Reading a biography of successful people can be interesting. You can learn a lot from them, what-to-do, what-not-to-do, and how they became successful. For this book I listened to the audiobook, which was superbly narrated by Kirsten Potter. After 37 hours of listening, I would like to share some key lessons I learnt from Warren Buffett.

1. Focus on what you love doing

Through his life story you can tell the tremendous amount of focus that Warren put in over a long period of time to become successful. Since he was young he knew he wanted to be a millionaire and he focused on that goal. When you focus on your goal(s), you find a way to achieve these goals. To achieve your goals you will learn as much as you can to become an expert. But the key is you have to love it which will fuel your enthusiasm. One advice that Warren gave which stuck to me the most is this:

Do what you love and work for whom you admire the most and you’ve given yourself the best chance in life you can

2. Read lots of books

Warren is a good example of an introvert with some key strengths such as focus and preference to work alone. In addition to these characteristics he loves reading. He loves getting his daily newspaper ahead of everyone such that by the time the market is open he knows what he has to do with his investment. He also reads lots of other books such as history and biographies to learn from other successful people. Reading expands our knowledge in different areas as well as increases the depth of our expertise. To read is to learn and learning is a never ending experience.

I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business

3. Build and maintain your reputation

Warren did not start off from a wealthy family, he slowly built his empire. He started with investing for his family and as his investment obtained higher returns each year, other people started to trust him and were willing to let him manage their monies (capital). As a result of his reputation, there were a few times whereby he was asked to help rescue companies from bankruptcy, which he did and as a result he helped prevent a financial market collapse. Here is his advice:

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently

4. Have a safety margin

Throughout his career, Warren always ensured that there was a sufficient safety margins in his investments. He kept to this principle really well and never failed to avoid risky investments. This value of having a safety margin teaches us to not be greedy or be tempted by possible high returns without understanding the risks associated with the investments. Although this focuses mainly on investment, I think the principle of “having a safety margin” can be applied more generally in life. A simple example is when you are driving, if you leave enough gap (safety margin) between your car and the car in front, you can avoid many accidents. In my engineering profession safety margins are a common element in our work, we design equipment with a safety margin to cover for the unknown.

5. Spend time with people you care and love

Throughout his life Warren has had only a few close friends whom he has trusted and it was very clear that he has spent lots of time with these people. Unfortunately his family life is complicated and in my opinion he is probably not a role model. However, he recognised this shortcoming and during one of his speeches, he expressed how essential it is to have people who love you. So I learnt from him what-not-to-do and the importance of family in life as well as why spending time and building this relationship is imperative to life.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you… If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster. That’s the ultimate test of how you have lived your life. The trouble with love is that you can’t buy it.