. I’m not a patient person at all, and sometimes I just have to step back and let what I’ve set in motion run it’s course. It seems like no matter what, Warren Buffett’s advice is awesome and timeless!
These are great. #3 really resonates with me and is exactly what I’m aiming for right now. I also love his anti-lifestyle inflation mentality–so extremely wise.
I try to live my life by these principles. I think a lot of people are afraid to surround themselves with successful people either because of intimidation or ego issues. I personally find it inspiring.