Warren Buffet is one of the world’s
richest men. He is one of the world’s most successful CEOs as the CEO of
Berkshire Hathaway. He started his company with $10000. His stake is worth
billions and billions of dollars. But even more importantly, he is a respected
leader. Even though he could buy anything in the world, yet he is so stable and
grounded. Warren Buffet’s success has been unique as he has all through worked
for creating value for the stakeholders. In this era, full of distraction and
disruptions, he has consistently been leading without a title and has always
been concerned about uplifting the people around than thing about himself. Here
are few learnings from his life which will really help reconnect you with what
it means to be a true leader and what it means to play your absolute best both
in professional as well as personal life..jpg)
1. Have
a passion for your craft: Practice your craft, do something that you are
passionate about. Genius is not genetics. Genius is much more about persistence
around a specific craft for an extended period of time, along with daily
practice of your craft. “Love what you do”. Find ways to be passionate about
what you do and where you are today. You can find ways to be passionate about
what you do even if you are in the most seemingly ordinary, mundane job. Passion
is the fuel that allows you to play at world class. Passion is contagious.
Everybody around you will feel your passion and you passion will allow you to
keep going when you might not feel like you want to keep on going.
2. Recognize
opportunity amidst adversity: Your market is there to serve you, not
instruct you. Warren Buffet does not worry about the cost of the stock, he is
more concerned about value investing. When people are afraid, that’s when you
want to take risk. When everyone else is afraid, the market place is there to
serve you. People drop into an emotion called fear during disruptive times. And
because of fear that clouds their lenses, clouds their judgment, they miss
opportunities that people who can manage fear well seize and become successful.
3. Be
a specialist: Greatness is all about obsession. An intelligent obsession.
All great man had a burning obsession that got them out of bed every single
morning, even in the darkest of days. Concentrate on vital few. Focus, Focus, Focus,
as Confucius said, “A man who chases two rabbits catches no one. Another great
management guru, Peter Drucker puts it as “There is nothing so useless as doing
efficiently that which should not be done at all.” A focused mind block out the
noise, block out the distraction and helps leave the realm of mediocrity and
takes you on the road of mastery.
4. Wait
for the right pitch: Run your own race. Sit back and wait for the perfect
swing. Warren Buffet says, his job is allocating capital. And all he do every day
is sit back and wait for the perfect swing. Most businesses actually fail because they had
too many good opportunities. And rather than waiting for those few perfect
pitches, those few perfect opportunities that were right for them to seize and
them mine, those businesses that failed focused on too many good opportunities and
they resigned themselves to mediocrity. They tried to seize every great
opportunity, every perfect pitch that came their way. They did not have their discipline
to understand which few opportunities were perfect for them to focus. Wait for
the right pitch and just because everyone around you and your competitors are
saying this is the best opportunity of a lifetime does not mean that you should
seize it. Learn the discipline to wait for those few perfect pitches that are
right for you and your business.
5. Be
a devoted daily learner: Warren Buffet spends 75% of his day in learning.
The best of the best are curious. The best of the best are all looking forward
for that next best idea that will give them a competitive advantage and elevate
them. Focus on value versus cost. If you love reading, read, do not worry about
the cost of the books, do not worry about the cost of learning, do not worry
about the cost of seminars. If you look at the richest, happiest, most
successful people in the world they are daily learners. They are always
learning.
6. The
Warren Buffet Test: Warren Buffet has made sizeable investment in Gillette,
the pioneer of razors. He understood that this is not a company that will be
gone in a few years or even a few decades. What Warren Buffet focuses on is “Does
the company have a Durable Competitive Advantage (DCA)”. DCA is knowing that
one thing that you can do that no one else can do and focus on it to the point
of obsession. Innovate and invest on it every single day by 1%. That is one of
the great secrets of business and career success.
7. Bet
on tortoises versus the hares: Last mile excellence is the key. It is so
important not to start the race strong, but to finish at world class. If you look
at the Olympians, it is not only how you start. But what makes a champion is
how strong you finish. Warren Buffet always bet on companies that have strong
inherent value. He “Stick with things”. He looks at the fundamentals and then
he does not worry about them. The point
here is play the long game, figure out
that you can be great at, stick to your fundamentals and then be like the tortoise, steadily
focusing on making small improvements every day. Always be focused and know
what your mountain-top is, following your values, sticking to your
fundamentals.
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8. Protect
your good name: It could take you twenty years to build a great reputation
and five minutes of bad judgment to lose it. Use the Newspaper Test, measure
your life and your performance at work by the newspaper test. Warren Buffet ask
his managers, how would you feel about doing an action if you knew it would be
written up the next day in your local newspaper, to be read by your family,
friends and neighbors and written by a smart but unfriendly reporter. If you are wondering whether you should do a
certain action or make a certain choice, use the newspaper test. Would you want
your behavior or that choice to show up in the newspaper, to be read by your
near and dear ones? There are many examples of leaders who had spent their
entire careers often doing great works and then, through one act of bad judgment
performed on a particular day, they lost everything. Always protect your good
name.
9. Live
your life backwards: This is very powerful. It is like reading your own
obituary. Alfred Nobel was one person who had read his own obituary. It was a
mistake made by the newspaper publisher, when Alfred Nobel’s brother died, Alfred
Nobel’s obituary was published and he was aghast to read what people thought of
him as it was just opposite of what Alfred thought. This completely transformed
his life and he worked really hard to get himself on track and post this Nobel
Prize were instituted. While we all may not be lucky enough to read our own
obituary, but it would be worth-while to live your life backwards. Assume you
are 70 years old and live backward to your present day and align your actions
to match your achievement at the age of 70.
10. Your
inner-scorecard versus your outer-scorecard: What’s in your inner-scorecard
is more important than what is in your outer-scorecard. Authenticity is key.
There will never be a better you than you. Being comfortable in your own skin
is key. Authenticity is one of the competitive edge. Being authentic means you
are transparent. Warren Buffet says that it is a waste of time worrying about
what the world around you is going to think about you. Be so strong in your
values, your own vision for the future, your own genius abilities that you block
out the noise from the chattering voices of your neighbors. Always measure your
success by your inner scorecard, not by your outer scorecard.
11. Focus
on creating value versus materialism: Always be obsessed with value
creation. What keeps Warren Buffet up at night is creating value for the
stakeholders of his Company. This is his singular focus. It is not stroking his
own ego. It is not lining his own pockets. He has got the skin in the game. He
makes money through his own shares and his own stake by increasing in value
through his excellence in investing.
12. Shift
from focusing on success to significance: Every second that you are
focusing on being successful is energy taken away from your legacy. Do not
worry so much about success. Success takes care of itself when you are more
concerned with helping people. Think
about being significant for people. Think about being a really good and honest
person.
To sum up, Warren Buffet is a
living example of a leader who has always stayed focused on the fundamentals,
created value for people, protected his reputation and has been innovative for
the benefit of the people who gave him business, and one can relate all the
above when you see his achievements. Pick up few of the learnings from above
and implement in your life, you will see that over time you will succeed beyond
your imagination.
Source : Learning from The Snowball : Warren Buffet and the business of Life by Alice Schroeder
Learning from Robin Sharma's article
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