Success is NOT measured in monetary terms. If the Richest man on earth says this, I think it is worth you taking note of.
below is transcript of a webcast featuring Warren Buffett at the IMD, the world’s leading business school that I read at Nextinsight.com
Dennis Ng
JOACHIM SCHWASS
How important is money to you?
WARREN BUFFET
Well, it is nice to have all you need. But I have had all I've needed since I was in my mid-twenties. I mean, you know, I have got everything in life that somebody could want – but I have had that all… I've got a job I love, I work around people that I love, and they like me; I get to do what I want to do every day; I've got my own canvas to paint on. So that makes me rich.
Now, I also want to be able to eat well, and sleep in a house that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and go to some football games and things like that; but I don't have any great desire to build a tomb that rivals that of the pharaohs, for example, either when I am dead or when I'm alive! I don't want a fleet of yachts or anything of the sort. To me, standard of living does not equate with cost of living. Up to a point it does; and then when you leave that point… you know, I don't want to own a baseball team so that my name is in the paper every day, you know, as the owner of the team; and I don't want to… I am not that interested in art, you know – I am not knocking anybody else for this – but I don't want to have the world's greatest art collection just because rich people frequently do. I want to enjoy my… I want to be around my friends, I want to do what I love to do. Fortunately I get to do it!
JOACHIM SCHWASS
We have just spent a bit of time with the IMD MBA students, and one MBA student asked the question "What is your own personal definition of success?".
WARREN BUFFETT
Well, I will tell a story first: there is a woman in Omaha, she is in her 80s, she is a Polish Jew. She is a wonderful person, she is a friend of mine. And when she was a young teen I guess, she was at Auschwitz with other members of the family, not all of whom came out. And she says, she has told me "When I look at someone, I am slow to make friends because in the back of my mind the question always is 'Would they hide me?' ". Now, I would say this: if you get to be 60 or 70, or my own age – 77 – and you have a lot of people who would hide you, you are a success. And if you don't have anyone that would hide you, no matter how rich you are, no matter how many honorary degrees you have been given, no matter what hospitals are named after you – you are a failure. It is another way of saying "How many people love you?" basically. And I have never seen anyone who has the love of dozens of people as they get older who is not a success, and who doesn't feel like a success. And I have seen a number of people who have all the trappings of success, by the world's measurements – who are rich, who have their names in the paper – and there isn't a person on earth that loves them. And they can't be a success. So if you have lots of people that love you when you are 60 or 70, you are a very, very successful person.
Richest Man Says that Success is not Measured by Money
Moderators: alvin, learner, Dennis Ng
Richest Man Says that Success is not Measured by Money
Cheers!
Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny
Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.
Dennis Ng - When You Master Your Finances, You Master Your Destiny
Note: I'm just sharing my personal comments, not giving you investment advice nor stock investment tips.