I Finally Understand Buffett’s Comment …

When I was a kid, I recall watching a recording of a speech Warren Buffett gave to a college group and he said it would be incredibly boring to watch him work if you had the opportunity to observe Berkshire Hathaway for a day.  When I began building my company, Aaron and I wanted a system put in place so that we could do nothing but read, study, invest, and play video games as we earned ever-increasing sums of cash from our holdings.  That was the mandate.

A few minutes ago, I was having an absolute blast reading a survey on the spending habits of America’s ultra-elite and found it amusing because, true to form, 43% of those with $5 million or more in liquid assets say their favorite store is a tie between Costco and Nordstrom’s.  Yes!

So, anyway, I’m having the intellectual equivalent of a rave party here and I realize, this is what it looks like to the outside world …

Buffett was right, yet again.

The point is, you need to arrange your life.  Don’t do what other people tell you should make you happy, focus on finding something you love – a process that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning – and then figure out how to make it pay well.  There are people who are paid to bake cupcakes, people who are paid to have sex, people who are paid to test roller coasters, people who are paid to design dresses, people who are paid to build houses, people who are paid to help children learn to read, and people who are paid to play sports.

Money alone cannot be your primary motivator because your inner drive will be worn out by the day-to-day grind.  If you were to offer me a $40 million contract to play in the NFL for a year, it would take less than a nono-second for me to tell you there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.  I would literally shove the contract back in your face.  I know myself well enough to know 1.) that’s not where my talents lie, 2.) I like being the best in my field, which isn’t going to happen in football, and 3.) I’d be much happier doing something like being a professor of finance at a respected college for $85,000 per year, taking the salary and investing it in hotels or stocks or car washes so that decades from now, I’d have the $40 million, anyway.

Know thyself.  Life is too short to spend time doing things you hate.

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