“You can’t let other people set your agenda in life.” Warren Buffet Working at 90
There is no doubt that Warren Buffet could retire any time he wants. He drives a $30,000 car, eats at McDonalds, and lives in the home he bought in the 1950s, and he is worth $97 billion.
He continues to work because he loves to work.
He exercises daily, reads over 500 pages a day, plays bridge and ukulele. He sleeps eight hours a night. He focuses on his strengths, reading and studying for 80% of his work time, with the goal of making two or three good decisions a year. He is exceptional at math and numbers.
He may be proof that genetics can trump diet for some. In “The Snowball, Warren Buffet and the Business of Life”, his daily diet was reported to be Coke and Fritos for breakfast, burger and fries for lunch, steak and hash browns for dinner. For weight loss, one Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait a day, and nothing else. More recently, reports are that his daily diet has changed to McDonalds for breakfast and lunch, and dinner at home, all washed down with five Cokes a day.
I might be dead already if I ate like that.
Diet aside, Mr. Buffet is a great example of remaining vibrant and engaged past age 70. Daily exercise. Time with family. Close friendships. Humility and humor. A passion for Bridge. A focus on the few most important items in business.
Two Buffet quotes:
“Keep control of your time. You won’t keep control of your time unless you can say no — -you can’t let other people set your agenda in life.’
And to a group of business school students, “Read…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 do it.”
Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, speaks about Unique Ability. He defines this as something you love doing, that has economic value to others, that you are always improving upon. You feel alive when you do it. For Warren Buffet this would appear to be reading, studying, utilizing math skills.
Warren Buffet is a great example of how a knowledge worker can work past age 70, focusing on business while living a balanced and fulfilling life. What about you?
Have you defined your Unique Ability? For help with this, check out this link.
To learn even more, read Unique Ability 2.0 by Catherine Nomura, Julia Waller and Shannon Waller.
How can you gain more control of your time?
What friendships should you pursue?
Is your family getting priority?
Do you know of someone working past age 65? I would love to hear their story. russ@strategicexit.com
