You most likely won’t become the next Warren Buffett any more than I can become the next Michael Jordan. People like Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and even Donald Trump show up once in an epoch and you’ll be chasing a mirage if you are after their level of success. The fact remains that you have to be lucky at the genetic, geographic, and timing pools and still put in a lot of hard work; even then, the stars need to align in an almost magical way for you to record such successes.
Warren Buffett
However, while you might not become the next Warren Buffett, you can pick the brains of the legendary investor in order to achieve a higher level of financial success than you would have achieved on your own. This piece seeks to distill some insights from the oracle of Omaha into 5 actionable steps towards becoming a better entrepreneur or investor.
Accept that money is not evil
Many people unwittingly sabotage themselves with a mental state that contradicts their efforts to build wealth. Interestingly, Warren Buffett sets a good example of a wealthy investor with his frugal, humble, and impressive philanthropy work. The first step towards building wealth as an investor or entrepreneur is drop your inhibitions about making money. Buffet once said, “I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute
One of Warren Buffett’s wisdom nuggets advocates going against the grain in your investment decisions once you are sure that the fundamentals are on point. The oracle of Omaha says you should “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”. In your entrepreneurial and investment journey, you’ll definitely face occasions when you’ll be standing alone on one side while the popular opinion stands against you on the other side. You’ll need a great deal of guts, chutzpah, self-confidence, and inner strength not to be swayed by what is in vogue.
Learn to take rejection in stride
You should be ready to encounter a truckload of rejection in your entrepreneurial journey. Buffet has on countless occasions retold the story of how Harvard Business School rejected him after he’s interviewed with them. He however didn’t take the rejection as a closed door to mean the end of his life and aspirations. Rather, he picked himself up and went to Columbia – in case you don’t know, he met his mentor Benjamin Graham in Columbia and the rest is history.
Become a voracious reader
Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest, most intelligent entrepreneurs in the world—I look up to him a great deal. I remember reading once where he said that, in spite of his wealth, if he were only allowed to keep one thing, it would be the knowledge he’s accumulated over the years.”
This one thing I do
Back to the introduction, all the people like Michael Jordan, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and of course Warren Buffett who have gone on to record impressive success have on common attribute. They all seem to have a single-minded focus that made them the best in their fields to the exclusion of almost everything else. If you want to be a successful investor, you need to understand that being an investor is fundamentally different from being a trader. Hence, you might want to spend more time to master your emotions so that you don’t tweak your portfolio after every blip in the market.
