How Warren Buffett Uses Ancient Wisdom to Solve Modern Problems
Warren Buffett is famous for his wealth and his investing acumen.
But what he is less known for is his simple regimen for achieving great wealth.
It is so simple that most people fail to take it seriously.
And it is so hard that at some point most people give up.
It’s called the compounding effect.
And Warren Buffett has mastered it in 3 ways.
Warren Buffett, the Buddha of Wall Street
“I can think, I can wait, I can fast. With those three skills, I can achieve anything.” — Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
On thinking…
By learning how to think, Siddhartha was not ruled by ignorance, prejudice, or authority.
Warren Buffett invests 6–8 hours each day reading and thinking.
He has honed his brain into a razor-sharp tool that slices through all the noise, rhetoric, and is able to deduce the wheat from the chaff.
Michael Simmons talks about how successful people use the 5-hour rule of investing one hour a day to focus on learning.
Warren Buffett does this every single day!
On waiting…
One of the lesser-known stories told about Warren Buffett and investing is the ability to be patient.
At his annual conference that he holds, he advises his followers to not only be intelligent with their investments but to also be patient.
The story he likes to share is a picture of a loyalty card, the kind that your favorite indy coffee shop will stamp out boxes to give you a free coffee.
He asks you to imagine that you have the same thing for your investments, a loyalty card with 20 boxes.
But after the 20th box, you can no longer make investments.
You are only allowed those 20 choices!
He then asked the audience, “Would that change your strategy on investing?”
What he is telling his audience is to learn to know how to wait.
Be patient.
Don’t be ruled by your emotions, the crowd, or time.
On fasting…
Each morning as Warren drives to his office, he stops by McDonald's and gets his very simple breakfast, one of 3 choices based on how he is feeling that morning.
- 2 sausage patties
- A sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich
- A bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich
Nothing extravagant, very frugal, and takes very little mental effort to decide.
Also, Warren has lived in the same home he bought in 1958.
Warren Buffett is not ruled by the appetites of the body, seeking creature comforts, or signs of wealth.
Being a 21st-century Buddha
Today we don’t value austerity, resilience, or delayed-gratification;
- FREE 2-day shipping of almost anything on Amazon
- 24-hour constant streaming of your favorite show on Netflix, HBO, Disney, etc.
- “10 Easy Lessons” to become an expert at anything
We are not taught the value, strength, and power of the compounding effect.
Warren Buffet didn’t make his first billion dollars until he was 55, well past the age that most people stop trying.
More amazingly, since the age of 55, he has increased his wealth 80 times!
Warren Buffett is worth over $82 billion dollars!
Let that sink in…
By not being controlled by faulty thinking, impatience, or the roller coaster of sensory desires, Warren Buffett was able to amass a fortune greater than 99.9999% of the people on the planet!
With tortoise-like plodding, never-stopping, drop-by-minuscule-drops of water in a rain barrel, build a life of ease, expertise, and excellence.
How can you develop the habits of thinking, waiting, and fasting?
What can you start doing today that if you never stopped doing, would have a significant impact on your life?
- Exercise for 30 minutes? (I recently listened to an interview of Chef Rush who starts each morning with 2,222 push-ups for suicide prevention awareness. Yes, you read that right two-thousand, two hundred and twenty-two push-ups, it takes 1 hour and 15 minutes each day!)
- Invest 15 minutes each day reading from a good book; then working your way up to 1 hour a day. Maybe even powering up to more than that like Warren Buffett
- Replace sugary, salty, fatty foods in your life with healthier choices. Maybe take a cooking class where you can create a healthier relationship with food.
