Warren Buffett – Investing in Success
Here is a name most of us would know, Warren Buffett. At 91, Buffett is known as the Greatest Investor of All Time! Warren is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which is a multinational conglomerate holding company, which owns businesses in insurance, transportation, manufacturing, and retailing. Buffett is currently worth $116.1 Billion, but what is unique about Buffett is his commitment to bettering the lives of others through his privilege of wealth, by pledging to donate 99% of his wealth. So, not only is Warren Buffett one of the world’s greatest investors, but he is also a generous philanthropist! As we know from our features on many of the world’s G.O.A.Ts in various arenas, there is more to these outstanding individuals than their success in the present, so let us go back to the beginning and find where Buffett rose from!
HUmble Beginnings, Successful Endings
Have you ever heard of an 11-year-old child investing in stocks? The odds are that you haven’t, but you’re about to! Warren Buffett made his very first stock purchase as the age of 11 and began filing taxes at 13! Evidently, Buffett’s long-lasting success, is the reward of hard work, risk-taking and patience, from literally the beginning of his life.
After being rejected study at Harvard Business School, Buffett studied a master’s in economics at Colombia University. At 25, Warren Buffett founded the Buffett Partnership, which eventually turned into Berkshire Hathaway, and through years of incredibly hard work, failures & losses, wins & successes, Berkshire Hathaway now owns over 60 companies! Talk about deep performance!
What is so great about having influential people, doing influential things, is that their deep performance can add to our framework on how we create our own deep performance and long-lasting success. Deep performance requires a mix of purpose, having a ‘Get it Done’ mindset, situational awareness, and reflection. To see how Buffett used these elements to create long-lasting and menaingful success, let’s look at how he has used them to create success.
Purpose & Mindset
Purpose and mindset are essential to deep performance because they are where your drive and habits come from. When you are aligning your purpose with a task and you have the right mindset and habits to support these, you are more likely to reach success and create deep performance. Buffett said himself, “In the world of business, those who are most successful are those who are doing what they love.”
I’ve heard it put before that purpose is what you can’t help but keep doing. And from a very young age, Buffett’s passion for investing is very evident in his inability to refrain from pursuing it. This is what had led him to becoming one of the Greatest of All Time in the world of business and investing. Buffett found his passion, what drives him, what creates motivation and pointed everything he did in that direction.
Something very common about deep-preforming and high-capacity people, is that they have great control over their mindset. Warren Buffett has a mindset that is centred around growth, self-betterment and getting things done, the smart way. He lives by the quote “Go to bed a little smarter each day.” Buffett lives in pursuit of knowledge and not only physically investing, but also investing in his development. If we were all committed to going in the direction of the things we are passionate about, and aligning our mindset with growth, self-betterment and getting the important things done, we would find ourselves well on our way to deep performance!
Awareness & Reflection
Warren Buffett admits that early in his career, he did not have the social skills to match his smarts. He found that he lacked awareness, both of self and what was happening around him. Now, Buffett is a huge advocate for developing awareness within leaders, as he knows first-hand that it is one of the most valuable attributes a leader can possess, and without it, deep performance is hard to achieve.
A huge element of success is self-reflection, the capacity to ask the hard questions, to work out what went well within a day, and where one could improve. Just before I mentioned that Buffett admits he has lacked certain traits of a successful leader, that is self-reflection. However, there is a difference between being self-aware and knowing there is a lacking, and then putting things into action that aim to improve that area.
It is very human to have shortcomings, we are fallible beings, but what separates those that succeed from those who remain mediocre is the ability to apply action to improve! Buffett wouldn’t be the leader, boss, CEO, or the successful and influential man he is today, without the action that accompanied self-reflection.
What is your next success move?
Without a doubt, Warren Buffett is one of the Greatest Investors of All Time! But not without years of hard work, chasing passion & purpose, fixing his mindset, becoming self-aware, and putting action to reflection! There are endless takeaway’s from the life and deep performance success of Warren Buffett, what will you apply to your success journey today?
References
Forbes. (2022). Warren Buffett. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett/?sh=6c183b674639
Gates, B. (1996). What I learned from Warren Buffett. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/1996/01/what-i-learned-from-warren-buffett
Johnston, M. (2021). How Berkshire Hathaway Makes Money. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/how-berkshire-hathaway-makes-money-4801173
Schwantes, M. (n.d.). Warren Buffett lives his life by these 4 rules of success. Inc. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/warren-buffett-rules-success-principles.html
Schwantes, M. (n.d.). Warren Buffett says choosing to live your life this way is what separates successful people from the rest. Inc. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/warren-buffett-success-formula-self-improvement.html#:~:text=Buffett%20says%2C%20%22I%20insist%20on,to%20just%20sit%20and%20think.&text=As%20counterintuitive%20as%20it%20looks,him%20in%20making%20important%20decisions.
Schwantes, M. (n.d.). Warren Buffett’s lesson on emotional intelligence may be the best advice you will hear today. Inc. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/warren-buffetts-lesson-on-emotional-intelligence-may-be-best-advice-you-will-hear-today.html
