Category: Life

Warren Buffett, the greatest investor of all time, shared his priceless wisdom with Emory’s grad students at a recent Q & A. Although, his investing strategy is amazing I really liked these particular answers a lot.

Buffett:

“I enjoy what I do, I tap dance to work every day. I work with people I love, doing what I love. I spend my time thinking about the future, not the past. The future is exciting. As Bertrand Russell says, “Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.” I won the ovarian lottery the day I was born and so did all of you. We’re all successful, intelligent, and educated. To focus on what you don’t have is a terrible mistake. With the gifts all of us have, if you are unhappy, it’s your own fault.

I know a woman in her 80’s, a Polish Jew woman forced into a concentration camp with her family but not all of them came out. She says, “I am slow to make friends because when I look at people, I have one question in mind; would they hide me?” If you get to be my age, or younger for that matter, and have a lot of people that would hide you, then you can feel pretty good about how you’ve lived your life.

I know people on the Forbes 400 list whose children would not hide them. “He’s in the attic, he’s in the attic.” The most powerful force in the world is unconditional love. To horde it is a terrible mistake in life. The more you try to give it away, the more you get it back. At an individual level, it’s important to make sure that for the people that count to you, you count to them.

What if you could buy 10% of your classmates and their future earnings? You wouldn’t buy the ones with the highest IQ, the best grades, etc., but you’d buy the ones who are the most effective. You like people who are generous, go out of their way, straight shooters who makes things happen. Now imagine that you could short (this means betting against them) 10% of your classmates. This part is usually more fun as you start looking around the room. You wouldn’t choose the ones with the poorest grades. You’d look for people nobody wants to be around, that are obnoxious, the ones who are all talk.

If you have a 500 HP engine and only get 50 HP out of it, you’ll be beat by someone else that has a 300 HP engine but gets 250 HP output. The difference between potential and output comes from human qualities. You can make a list of the qualities you admire and those you despise. To turn the tables, think, if this is the way I react to the qualities on the list, won’t this be the way the world will react to me? You can learn to turn on those qualities you want and turn off those qualities you wish to avoid.

The best way to get success is to deserve success. I have to look them in the eye and decide whether they love the business or they love the money. It’s fine if they love the money, but they have to love the business more. Why do I come in at 7 every morning, I can’t wait to get to work. It’s because I get to paint my own painting and I like applause.

In my personal life, there are always things I could’ve done differently. But so many good things have happened. It just doesn’t pay to dwell on the bad things. Finding the right spouse is 90% of it. If you have your health and lucky on your spouse; you’re a long way home.

Getting turned down by Harvard Business School was one of the best things that could have happened to me; bad luck can turn out to be good.”

Priceless wisdom, as always.

A lot of people always talk about what they want to do, what they want to accomplish, what they meant to do, their intentions, how they want to change the world and on and on and on.

It seems as though everyone has intentions of doing big things. Clearly, sadly and unfortunately, that’s not the case. Most people are talkers, rather than doers. Let’s face it. It’s a lot easier to talk than do.

It’s the people who actually follow through on their intentions that get the glory in this world. But some people believe that there is no relationship between what a person is and what a person does. This is bull shit. Unless you are schizophrenic, you become your actions.

I wrote a post entitled, “How to tell if someone is full of shit” and I think this new approach is even more accurate.

In a world where people are moving a million miles per minute how can you actually tell what someone really cares about?

Look at their calendar! It’s that simple.

Your calendar never lies. All we have is our time. The way we spend our time is our priorities, is our strategy. Your calendar knows what you really care about.

Do you?

If someone says exercising is so important to them, do they make time for exercise? I tell my clients all the time – you won’t find time to exercise, you have to make time.

It’s the same thing with everything else. I never understand people who work 20 hour days yet preach about how important their family is to them. Really?

People who are always busy like to be busy. That’s important to them. If they are not busy, they go crazy.

People who are always unhappy like to be unhappy. If you spend your time, your precious time, being unhappy then evidently you like to be unhappy, whether you realize it or not.

I’m not saying there is anything right or wrong with these. How you spend your time is your business. It’s your life.

I just think it’s fascinating to figure out what’s actually really important to you (compared to what you say is really important) whether you realize it or not.

My bet is you don’t even realize it.

I always wonder if someone is full of shit. Whether it’s in business or my personal life having a bullshit detector is critical. Some of us have a better bull secretion detector than others but we all have one.

Throughout my life, I’ve met plenty of people and companies who are full of shit and plenty of people and companies who are as sincere and genuine as they come. The tricky part comes when the person or company insists they are one way, however, their actions depict them as another way.

Rule number 1 for detecting bull secretion is when a person or a company says one thing insistently but they do another thing repeatedly. Automatically, you’re nostrils should begin to flare.

Rule number 2 is to learn more about the person or company’s track record. Someone can say they are a certain way, but if nothing in their past reflects that then those nostrils should perk even more.

Rule number 3 is to ask sources. Ask people that have dealt with the person or company before. If other people or customers have dealt with the person or company before, find out their experience. But you have to be careful with this. You’re going to need your bullshit detector for this exercise in it of itself.

Rule number 4 is the hardest rule of all to follow. But it will always give you the right answer no matter what. It is 100% guaranteed.

The rule is simple. Wait and see. Most people don’t want to do this but this exercise works every single time. Although life is extremely short, it’s also fairly long (if that makes any sense). Within due time, you’ll be able to tell if a person or a company is full of it.

Usually a company that is full of it will go out of business or bankrupt and a person that is full of it will continue to act opposite of what they say.

Having a reliable bullshit detector can be your most valuable asset. It has saved me tens of thousands of dollars and hours in business and hundreds of wasted hours with people who are full of nothing but hot air.

Cypress Hill said it best, “When the shit goes down, you better be ready!”

I’ve had a cold for over 3 weeks now that won’t let down. It’s annoying, because when I talk I sound like I’m underwater. And I’m not a big fan of medicine because it doesn’t cure anything. Until I can’t breathe or walk, I stay medicine free.

I also have an older sister (29) who has never swallowed a pill in her entire life and can barely stomach any medicine. At this point, it’s a joke already, but I tell her she better learn how to swallow a pill because, God forbid, if something happens she’s going to be forced to learn and that won’t be fun.

Part of being a little brother means that I have to be a wise ass. Growing up whenever I’d take medicine, I’d always say, “Look Ali, look, is this so hard?”

I’d make it a point to show her that I could take any medicine, no matter how awful, without complaining, no matter how much I hated it. Sometimes, I’d go as far as swallowing pills without water.

This past Sunday, I was hanging out with my sister and Mike (my brother-in-law) at their house. They kept insisting that I take some sort of medicine because they didn’t want to get sick. Even though they were relentless, it was understandable. But of course, being the wise ass that I am, I had to make a few comments.

So my sister goes to her never ending medicine cabinet and gives me a chewable pill, about the size of a very thick quarter. It would take some time to work through it, but it was no obstacle to the man who could take any medicine (at least in front of my sister). I popped it in my mouth and started working.

At first it was pleasant, citrus-like. But the flavor just kept intensifying. It went from mild to strong in about five seconds. By half a minute, it was so harsh my eyes were watering, and I had only chewed about 10% of this pill. I started to worry.

A minute into it, it was so intense, I was going to puke, literally. I ran to the kitchen sink to spit it out, but gave it a few more seconds to see if I could get through it. No medicine had beaten me yet (at least not in front of her), and I wasn’t going to go down easy, especially in front of Mike!

The waves of nausea blew over me, and I knew one of them was going to put me over the edge. It was time to bail. I spit the rest of the pill into the sink, defeated.

While hysterical laughing, they both informed me that the pills aren’t actually pills at all. They are designed to be dissolved in a tall glass of water, like Alka Seltzer.

It goes to show you, never underestimate your competition…but pay-back, is going to be a bitch!