Countless people dream of achieving the same success as Warren Buffett, but he says they’ll never get close because when they get comfortable, they stop trying, according to a top deputy to the Oracle of Omaha.
in a Recently released episodes of The art of investing In the podcast, Todd Combs, investment officer at Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, participates in a wide-ranging interview covering career advice, investment strategies and his mother’s high expectations.
During the conversation, Combs, who is also CEO and president of insurance giant GEICO and a member of the board of directors of JPMorgan Chase, said that there are “a million people who want to be” tennis star Novak Djokovic and NFL star Tom Brey. Dee, basketball player Stephen Curry or Warren Buffett – but he points out that passion is an important factor in following in their footsteps.
“Perseverance and self-motivation can go a long way,” he said. “But in a world with a million people trying to do this, if 0.1% of them absolutely love it so much that they go to bed thinking about it and they wake up thinking about it, you’ll never You’re not going to be able to compete with it if you don’t love it.”
Coombs added that for many people, contentment is the biggest obstacle to greatness.
“People often reach a point of complacency,” he argued. “If your dream is to be a manager and you do well there, then it’s time to stop. It doesn’t mean if you have 10,000 people who all want to be CEOs or whatever, they’re all going to achieve it. That goal, but people create their own limitations.”
Coombs added that for young people starting to think about their future, now is the time to embrace risk.
“It’s very, very important to take a lot of risks when you’re young,” he advises. “As you get older, you face more downside risk. At your age, you have nothing to lose, you take the risk, you might screw up, and no one is really going to hold it against you, unless it’s Fraud or something like that.”
But he added: “Risk wisely, not foolishly.”
“Society (doesn’t) tell anyone that. They want you to take the safe path,” Coombs added. “But if you’re going to make a million mistakes in your life, what do you do? When you’re 19, 20, 21, you pull them all forward and get them all out of the way.”
Buffett Team
Combs isn’t the only one close to Buffett, who has offered advice in the past to those looking to approach the 93-year-old’s level of career success.
Billionaire Charlie Munger—the 99-year-old who has been Buffett’s right-hand man for nearly five decades—shared his thoughts A 2007 commencement speech at the University of Southern California addressed the issue and touted Buffett’s commitment to broadening his mind.
“(Berkshire Hathaway) would have never been possible without Warren Buffett’s track record of being a learning machine – a continuous learning machine,” he noted.
He elaborates on this further in the 2018 edition of his book poor charlie’s almanacMunger said: “Strive to be a little smarter every day than when you woke up. You will make progress step by step, not necessarily in a sprint. But you can build discipline by preparing yourself for a sprint.”
Buffett is the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, with a net worth of US$116 billion. according to Bloomberg. His investment firm owns GEICO and Dairy Queen, and has stakes in Coca-Cola and American Express.explain Since 1965, its market value has grown at a compound annual rate of 19.8%.
in last year’s Letter to Berkshire Hathaway ShareholdersBuffett talks about the importance of identifying and pursuing your passion – advising those to start looking for jobs “if they don’t need the money.”
“I acknowledge that economic realities may interfere with that search,” he acknowledged, but added: “Even so, I urge students to never give up on the pursuit, because when they find that kind of job, they won’t find it again. Such work.” No more “work.”
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