What Gates learned from Buffett?

The other day I was reading an article on what Bill Gates said about learning from Buffett and I think it's important. 

When people talk about Warren Buffett, they talk about stock market but according to the founder of Microsoft, there is more than that. 


Gates and Buffett


Here are some of the important ones that Gates addressed in the article:

1) LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE

While a lot of people may talk about buying stocks based on technical, the bull run, with other flowery terms, Warren Buffett was not so interested on the timing to enter a stock market, but more on the business nature of it.

"I have no idea what the stock market's going to do tomorrow or next week or next month or next year," said Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett.

"If you own your stocks as an investment—just like you'd own an apartment, house or a farm—look at them as a business," Buffett advised. "If you're going to try to buy and sell them based on news or something your neighbor tells you, you're not going to do well. Find a good bunch of businesses and hold them."

I even shared this in a post: Buffett on stocks: Look at them as business

So, it is not surprising that Bill Gates was talking about the ability of Warren Buffett to look at the big picture when it comes to business. According to Gates, Buffett has a whole lot of framework about business that is very powerful. Instead of focusing on the day-to-day details of the market, Buffett looks at overall growth. “He talks about looking for a company’s moat — its competitive advantage — and whether the moat is shrinking or growing,” Gates explains. “He says a shareholder has to act as if he owns the entire business, looking at the future profit stream and deciding what it’s worth.”

2) HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY

There is one thing that Buffett has shown to the shareholders and is something known: Buffett famously takes time every year to send a letter to his shareholders, a practice that inspired Gates to start doing the same. 

While a lot of people may not agree that honesty is the best policy, Buffett was open about what he feel in regards to things like stock options and financial derivatives. The way he openly criticize these issues inspired Gates on one thing: transparency is highly appreciated.

3) VALUE TIME

If there is one thing that is more important than money, it has to be time. Regardless of how rich one could be, one could never buy time. 

It's something that Buffett value highly as well. Regardless of how busy he may be, Buffett always make time for personal call session with his close advisers. “He’s very generous with his time for the people he trusts,” Gates says.

However, Buffett knows how valuable his time is, and doesn’t waste it in useless meetings, according to Gates. He prioritizes and spends it in ways that matter most to him.

Billy Toh

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

1 comment:

  1. That is very interesting! These may seem simple, but in real life it is not always very easy to follow it... Pity... But will improve, to give my life more value! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

Instagram