I Know Why Warren Buffett Is SO Successful

Hello Sophisticated Spenders!

I had the pleasure of watching HBO’s Documentary on Warren Buffett.

It’s called “Becoming Warren Buffett.”

When HBO does a documentary about Warren Buffett, you watch it!

~Sophisticated Spender

It was an excellent documentary and I learned SO much in a little bit of time.

I took LOTS of notes while watching.

Here’s what I wrote in my notebook (note-these are a combo of his words and my words):

–He opened with a great story on self-care.  He said something along the lines of…what if you were told to pick out 1 car.  You could pick out any car you liked.  But you’d have that same car for the rest of your life.  You’d take good care of it right?  Well, you only get one body.  So what should you do with it???  Unfortunately the next shot is of him ordering his daily breakfast from McDonald’s.  Still a great message on taking care yourself.  I really need to start taking better care of my one and only body.  My cheat days are starting to outweigh my healthy eating days.

-He and Bill Gates were both asked the same question while sitting next to each other and both gave the exact same answer.  The question: “What’s one word that best described what had helped them the most?” They both answered: “Focus!”  He went on to say that when he’s interested in a subject, he wants to read all about it and talk about it. He wants to meet all the people that are involved in it.  (YouTube has helped me SO much with my side hustles.  When I want to learn something, I immerse myself in that topic.)

–He liked to sit and think.  He would often just sit and think about business and investment problems.  (Quiet time allows me time to solve problems and brainstorm.  That time is full of good ideas (and bad ideas), but the key word is IDEA!)

–In business (I’ve done this backwards with my sewing business by the way).  I forget what his first business was but he bought his first machine (at the age of 11) and then figured out how much money he needed to make in order to buy his second, third, fourth and etc.  (I went out and bought a whole bunch of sewing machines and equipment instead of buying enough for just 1 class of 4 students and then growing from there.)  Notice he didn’t go on any fancy vacations or buy depreciating assets, he invested in more equipment that made him more money.

-“Look for the job you’d take if you didn’t have to work.”

–Invest wisely.  He only invests in companies that he loves and trust.  He said Coca Cola always gave him a smile when he drank it.  He also said Coke is everywhere!  They aren’t going anywhere any time soon, so why not invest (he said that ages ago).  (I always say, “Be picky with where you spend your money!”)

There was a point where I got tired of pausing the documentary so that I could take notes and just sat back and enjoyed what I was watching.  I invite you to watch this documentary when you have a chance.  I’m pretty sure there are things that I missed that you picked up on.  So I’d love to know if you watched it and your thoughts.  Or if you plan on watching it, please come back here and let me know your takeaways.

I really admired how the more things change, the more things stayed the same with this guy.  He still drives the same car and lives in the same home.  His company is still in a modest building with pretty much the original 12 or so employees that he started with.  And he’s given away most of his wealth (somewhere in the 90% range).   He lives on about 1% of what he makes.

Here are my final thoughts:

-You have something important to do today!

-What’s 1 thing you can do?  What’s 1 question you can answer?  What’s 1 question you can ask someone in order to get the ball rolling on your idea? to get to the next step?  Are you sitting around waiting or are you going to figure it out yourself?  Take the lead, take control-NOW!

Remember I’m here for YOU!  Shoot me an email (Crystal.at.SophisticatedSpender.com) and I will add you to my calendar for a FREE 30 minute consultation.  Stop sitting on your good ideas!

And you’ll have money to burn too!

via GIPHY