How Reading Impacted Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, and Malcolm X

by

I’ve written before about how reading is the key to success. But it can be hard to see the causation because it doesn’t just happen overnight. So below are three firsthand accounts from influential people who have “made it” highlighting how reading has impacted their lives.

1. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger

I group these two together because of the extent to which they share the same ideologies. The duo is legendary for their longstanding business and investing prowess through investments at Berkshire Hathaway, which has consistently outperformed the market since its inception.

The result has spawned an army of devoted followers and has earned Buffett and Munger titles of two of the richest men on the planet. As a testament to their influence, thousands of people fly in from across the world to spend just a day listening to Buffett and Munger speak at their annual shareholder’s meeting.

So when Buffett or Munger give advice, we should listen. The two largely share the same philosophies on best business practices and investment styles, and they also happen to agree on the same method for success. In a 2007 commencement speech given at the USC School of Law, Charlie Munger said:

I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines.

They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.

He goes on to reference Buffett as an example of such a learning machine:

If you watched Warren Buffett with a time clock, I would say half of all the time he spends is just sitting on his ass and reading. And a big chunk of the rest of the time is spent talking on the phone or personally with people he trusts.

Buffett echoes his partner’s sentiments. When asked how to get smarter at a conference, he held up a stack of papers and said:

Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will.

[Read more...]

Tyrese Gibson: Success Is In Your Mind

by

I didn’t know who Tyrese Gibson was before today, but I have a great deal of respect for him now. I came across a video he shared a few days ago in a wisdom-fueled rant. The video seems to be directed towards the black community, but the message applies to everyone. It’s a nice wake up call if you ever find yourself complaining or victimizing your situation.

The interesting thing about this is every successful person in my studies and observation think along the same lines as Gibson. Consciously or unconsciously, the people at the top of any field have all trained their minds such that their thought processes are at a higher level than you or I. They’re operating at a different level and it reflects in their actions.

Check out the video below. Note the language is NSFW.

If you really got a problem with your life you’ll change it. You’re not tired of being broke, you’re not tired of being stuck…You’re not tired, because if you were tired, you would actually do some shit about it. Anybody who is determined to do something, who wants something to be different, will eventually be different.

It’s very simple. Change your mind and everything about your bank account, your environment, the safety of you and your kids will change.

I’m tired of everyone complaining as if they’re on the receiving end of whatever this world wants to dump on them, and they don’t have a choice.

Excuses sound best to the person making them up. You have created every excuse in the world in your mind. And you figured out how to justify it in your mind, and it makes sense to you. That’s why you’re still in it. That’s why you’re out of shape, that’s why you’re still doing the same shit you’re doing. Once you justify it, you stay in it.

Find Your One Thing

by

I have a problem. I have an inability to focus on just ONE thing. I’m constantly trying new things out and sticking my hand in every cookie jar. You would think this is good, but I’ve found that too much choice and variability often simply leads to inaction.

For instance, I’ve been trying to start a side business or endeavor of some sort. The problem is, there are so many different avenues and routes that I’m constantly pulled in different directions. Here are some of the things I’ve looked into:

-Real estate, acquiring rental properties
-Kindle Publishing, writing/outsourcing eBooks
-Starting an online business, creating and selling products
-Freelancing
-Making money using eBay/Amazon as a platform
-Playing poker in underground games
-Creating apps, hiring developers
-Starting a podcast
-Starting a YouTube channel

The culmination of all this, however, is a sense of overwhelm.

[Read more...]

Charlie Kaufman on Consumerism

by

I discovered this excerpt Charlie Kaufman, a screenwriter and producer, gave at a lecture and thought it was profound.

People all over the world spend countless hours of their lives every week being fed entertainment in the form of movies, TV shows, newspapers, YouTube videos and the Internet. And it’s ludicrous to believe that this stuff doesn’t alter our brains.

It’s also equally ludicrous to believe that—at the very least—this mass distraction and manipulation is not convenient for the people who are in charge. People are starving. They may not know it because they’re being fed mass produced garbage. The packaging is colorful and loud, but it’s produced in the same factories that make Pop Tarts and iPads, by people sitting around thinking, “What can we do to get people to buy more of these?

And they’re very good at their jobs. But that’s what it is you’re getting, because that’s what they’re making. They’re selling you something. And the world is built on this now. Politics and government are built on this, corporations are built on this. Interpersonal relationships are built on this. And we’re starving, all of us, and we’re killing each other, and we’re hating each other, and we’re calling each other liars and evil because it’s all become marketing and we want to win because we’re lonely and empty and scared and we’re led to believe winning will change all that. But there is no winning.

[Read more...]

How Much Money Is Enough?

by

Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough. — Walt Whitman

Back in undergrad, I met the founder of a successful brokerage company, Mark. He was in his late 50s, and by all accounts was the definition of success — at the top of his industry, had more than enough money, and was a nice guy.

At the end of our conversation, however, he admitted he was miserable. Some of his buddies from business school were making tens of millions of dollars — even hundreds — working at hedge funds, and despite the success of his company, he couldn’t keep up with them. He told me he’d been wanting to retire for many years, but he felt he had something to prove. The only way, of course, was to make more money than his colleagues. Retiring would mean that he had lost.

This made no sense to me at the time. For one, I was a freshfaced 18-year old who would have been happy to retire off of a fraction of what he was worth. But really, here was a guy who seemingly had it all and yet wasn’t satisfied. His idea of money as a measuring stick for success simply didn’t allow for him to retire, despite his waning interest and old age.

When I think back on this now, I’m reminded of a story Kurt Vonnegut recounted about his fellow writer Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22, while they were at a party hosted by a billionaire hedge fund manager.

... [click to continue reading... ]

Life Quotes From Marcus Aurelius

by

I was first introduced to Marcus Aurelius from Ryan Holiday, who has stated Meditations is his favorite book. I’ve found the wisdom profound, and have written here some of the words that spoke most to me.

It’s all in how you perceive it. You’re in control. You can dispense with misperception at will, like rounding the point. Serenity, total calm, safe anchorage.

The foolishness of people who are amazed by anything that happens. Like travelers amazed at foreign customs.

It never ceases to amaze me: We all love ourselves more than other people, but we care more about their opinion than our own.

Practice even what seems to be impossible. The left hand is useless at almost everything, for lack of practice. But it guides the reins better than the right. From practice.

i. That you’ve made enough mistakes yourself.
ii. That you don’t know for sure it is a mistake. A lot of things are means to some other end. You have to know an awful lot before you can judge other people’s actions with real understanding.
iii. When you lose your temper, or even feel irritated: that human life is very short. Before long all of us will be laid out side by side.

To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.

As you move forward in the logos, people will stand in your way. They can’t keep you from doing what’s healthy; don’t let them stop you from putting up with them either.

[Read more...]

Improve Your Life by Improving Your Friends

by

You are the average of the five people you associate with most.

It’s a statement you’ve likely heard before, but it truly is profound. While some may argue we are individuals of conscious thought and free will, it is undeniable that our behavior is influenced by our peer group. We’re creatures of emulation, and put in an environment long enough, we begin to assimilate. The people we spend time with influence our thoughts, our behaviors, our habits, our mindsets, and the other people we meet — it’s a virtuous, or harmful, cycle.

A comprehensive study in 2007 made it clear just how much our friends can influence us. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, closely followed over 12,000 people for 32 years to track their health habits over the years. The results speak for themselves:

... [click to continue reading... ]

Master The Fundamentals, The Rest Will Follow

by

Every human activity, endeavor, or career path involves the mastering of certain skills. These skills can take many different forms, from direct and obvious, such as operating tools, to more nebulous abilities, such as handling people. But what remains true across the field is that top performers have a much stronger grasp on the fundamentals – the core skills that create the foundation of everything else.

If you’ve ever been to a public gym, you’ll probably have seen people doing absurd types of exercises. More than likely, it’ll involve a bosu ball. The exercise may look cool (or ridiculous), but such movements rarely provide any strength or fitness benefits.

When it comes down to it, there are really only five exercises that you need to do in order to get stronger, faster, or better looking. These are the compound exercises that form the foundation of weightlifting: the squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, and row. If you were to only do these movements for the rest of your life, you would achieve an inordinate physique and strength. This is essentially what the great Classical bodybuilders of the 1800s to early 1900s did, when fancy gym equipment didn’t exist.

... [click to continue reading... ]

The 6 Rules to Making Money

by

I enjoy watching commencement speeches. It’s an event where those most accomplished share their most profound insights to those about to embark on their own journeys into the world. It’s 20-minutes of pure, unfettered advice. And while I have warned in the past about not taking advice, I caveat it by saying not all advice is equal. Advice from those at the pinnacle of their fields warrant serious consideration.

David Rubenstein is one of those people whose advice you should probably listen to. He is best known as the co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, one of the most established private equity firms in the world. His net worth is over $3 billion. He recently gave the commencement speech at the 2014 Wharton MBA Commencement. He laid out the six rules to achieving financial success, or, in his words, “all you need to know in 5 minutes to make a great deal of money.”

... [click to continue reading... ]